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绽放在哥特花园中的一朵奇葩:论弗兰纳里·奥康纳小说的哥特艺术
A Rare and Radiant Flower in Gothic Garden: Gothic Art in Flannery O’Connor’s Fiction
【作者】 高翔;
【导师】 张琳;
【作者基本信息】 山东科技大学 , 英语语言文学, 2010, 硕士
【摘要】 弗兰纳里·奥康纳是二战后美国南方颇具影响力的女作家,在小说和短篇小说领域都卓有成就。她的小说秉承了霍桑、福克纳等南方作家的哥特写作传统,并且因其浓重的宗教色彩,形成了独特的艺术风格,受到读者和批评家的广泛关注。奥康纳在吸收了传统哥特文学创作精华的同时,在不断的实践过程也取得了一定的革新与突破。该论文立足于美国南方文学中的哥特传统研究奥康纳小说的哥特艺术,并将其与传统哥特小说的写作手法加以对比。该论文正文分为四章。第一章详细介绍美国文学中的哥特写作传统。首先对“哥特”一词的含义及哥特小说的发展历史进行梳理,在此基础上概括出哥特小说的艺术特色和审美特征。南方文艺复兴时期,美国南方因其独特的历史背景和地域特色成为哥特小说繁衍生息的沃土,南方哥特自成一派,富有鲜明的特征。第二章从哥特主题和哥特情节两个方面对奥康纳作品中哥特因素的巧妙运用进行探索。在她的作品中,血腥的暴力和死亡成为她一脉相承的主题范式,超自然因素、恐怖的气氛和怪诞的人物等哥特情节也给小说蒙上了一层神秘的面纱。第三章论述了美国南方本土文化对奥康纳作品产生的影响。她创作哥特式作品主要与当代西方宗教信仰的缺失密切相关,与美国南方社会历史的发展密不可分,同时也深受其个人的不幸生活经历的影响。第四章综合上述分析,归纳出奥康纳对南方哥特小说的发展与创新。她的小说大多都是悲剧和喜剧的混合体,且具有相似的主题,总是通过暴力表现死亡以达到救赎的目的。作品中的人物形象怪诞复杂,具有多面性格。在叙事技巧方面,奥康纳以各种绝妙手法营造了意味深长的象征意象,使小说有限的篇幅获得了无限丰富的内涵。总之,奥康纳的哥特艺术,既有传统性又有创新性。她把从南方哥特传统中吸取的丰富的艺术营养同自己的宗教观和独特的写作手法结合起来探索和表现美国南方的社会和历史,揭示了文明社会中存在的信仰危机和价值危机,从而客观上起到了警醒世人的作用。她不仅仅为南方人写作,而是为整个人类写作,这也是对她做进一步研究的必要性和重要意义之所在。
【Abstract】 Flannery O’Connor is one of the most influential woman writers in American South after World War II. She achieved great successes in the field of novels and short stories. Her works, inheriting the Gothic writing tradition from Southern writers like Hawthorne and Faulkner, have developed a unique artistic style and received much attention from both critics and common readers for their strong religious flavor. O’Connor not merely embraced the essence of traditional Gothic literature, but also made some breakthroughs. This thesis, based on Gothic tradition of American Southern literature, focuses on O’Connor’s Gothic art, and makes a comparison between her Gothic and traditional Gothic. The body of the thesis is divided into four chapters.Chapter One gives a detailed account of Gothic writing tradition in American literature. To begin with, it traces the origin of the word "Gothic" and the development of Gothic fiction. On this basis, the artistic features and aesthetic characteristics are generalized. During the period of Southern Renaissance, American South, with its unique history and culture, has offered a fertile land for the Gothic novel to survive and grow. Sothern Gothic fiction became one independent literary genre by its distinctive features. Chapter Two focuses on O’Connor’s creative use of Gothic elements from two levels of Gothic motifs and plot. In her works, bloody violence and death is her common themes. The supernatural elements, horrible atmosphere, and grotesque characters also lend mystery to her works. Chapter Three presents the influence of American native culture on O’Connor’s works. The creation of Gothic works keeps close ties with the lacking of religious beliefs in modern Western society, with the development of American society and history, as well as with her unfortunate personal life experience. Chapter Four explores O’Connor’s innovation to Southern Gothic fictions. Most of her novels are the mixture of tragedy and comedy and share similar themes, aiming at realizing redemption by characters’violence followed by death. And also her freak characters are round and full of life. As for narrative techniques, the employment of a number of meaningful symbolic objects makes her stories more vivid and moving.In short, O’Connor’s Gothic art is both traditionally and innovatively. Combining Southern Gothic tradition with her religious point of view and unique writing techniques together, she intends to explore the society and history of American South. In her works, O’Connor exposes the lacking of beliefs and values and thus awake human being to the reality. She creates not only for Southerners but for the whole human beings, which shows the importance of further study on her and her writings as well.