（英语语言文学专业论文）约翰·邓恩对和谐爱情关系的探索.pdf

vi摘要 摘要 约翰 邓恩是英国玄学派诗歌的代表人物，以其爱情诗而著称，其爱情诗思想深刻。在一些诗歌中，他向往崇高美好的爱情,而在有些诗歌中邓恩则表现出了对爱情的怀疑态度；诗人对女性时而贬抑，时而赞扬。然而在这些看似矛盾的观点背后，读者能感受到邓恩对理想爱情以及和谐两性关系的不懈追求和探索。在邓恩看来，和谐的爱情关系涉及到两个方面：内在的灵与肉的统一和外在的男女关系的和谐。本文拟从他的生活经历和爱情诗入手，探讨邓恩在追寻和谐爱情关系的过程中所经历的几个阶段。 全文共分三章。 第一章考察邓恩对男性和女性在爱情关系中所持的偏见态度。在其早期的诗歌中，女性的地位是“低劣的” ，而男性则是“优越的” ，男性有绝对的“力量”可以玩弄、命令、统治女性。这种偏见态度的结果就是诗人对女性的怀疑与对真挚爱情的失望。本章基于女性主义的观点认为诗人的这种态度表现了其强烈的男权意识。 第二章探讨邓恩早期诗歌中对肉体与灵魂的关系所作的失败的探索。 诗人首先试图从充满欲望的“肉体之爱” 中寻求理想的爱情关系，而后又转向纯洁的“精神之恋” ，但是邓恩得到的依然是对真挚爱情的怀疑和其爱情幻灭后的极度沮丧。 第三章研究在其后期的“成熟”阶段，邓恩对和谐爱情关系的成功探索。诗人认识到和谐爱情首先要基于灵与肉的完美结合。和谐的爱情关系还表现在男女的平等性、爱情双方的全情投入、爱情的自主性、排他性和相互性。 邓恩对和谐爱情关系的探索表明了他是一位“现实的理想主义者” 。正是邓恩这种对和谐爱情的不断追求和探索，使得他的爱情诗歌得到了进一步升华，超越了他所属的时代，是文学作品爱情主题的一个进步。 关键词：约翰邓恩 和谐 爱情关系 探索 ivabstract primarily known as a metaphysical love poet, john donne provides a profound thought in his lyrics. his ideas about love are both disbelieving and yearning; his attitudes towards women are depreciating as well as praising. yet from among the seemingly paradoxical points of view, donnes incessant exploration of ideal love and love relationship can be distinctly perceived. to donne, two things are involved in the harmonious love relationship: the unification of body and soul internally and the harmony of the male and the female externally. the thesis views his life and his poetry as the stages of his exploration of harmonious love relationship. this thesis is divided into three chapters. chapter one explores donnes biased attitude towards men and women in his early period. in some of his poems, women are regarded as “inferior” while men “superior”. men have the unconditional “power” to flirt with, command and dominate women. this biased attitude results in the poets doubt about women and his disappointment in true love. in terms of feminism, donnes strong male-chauvinism can be explicitly detected. chapter two deals with donnes failed attempt to achieve body-and-soul unification. firstly indulging himself in physical pleasure and then trying to find true love in spiritual attachment, what he gets are only the doubt about true love, the disillusionment and the frustration. chapter three is a devoted study of donnes successful attempt of harmonious love relationship in his late poems. he realizes that the essence of the harmony of love is the perfect unification of body and soul. also women must be put to an equal position to men in love. idealized and harmonious love relationship requires as well full devotion of love, self-sufficiency of love, loves exclusiveness and mutuality. donne is a “realistic idealist” in his exploration of harmonious love relationship. it is his incessant pursuit and exploration that sublimate and eternalize his love lyrics, rendering them vwell in advance of the age in which he lived and suggesting a progress in the motif of love in literature. keywords: john donne harmonious love relationship exploration iii学位论文原创性声明学位论文原创性声明 本人所提交的学位论文约翰邓恩对和谐爱情关系的探索(john donnes exploration of harmonious love relationship),是在导师的指导下，独立进行研究工作所取得的原创性成果。除文中已经注明引用的内容外，本论文不包含任何其他个人或集体已经发表或撰写过的研究成果。对本文的研究做出重要贡献的个人和集体，均已在文中标明。 本声明的法律后果由本人承担。 论文作者（签名） ： 指导教师确认（签名） ： 年 月 日 年 月 日 学位论文版权使用授权书 学位论文版权使用授权书 本学位论文作者完全了解河北师范大学有权保留并向国家有关部门或机构送交学位论文的复印件和磁盘，允许论文被查阅和借阅。本人授权河北师范大学可以将学位论文的全部或部分内容编入有关数据库进行检索，可以采用影印、缩印或其它复制手段保存、汇编学位论文。 （保密的学位论文在 年解密后适用本授权书） 论文作者（签名） ： 指导教师（签名） ： 年 月 日 年 月 日 1introduction john donne (1572-1631), the most prominent yet controversial poet in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century in england, was born in a merchant family in london. both of his parents were catholics at a time when england was quite split over the issues of religion. he received his education at harts hall, oxford, and then at lincolns inn. he was so learned that he could speak several languages and write poems in both english and latin. donnes life was varied, colorful and at times dangerous. he sailed with the english fleet to the continent and served as a diplomat and a member of the parliament. in 1601, he married anne more secretly, for which he was imprisoned by sir george more, anne mores father. his marriage being upheld by the court of audience a few months later, he was released. for the following years, donne and his family moved throughout england. he himself traveled to italy and france, unsuccessfully attempting to get a position that might change his financial predicament. he gave up catholicism and converted to the anglican church in 1615. he was ordained as a priest at an anglican church that year and six years later, he was posted as the dean of st. pauls cathedral, a position which he retained till his death. donne is remembered primarily for his extraordinary poems, on the basis of which his reputation revived at the turn of the twentieth century, after centuries of obscurity. for the last ten years of his life, he devoted in writing sermons rather than in writing poems. according to h.j.c. griersons two-volume book, the poems of john donne, and a. j. smiths the complete english poems of john donne, donne wrote about fifty-five love poems collected in songs and sonets and twenty elegies and thirty-eight divine poems as well as some satires and verse letters throughout his life. today, donne is remembered as the leading advocate of the “metaphysical” poetry, a style of verse flourishing from the late sixteenth century to the early seventeenth century, though his poetic reputation suffered chronically before he was reappraised in the early twentieth century. metaphysical poetry employs unique verse forms, complicated figures of speech, unexpected conceits, learned themes and surprising chains of reasoning. these characteristics are all exhibited in donnes poetry. 2circulating among his friends, donnes poetry was not widely known before 1620. after the death of the dean of st. paul, his poems were put into print, from which the poet sank into repute. thomas carew (1595-1639), a most prestigious poet of the time, wrote in donnes “epitaph”: “here lies a king, that ruld as hee thought fit, the universal monarchy of wit” .1 from then on, donne has suffered the rise and fall of fame due to the changes of social notions for centuries. however, his influence has never been overlooked. after the publication of his first collected poems in 1633, two years after his death, his poems were read widely and praised by many prestigious figures such as charles i (1600-1649), the king of the time and humphrey moseley (1593-1661), a publisher and critic of the time. but in 1668, when commenting donnes poetry, john dryden (1631-1700) wrote: he donneaffects the metaphysicsin his amorous verses, where nature only should reign; and perplexes the minds of the fair sex with nice speculations of philosophy, when he should engage their hearts, entertain them with the softnesses of love.2 then he came to a conclusion that “if we are not so great wits as donne yet certainly we are better poets” , and that donne was “the greatest wit, though not the best poet of our nation”.3 samuel johnson once accused donne that he was an “unnatural poet of a great many offences against reason and nature: exhibiting artificiality instead of concealing art, the desire for originality at the expense of the mimesis of nature, unpolished stylistic carelessness”.4 thus donnes genius as a poet was neglected and forgotten for the next two centuries. his eminence, owing much to the publications of griersons the poems of john donne in 1912 and the metaphysical poets, in which t. s. eliot gives john donne approval and appreciation, came to arise. the book of grierson provides an aggregative and authoritative edition of donnes poems. it also contains elaborate commentaries and introductions, therefore being the standard edition of donnes works. it is just t. s. eliot who puts donne to a pinnacle of fame from an obscure valley. since then, criticism on donne has become more 3and more heated up to the present. louis l. martzs the poetry of mediation: a study in english religious literature of the seventeenth century, came out in 1954. his study exerts a great influence on later researchers about donne. john donne: life, mind and art, written by john carey in 1981, is a marvelous critical work. in the book, carey reviews lots of historical materials and verifies thousand of historical documents to revive a true donne to a large extent. carey employs a psycho-biographical approach to his study of donnes life, mind and art. john donne: the critical heritage (1983) by a .j. smith, is also a great work of all comments on donne from 1598 to 1889. john donne and twentieth-century criticism, written by aldrich deborah larson, was published in 1989. larson attempts to trace donnes poetry with the literary traditions and run an eye over critics on donnes attitude towards science, women and religion. there are many other critical articles on donne. for instance, in “cant buy me love: money, gender, and colonialism in donnes erotic verse”, shankar raman makes a research on donne from the multiple angles of marxs numismatics theory, the feminist, and the postcolonialism. susannah mintzs “forget the hee and shee: gender and play in john donne” also provides a feminist point of view on donnes poetry. both of the articles present a diversification on the study of donne, breaking the old accustom of paying mere attention to form and artifice. domestic study over donne had been far from satisfaction over the past decades. but things changed in 1985 when professor yang zhouhans book english literature in the seventeenth century came out. professor yang devotes a whole chapter to donne. professor hu jialuans the starry heavens: english renaissance poetry and traditional cosmology, giving his involved analysis of some of donnes poetry, was published in 2001. professor li zhengshuans book, defamiliarisation: the poetic art of john donne, published in 2001, is considered to be the first book published on donne in china. in the book, he investigates donnes defamiliarisation from different perspectives. apart from the books mentioned above, there are lots of critical articles on donnes poetry. professor li zhengshuans “on the rhythmical music and numeral propositions in the song by donne” studies the images, numeral symbols and rhythms in “song: go and 4catch a falling star” from the historical and literary contexts. he makes a comparative study of the images in donnes poetry and li qingzhaos poetry in “on the imagery of donnes poetry: comparing with the imagery of li qingzhaos poetry”. in many of his other articles such as “on the triangle image in donnes poetry” and “an analysis of john donnes conceit”, he makes a profound and meticulous study on donnes poetry. professor yan kuis “on donnes cosmological awareness” investigates donnes poetry as an attempt for a universal life in the cosmological reconstruction of the seventeenth century. his “the emblem of love: on the round images in forbidding mourning” argues that donnes poem “a valediction: forbidding mourning” abounds in round images and shows that the round images are emblems of perfect love and a harmonious world. “appreciation of the conceits in the love poems of metaphysical poet john donne” by li han, “a simple analysis on conceits” by lin yuanfu and “male-chauvinism and colonialism of the metaphysical poets” by zhang deming, are a few among the excellent articles on donne. zhang haixia analyses donnes conflicting beliefs of christian theology and renaissance humanism in “two conflicting beliefs, two conflicting choices: interpreting john donnes early love poetry”. in another article “a pursuit of the essence of love: on reading of john donnes love poetry” by lv hongling, the combination of body and soul in donnes love poetry is investigated at large. xiong yis “on intermediacy of john donne and his poetry” surveys the postmodernity of donne by analyzing the intermediacy features in donnes poetry. in spite of that, study on donne in china is far from flourishing and donne has not yet been familiar to chinese readers. furthermore, much are concerned with the conceit of donnes poems and his rhetorical artifice instead of the motif of his love poetry. thus, a research on loves harmony in between the lines of his poetry may, in a way, be of great literary and practical significance. donnes value lies not only in that he is a representative metaphysical writer but also in that he is a greatly unique one. he is a man of contradiction: being a minister in the church, he has profound spirituality that affects his writing all his life; yet being a man, he has carnal lust for sensation and life. he is so great in writing both erotic and religious poems that perhaps no other poet struggles studiously to unify the discordant and incongruous passions. 5in his poems, donne makes a mixture of the physical and the spiritual discourse. he also gives a great expression to both realms during his life-long career. from among the seeming contradiction and inconsistency, one can perceive in his poems that love and religion are his two concerns throughout his life. it may be secure to say that the most prominent is his love poetry, altogether 77 poems gathered in songs and sonets and elegies, constituting a great part of his poetry. in these poems, love is presented at various levels. sometimes an absolute freedom from any severe commitment can be found; sometimes a frustrated passion is diffusing and at times love is raised by the poet to a religious level. in writing the different experiences of love, donne tries to discover the definition of true love and the essence of love relationship. the course of his exploration is perplexing and painstaking. based on the perusing of donnes poems, this thesis makes an investigation from a new perspective. it traces his different yet linking stages respectively of his inner courses in pursuing true love. the thesis consists of three chapters. chapter one explores donnes biased attitude towards men and women in his early period. in his eyes, women are “inferior” to men and should be dominated by them. with such a notion in mind, he is skeptical to both womens faithfulness and the existence of true love. this gives the readers a first glance of the psychological state of young donne. it must be confessed that there is a strong male-chauvinism in donnes mind in his early times. chapter two deals with his failed attempt of love relationship. he previously gives sexual love a prominence in his poems, only to get disillusionment in physical love. he follows and goes beyond ovid5 in that there are disturbance, dramatic fierceness, anxious intensity and ruthlessness in his poems. then he turns to purely spiritual love. there has been a time when donne treasures his spiritual love and intends to protect this love from being profaned. this purely spiritual love is the last chaste thing in a world of erotic desire. but eventually he finds that spiritual love is, as well, far from enough for the fulfillment of ideal affection. sexual pleasure without deep adoration is momentary and degrading while blindly spiritual love without body integration is but a mirage. chapter three talks about his successful attempt of the pursuit. he ultimately gets the real implication of true love: the unification of body and soul. the harmonious love 6relationship also requires loves full devotion, self-sufficiency, exclusiveness and mutuality based on the unification of body and soul. a jovial and harmonious love with hearty appeasement is thus obtained. the conclusion at first makes a general assessment of donnes love poetry, both in his positive significance and his limitations as a poet in the seventeenth century, with the grounds attributed to his greatness and weakness. then, it proposes the value of the current study. 7chapter one a biased attitude towards men and women it is widely acknowledged that various feelings about love and views on it abound in donnes poetry. sometimes he scorns love and denounces women. sometimes he challenges the ideal love. donnes attitudes towards men and women change in different stages of his life, hence the various attitudes towards love. his views experienced a course from bias to doubt, and at last to the confidence of reciprocity. a close reading of his poetry reveals donnes inner conflict and progress through his external flippant and libidinous manner. elegies, which are said to be written in his early stage of his life, and some of the poems in songs and sonets provide his biased view on love and a fault-finding to women and marriage. the leading opinion is preconception, which is presented in two ways: his attitude towards women and his attitude towards men. this gives the readers a first glance of the psychological state of young donne as “a great visitor of ladies”.1 a. women as “inferior” some critics argue that donne has no understanding of women. evelyn simpson points out: donnes attitude towards women is characteristic of the man in its superficial inconsistency and its underlying fixity. he is a sensualist and an idealist. he has passion in abundance but little tenderness. few great writers have shown so little insight into the secrets of a womans heart.2 furthermore, some other critics believe that donnes egocentricity and ambition make him not only ignore women but also abuse them. for instance, george parfitt points out that donnes elegies bear an intense tendency of reducing and simplifying women into “objects of contempt, stereotypes, objects for conquest”,3 and that they have “no imagined qualities except negative ones and being useful mainly as the object of male wit”.4 women are 8regarded as the secondary and additionally monotonous ones. contrary to the traditional petrarchan5 poets, who describes a woman as a reserved, chaste and charming lady, donne regards women as merely playthings to meet mens physical needs. “community” is considered by some critics the most cynical poem in songs and sonets to show donne