《他们》的异化主题分析
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摘要
乔伊斯·卡罗尔·欧茨是二十世纪美国文坛极负盛名的一位女作家。她的作品风格各异,涉及面十分宽广,为评论家提供了广阔的研究空间。中外评论主要集中在奥茨作品中的主题研究,比如女性主义、暴力主题等,和写作技巧的研究。但是鲜有人涉及她作品中另一个非常重要的创作主题,即异化主题。
作为一位心理现实主义作家,欧茨始终关注个人生存与社会环境的冲突。在她的作品中,她热衷于刻画当代美国社会一些不良现象给人类生存造成的混乱局面和心理问题。她将人物强烈的个人情感同美国生活更广泛的现实结合起来,并将其中的人物心理状态的精确的表达出来。
异化是文学史上最早涉及的主题之一。早在二十世纪早期,现代主义运动极大的改变了西方文化对文学的理解。异化,作为现代主义的一个主要文学主题,不仅经常出现在现代主义小说,在后现代早期作品中也占有重要的地位。现代文学中,钟情于异化主题的作家数不胜数。他们从不同角度探索人的异化心理,展现人的内心荒原。
本论文结合异化理论,分析《他们》中的异化主题思想。具体分析了美国当代许多严重的社会问题,从而导致了人与社会异化以及人与人之间关系的异化；个人与社会,自我与他人所形成的尖锐矛盾和对立造成人们在这种环境下焦虑、绝望、孤独和自我异化的心理状态,深刻反映当代美国人的精神危机。
异化的第一层面主要表现为人与社会的异化。社会机构不再为人提供服务,严重缺乏应有的社会和道德责任感。底特律城市一片混乱,到处充斥着暴力,人们毫无安全感而言。人与社会无法相融,为社会所排斥。城市已经不适合人的生存。人已不再是社会的一个组成部分了,而是以局外人的身份徘徊在社会的边缘,没有归属感。城市充满了商业主义,孤独感,极端的种族歧视和暴力,阻碍了社区的建立,造成社区的消亡,整个城市变成了一片荒原。社区的消亡造成现代人普遍的异化感,他们不仅异化于他人,同时与自身异化。
小说《他们》同时也是一部家庭史,记录了温得尔一家在混乱的底特律中苦苦挣扎的生活。严重的社会问题造成人与人之间关系的疏离和隔阂,特别是家庭成员之间关系的异化,即异化的第二个层面。人与人之间缺乏信任,缺少关爱,唯有冷漠与敌意盘踞在人与人之间的纽带上。最亲密的家人变成了异化的陌生人。
在人与社会,人与人这两种关系的异化重压之下,人开始将注意力转向了自己以寻求精神慰藉,却发现早已失去了自我。他们在陌生、冷漠的世界中开始了寻找自己身份的过程,在追求自我、实现自我受到打击之后,为了生存,他们只能不断地从精神上和心理上去改变自己,来协调个人与社会环境之间的关系。他们没能走向实现自我的人生目标,反而走向更加孤独隔绝的困境。他们与自我之间也发生了异化,即异化的第三层面。
异化的三个层面互相联系,组成了论文的主体部分。通过对异化三个层面的分析,当代美国人的生存困境和精神危机清楚的展现在读者面前。最后一章为论文的结尾部分。他们与社会异化,与家庭异化,最后与自己异化,深刻反映了当代美国人的心理危机。
Joyce Carol Oates is a very distinguished female writer in the 20th American literary field. Her oeuvre ranges over essays, poems, plays, criticism, and several genres of fiction and involves an extensive coverage of subjects which provides wide room for her critics. Critics both at home and abroad have analyzed her works from various perspectives such as thematic studies and technical analysis:feminism, writing techniques and so on. However, few of them have touched upon the theme of alienation which is critical to her fictional writing.
As a psychological realist writer, one of Oates's major fictional concerns is on the conflicts between the individual and his social environment. In her works, Oates shows her overwhelming fascination with social problems of contemporary America where his individuals often suffer extreme psychological turmoil and alienation. She relates the intense private experiences of her characters to the larger realities of American life and conveys their psychological states with unerring fidelity.
Alienation is one of the most frequently encountered themes in literature over the history. Especially in the early 20th century, the modernist movement greatly changed the way that literature was perceived in western culture. Alienation as a recurrent theme in modernist novels is still influential in the early years of the postmodern period. Writers explore people's alienation from different aspects and present various pictures of spiritual wasteland.
Through the help of the theory of alienation, the thesis examines the theme of alienation as reflected in them-alienation from society, from family and from themselves. This thesis analyses the causes of alienation related to many serious social problems of contemporary America, which lead to individual's alienation from society and from family. The conflicts and contradictions between individual and society, self and other cause anxiety, desperation, loneliness and alienation to people living in such an environment, which deeply reveal that modern Americans are living in a critical dilemma with a potential spiritual crisis.
The first aspect of alienation is the alienation between human beings and society. Social institutions fail to exercise their due functions, seriously devoid of social and moral responsibility. Detroit as depicted in the novel is a city of turmoil whose pervasive atmosphere of violence threatens all the characters, offering people no sense of security at all. The relationship between people and society are distorted. There is no harmony between the city and human beings. City is not a proper place for people to live in. City residents do not feel being part of the city nor being accepted by the society. Instead, they feel being marginalized and live as outsiders with no sense of belonging. Because the heartless commercialism, sense of loneliness and violence prohibit the creation of community in the city, the absence of a functioning community is pervasive in the novel. The loss of community results in the sense of alienation of modern people; it not only creates a nation of strangers, but also makes man a stranger to himself.
The second aspect of alienation in them is alienation among the family members, as the novel is also a family chronicle, recording the poor life of the Wendalls in the riotous Detroit slums. Various social problems estrange people and cause alienation between human beings in general and family members as well. There exists neither trust nor love among human beings, and only indifference and hostility prevail so that even the most intimate family members are turned into alienated strangers.
The third aspect of alienation is man's alienation from himself. Going through alienation in the society and the family, people begin to turn to themselves for any possible spiritual support, only to find that they have lost themselves already. In the indifferent capitalist world, they try hard to seek their own identity. However, the cold reality destroys their efforts. To survive, they have to constantly transform themselves spiritually and psychologically for the sake of adapting them to the outside environment. Because of the failures on their journeys'of self-actualization, they are entrapped in a more secluded and solitude situation. Men become alienated from themselves.
Through the above analysis, the living dilemma and spiritual crisis of contemporary Americans are clearly revealed. Therefore the thesis comes to the conclusion:residents in Detroit as depicted in them are generally entrapped in critical dilemma of alienation from society, from family and from themselves as well, hence we come to realize that modern Americans are facing a serious spiritual crisis.
作为一位心理现实主义作家,欧茨始终关注个人生存与社会环境的冲突。在她的作品中,她热衷于刻画当代美国社会一些不良现象给人类生存造成的混乱局面和心理问题。她将人物强烈的个人情感同美国生活更广泛的现实结合起来,并将其中的人物心理状态的精确的表达出来。
异化是文学史上最早涉及的主题之一。早在二十世纪早期,现代主义运动极大的改变了西方文化对文学的理解。异化,作为现代主义的一个主要文学主题,不仅经常出现在现代主义小说,在后现代早期作品中也占有重要的地位。现代文学中,钟情于异化主题的作家数不胜数。他们从不同角度探索人的异化心理,展现人的内心荒原。
本论文结合异化理论,分析《他们》中的异化主题思想。具体分析了美国当代许多严重的社会问题,从而导致了人与社会异化以及人与人之间关系的异化；个人与社会,自我与他人所形成的尖锐矛盾和对立造成人们在这种环境下焦虑、绝望、孤独和自我异化的心理状态,深刻反映当代美国人的精神危机。
异化的第一层面主要表现为人与社会的异化。社会机构不再为人提供服务,严重缺乏应有的社会和道德责任感。底特律城市一片混乱,到处充斥着暴力,人们毫无安全感而言。人与社会无法相融,为社会所排斥。城市已经不适合人的生存。人已不再是社会的一个组成部分了,而是以局外人的身份徘徊在社会的边缘,没有归属感。城市充满了商业主义,孤独感,极端的种族歧视和暴力,阻碍了社区的建立,造成社区的消亡,整个城市变成了一片荒原。社区的消亡造成现代人普遍的异化感,他们不仅异化于他人,同时与自身异化。
小说《他们》同时也是一部家庭史,记录了温得尔一家在混乱的底特律中苦苦挣扎的生活。严重的社会问题造成人与人之间关系的疏离和隔阂,特别是家庭成员之间关系的异化,即异化的第二个层面。人与人之间缺乏信任,缺少关爱,唯有冷漠与敌意盘踞在人与人之间的纽带上。最亲密的家人变成了异化的陌生人。
在人与社会,人与人这两种关系的异化重压之下,人开始将注意力转向了自己以寻求精神慰藉,却发现早已失去了自我。他们在陌生、冷漠的世界中开始了寻找自己身份的过程,在追求自我、实现自我受到打击之后,为了生存,他们只能不断地从精神上和心理上去改变自己,来协调个人与社会环境之间的关系。他们没能走向实现自我的人生目标,反而走向更加孤独隔绝的困境。他们与自我之间也发生了异化,即异化的第三层面。
异化的三个层面互相联系,组成了论文的主体部分。通过对异化三个层面的分析,当代美国人的生存困境和精神危机清楚的展现在读者面前。最后一章为论文的结尾部分。他们与社会异化,与家庭异化,最后与自己异化,深刻反映了当代美国人的心理危机。
Joyce Carol Oates is a very distinguished female writer in the 20th American literary field. Her oeuvre ranges over essays, poems, plays, criticism, and several genres of fiction and involves an extensive coverage of subjects which provides wide room for her critics. Critics both at home and abroad have analyzed her works from various perspectives such as thematic studies and technical analysis:feminism, writing techniques and so on. However, few of them have touched upon the theme of alienation which is critical to her fictional writing.
As a psychological realist writer, one of Oates's major fictional concerns is on the conflicts between the individual and his social environment. In her works, Oates shows her overwhelming fascination with social problems of contemporary America where his individuals often suffer extreme psychological turmoil and alienation. She relates the intense private experiences of her characters to the larger realities of American life and conveys their psychological states with unerring fidelity.
Alienation is one of the most frequently encountered themes in literature over the history. Especially in the early 20th century, the modernist movement greatly changed the way that literature was perceived in western culture. Alienation as a recurrent theme in modernist novels is still influential in the early years of the postmodern period. Writers explore people's alienation from different aspects and present various pictures of spiritual wasteland.
Through the help of the theory of alienation, the thesis examines the theme of alienation as reflected in them-alienation from society, from family and from themselves. This thesis analyses the causes of alienation related to many serious social problems of contemporary America, which lead to individual's alienation from society and from family. The conflicts and contradictions between individual and society, self and other cause anxiety, desperation, loneliness and alienation to people living in such an environment, which deeply reveal that modern Americans are living in a critical dilemma with a potential spiritual crisis.
The first aspect of alienation is the alienation between human beings and society. Social institutions fail to exercise their due functions, seriously devoid of social and moral responsibility. Detroit as depicted in the novel is a city of turmoil whose pervasive atmosphere of violence threatens all the characters, offering people no sense of security at all. The relationship between people and society are distorted. There is no harmony between the city and human beings. City is not a proper place for people to live in. City residents do not feel being part of the city nor being accepted by the society. Instead, they feel being marginalized and live as outsiders with no sense of belonging. Because the heartless commercialism, sense of loneliness and violence prohibit the creation of community in the city, the absence of a functioning community is pervasive in the novel. The loss of community results in the sense of alienation of modern people; it not only creates a nation of strangers, but also makes man a stranger to himself.
The second aspect of alienation in them is alienation among the family members, as the novel is also a family chronicle, recording the poor life of the Wendalls in the riotous Detroit slums. Various social problems estrange people and cause alienation between human beings in general and family members as well. There exists neither trust nor love among human beings, and only indifference and hostility prevail so that even the most intimate family members are turned into alienated strangers.
The third aspect of alienation is man's alienation from himself. Going through alienation in the society and the family, people begin to turn to themselves for any possible spiritual support, only to find that they have lost themselves already. In the indifferent capitalist world, they try hard to seek their own identity. However, the cold reality destroys their efforts. To survive, they have to constantly transform themselves spiritually and psychologically for the sake of adapting them to the outside environment. Because of the failures on their journeys'of self-actualization, they are entrapped in a more secluded and solitude situation. Men become alienated from themselves.
Through the above analysis, the living dilemma and spiritual crisis of contemporary Americans are clearly revealed. Therefore the thesis comes to the conclusion:residents in Detroit as depicted in them are generally entrapped in critical dilemma of alienation from society, from family and from themselves as well, hence we come to realize that modern Americans are facing a serious spiritual crisis.
引文
Allen, Mary. "The Terrified Women of Joyce Carol Oates." The Necessary Blankness: Women in Major American Fiction of the Sixties. Urbana,Ill:University of Illinois Press,1976.
Alfred, Kazin. Bright Book of Life. New York:Atlantic/Little Brown,1973.
Avant, John Alfred. "An Interview with Joyce Carol Oates." Library Journal 15 Nov.1972.
Bellamy, Joe David. "The Dark Lady of American Letters:An Interview with Joyce Carol Oates." Atlantic, CCXXIX, No.2. Feb.1972.
Bevilacqua, Winifred Farrant."'all of Detroit is melodrama':Joyce Carol Oates' them." La Citta Delle donne:Immaginario urbano e letteratura del Novecento. Ed. Oriana Palusci. Turin, Italy:Tirrenia,1992.
Bloom, Harold. A Map of Misreading. New York:Oxford University press,1975.
Calvin, Bedient. "Vivid and Dazzling". Nation, December 1,1969.
Creighton, Joanne V. Joyce Carol Oates. Boston:Twayne,1979.
Daly, Brenda. Lavish Self-Divisions:The Novels of Joyce Carol Oates. Jackson: Mississippi UP,1996.
Finkelstein, Sidney. Existentialism and Alienation in American literature.1965. New York:International Publishers,1967.
Fromm, Erich. Marx's Concept of Man. New York:Frederic Ungar publishing,1961.
---. The Sane Society. New York:Fawcett Publications,1966.
Friedman, Ellen. Joyce Carol Oates. New York:Frederick Ungar Publishing Co.,
1980.
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. "Murder She Wrote." Rev. of Because It Is Bitter and Because It Is my Heart, by Joyce Carol Oates. Nation 2 July 1990.
Giles, James Richard. The Naturalistic Inner-City Novel in America:Encounters with the Fat Man. Columbia, South Carolina:University of South Carolina Press,1995.
Johnson, Greg. Invisible Writer-A Biography of Joyce Carol Oates. New York:The Penguin Group,1998.
---. Understanding Joyce Carol Oates. Columbia:University of South Carolina Press, 1987.
--- "Why Is your Writing So Violent?" New York Times Book Review 29 Mar.1981.
Mary Kathryn Grant, The Tragic Vision of Joyce Carol Oates. Durham:Duke University Press,1978.
Merton, R. K.. Social theory and anomie. American Sociological Review,3, 672-682.
Milazzo Lee. Conversations with Joyce Carol Oates. Jackson and London: University Press of Mississippi,1989.
Oates, Joyce Carol. "The Myth of the Isolated Artist." Psychology Today 6, May 1973.
---. "An American Tragedy." New York Times Book Review,24 Jan.1971.
---. them. New York:The Vanguard Press,1969.
---.Visions of Detroit.Michigan Quarterly Review (25),1986.
Parini, Jay. ed. Conversations with Joyce Carol Oates. Mississippi:University Press of Mississippi,1989.
Philips, Robert. "Joyce Carol Oates:The Art of Fiction LⅩⅫ". Conversations with Carol Oates. Ed. Lee Milazzo. Jackson:University Press of Mississippi,1989.
Schumacher, Michael. "Joyce Carol Oates and the Hardest Part of Writing," Writer's Digest, Cincinnati:F&W Publications, Apr.1986.
Warner, Sam Bass. The Urban Wilderness. A History of the American City. New York and London:Harper & Row,1972.
Wang Yixuan. Violence and Conflict:The Spatiality of Joyce Carol Oates's Fiction. Ph.D. dissertation. Shanghai International Studies University,2008.
http://www.jump-parenting.co.uk/documents/MATCHFactSheetNo.10-ParentalAlienationSyndro me.pdf
王阿芳,王新杰.“悲哀的夏娃—欧茨小说中的悲剧性女性探析”.白城师范学学报,19,2005(2).
