The Spirit of Man
威廉·福克纳 / William Faulkner
威廉·福克纳（1897—1962），1949年诺贝尔文学奖得主。其文以人物心理的细微刻画及复杂迂回的形式结构见胜。因其两度获普利策奖，而赢得“美国伟大小说家”的美誉。本文是他获得诺贝尔奖时发表的著名演说，文中勉励作家必须提升自己的心灵，时时以爱、怜悯与牺牲来唤醒人类亘古的真理。
Pre-reading Activity
Read this article with the questions below， and answer them respectively.
1. According to the author， who or what should be awarded by this prize？ Why？
2. What subjects are worth writing about by young men and women？
I feel that this award was not made to me as a man， but to my work—a life’s work in the agony and sweat of the human spirit， not for glory and least of all for profit， but to create out of the materials of the human spirit something which did not exist before. So this award is only mine in trust. It will not be difficult to find a dedication for the money part of it commensurate with the purpose and significance of its origin. But I would like to do the same with the acclaim too， by using this moment as a pinnacle from which I might be listened to by the young men and women already dedicated to the same anguish and travail， among whom is already that one who will some day stand here where I am standing.
Our tragedy today is a general and universal physical fear so long sustained by now that we can even bear it. There are no longer problems of the spirit. There is only the question： When will I be blown up？ Because of this， the young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about， worth the agony and the sweat.
He must learn them again. He must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid； and， teaching himself that， forget it forever， leaving no room in his workshop for anything but the old verities and truths of the heart， the old universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed —love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice.