以"《印度之行》的新历史主义分析"为例探讨英美文学论文摘要范文：
摘要:爱德华·摩根·福斯特作为一个小说家在现代英国文学乃至世界文学中占有重要的地位.在世界文坛上,他同詹姆士·乔伊斯、D.H.劳伦斯和弗吉尼亚·伍尔夫享有同等盛名.与此同时,他还被称为 20 世纪英国最伟大的小说家之一.
《印度之行》作为福斯特最负盛名的代表作之一,与其相关的文学研究举不胜数.多数评论家采用后殖民理论来对小说中的殖民色彩进行分析.也有评论家从文体学与精神分析学的角度对这部作品进行分析.象征主义、女性主义等文学理论也多被用来分析这部小说.小说中的写作技巧以及小说中体现的东西方文化差异等特征也被引起了广泛的关注.本文拟通过运用新历史主义理论来研究小说中的联结主题.
福斯特将他的生活与作品交织在一起,以自身的经历为灵感创作了多部小说.通过作品为读者们展现出他所经历的那一段历史.很难说明究竟是他的个人经历丰富了他的小说情节还是他的小说内容充实了他的个人生活.
论文由四个章节组成.第一章对作者 E.M.福斯特的生平、小说《印度之行》以及新历史主义理论进行了简要得概述.有关小说《印度之行》的国内外研究现状在该章内容中也有所介绍.
第二章主要讨论文本与历史的互动关系.该章从新历史主义视角运用新历史主义学家路易斯·蒙特罗斯的"文本的历史性"和"历史的文本性"对小说进行分析."文本的历史性"强调文学文本对历史的文学解释.文学文本与历史之间有着一种相互促进的关系,文学文本并不是消极地反映历史事件,而是加入对历史意义的创造过程,是对政治话语、权利操纵、等级秩序的重新解读."历史的文本性"是指人们无法亲身经历和完全了解真实的过去,只有通过相关的文本记录.这些文本无法摆脱记录者的主观影响,历史不再是客观的历史而是与文学文本一样具有主观性.
第三章主要讨论福斯特如何通过塑造小说中的边缘人物和通过边缘人物的发声来体现他的融合观.所谓划分"边缘"与"中心"是相对而言的.如果以遵守社会主流意识的人物为中心,那么被摒弃于主流之外的就属于边缘地位.新历史主义学家们敢于挑战主流意识形态的权利话语并重视边缘人物的声音.在小说《印度之行》中,福斯特塑造的三位主人公分别代表了处于不同地位的边缘人物:
处于弱势群体地位的被殖民者印度医生艾西斯;愿意同印度人成为朋友被同伴排斥的英国人菲尔丁;处于父权社会敢于追求自我独立拥有自我探索精神的英国女性阿黛拉.福斯特通过描述边缘人物的人际交往来实现他的联结观并倡导不同的种族可以通过和谐的人际关系来实现联结.
第四章具体从新历史主义的角度对《印度之行》的联结主题进行了总结.
尽管福斯特极力试图在小说中实现跨种族,跨阶级的联结,但是失败的人际交往象征着联结的失败.福斯特作为英国中产阶级的一员,虽有其自身的局限性,但他敢于批判英国殖民者在人际交往中表现出的伪善与冷漠.小说《印度之行》充分体现了他实现联结的决心.
关键词:《印度之行》;新历史主义;文本性与历史性;联结主题.
Abstract:As a novelist Edward Morgan Forster (1879-1970) plays a very important role inmodern British literature. He enjoys the same world-wide reputation with James Joyce,D.H.Lawrence and Virginia Woolf. He is also known as one of the greatest Britishnovelists in the 20thcentury. A Passage to India as one of the most famous novels ofE.M.Forster attracts many Western and Chinese critics' attention. Some critics studythe novel from the perspectives of postcolonial theory and psychoanalysis; somecritics utilize the methodologies of symbolism and feminism to analyze this novel.
The writing skills and the cultural differences in the novel have also been discussed.This thesis intends to use the theory of New Historicism to study the theme ofconnection in A Passage to India.
E.M.Forster always intertwines his life with his works and writes down thehistory of the period as he had perceived. He bases a good deal of his fiction on hisown personal experiences that it is difficult to tell when his life furnishes material forhis fiction and when his fiction furnishes material for his life.
This thesis consists of four chapters. The first chapter makes an introduction ofE.M.Forster, A Passage to India and New Historicism. The overseas and domesticcriticisms will also be discussed respectively.
The second chapter deals with the interactions between text and history. Thischapter mainly applies the historicity of text and the textuality of history, firstly raisedby the New Historicist Louis Montrose, to analyze the novel. The historicity of textemphasizes text's literary interpretations on history. It is pointed out that there is arelationship of mutual promotion between literary text and history. A literary text isnot to reflect the historical events passively. It can help to enrich the historicalsignificance and to reinterpret the political discourse, the dominant right and thehierarchical rules of a period of certain history. The textuality of history indicates thatpeople cannot experience the past. Only by reading the related historical records canpeople have a chance to know the past. These historical records can hardly get rid ofthe subjective effects of its writers. Consequently, the history we can understand is nolonger objective.
The third chapter concentrates on discussing how Forster portrays themarginalized people in the novel and how he achieves his goal of connection via thevoice of these people. The relationship between the "center" and "edge" is relative.
People who follow the mainstream ideology of society occupy the center place; whilepeople who betray the mainstream ideology of society belong to marginal status. Mostof the historians ignore the voice of the marginalized people. New Historicists dare tochallenge the mainstream ideology and pay close attention to the voices of themarginalized people. In the novel, Forster portrays three different marginalizedcharacters. They are: Aziz, the colonized Indian doctor; Fielding who is willing tomake friends with Indians without racial discrimination; Adela who obtains a spirit ofindependence and self-experience in the British patriarchal society. Forster holds thatthe harmonious human relationship can help to achieve connection between differentraces.
The fourth chapter makes a conclusion to the novel from the perspective of NewHistoricism. Forster tries his hard to bridge the gap between different classes anddifferent races. The failure of the human relationship indicates the failure ofconnection. Although Forster has his own limitation as a member of the Britishmiddle class, he dares to reveal the hypocrisy and indifference of English people.
He shows his determination firmly to achieve connection in A Passage to India.
Kew words: A Passage to India; the new historical approach; historicity and textuality;theme of connection.