杨华.“暴力下的女性天空—论欧茨小说中女性意识表达的独特视角”.湘潭大学学报,2005(7).
朱荣杰.“《他们》中的她们—乔伊斯·卡洛尔·奥茨笔下的女性与暴力”.解放军外国语学院学报,23,2003(4).
Alfred, Kazin. Bright Book of Life. New York:Atlantic/Little Brown,1973.
Avant, John Alfred. "An Interview with Joyce Carol Oates." Library Journal 15 Nov.1972.
Bellamy, Joe David. "The Dark Lady of American Letters:An Interview with Joyce Carol Oates." Atlantic, CCXXIX, No.2. Feb.1972.
Bevilacqua, Winifred Farrant."'all of Detroit is melodrama':Joyce Carol Oates' them." La Citta Delle donne:Immaginario urbano e letteratura del Novecento. Ed. Oriana Palusci. Turin, Italy:Tirrenia,1992.
Bloom, Harold. A Map of Misreading. New York:Oxford University press,1975.
Calvin, Bedient. "Vivid and Dazzling". Nation, December 1,1969.
Creighton, Joanne V. Joyce Carol Oates. Boston:Twayne,1979.
Daly, Brenda. Lavish Self-Divisions:The Novels of Joyce Carol Oates. Jackson: Mississippi UP,1996.
Finkelstein, Sidney. Existentialism and Alienation in American literature.1965. New York:International Publishers,1967.
Fromm, Erich. Marx's Concept of Man. New York:Frederic Ungar publishing,1961.
---. The Sane Society. New York:Fawcett Publications,1966.
Friedman, Ellen. Joyce Carol Oates. New York:Frederick Ungar Publishing Co.,
1980.
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. "Murder She Wrote." Rev. of Because It Is Bitter and Because It Is my Heart, by Joyce Carol Oates. Nation 2 July 1990.
Giles, James Richard. The Naturalistic Inner-City Novel in America:Encounters with the Fat Man. Columbia, South Carolina:University of South Carolina Press,1995.
Johnson, Greg. Invisible Writer-A Biography of Joyce Carol Oates. New York:The Penguin Group,1998.
---. Understanding Joyce Carol Oates. Columbia:University of South Carolina Press, 1987.
--- "Why Is your Writing So Violent?" New York Times Book Review 29 Mar.1981.
Mary Kathryn Grant, The Tragic Vision of Joyce Carol Oates. Durham:Duke University Press,1978.
Merton, R. K.. Social theory and anomie. American Sociological Review,3, 672-682.
Milazzo Lee. Conversations with Joyce Carol Oates. Jackson and London: University Press of Mississippi,1989.
Oates, Joyce Carol. "The Myth of the Isolated Artist." Psychology Today 6, May 1973.
---. "An American Tragedy." New York Times Book Review,24 Jan.1971.
---. them. New York:The Vanguard Press,1969.
---.Visions of Detroit.Michigan Quarterly Review (25),1986.
Parini, Jay. ed. Conversations with Joyce Carol Oates. Mississippi:University Press of Mississippi,1989.
Philips, Robert. "Joyce Carol Oates:The Art of Fiction LⅩⅫ". Conversations with Carol Oates. Ed. Lee Milazzo. Jackson:University Press of Mississippi,1989.
Schumacher, Michael. "Joyce Carol Oates and the Hardest Part of Writing," Writer's Digest, Cincinnati:F&W Publications, Apr.1986.
Warner, Sam Bass. The Urban Wilderness. A History of the American City. New York and London:Harper & Row,1972.
Wang Yixuan. Violence and Conflict:The Spatiality of Joyce Carol Oates's Fiction. Ph.D. dissertation. Shanghai International Studies University,2008.
http://www.jump-parenting.co.uk/documents/MATCHFactSheetNo.10-ParentalAlienationSyndro me.pdf
王阿芳,王新杰.“悲哀的夏娃—欧茨小说中的悲剧性女性探析”.白城师范学学报,19,2005(2).
杨华.“暴力下的女性天空—论欧茨小说中女性意识表达的独特视角”.湘潭大学学报,2005(7).
朱荣杰.“《他们》中的她们—乔伊斯·卡洛尔·奥茨笔下的女性与暴力”.解放军外国语学院学报,23,2003(4).