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- - 4 - 提要提要 拉尔夫艾里森是美国当代最有影响力的黑人作家之一,他在美国非 裔文坛、美国文坛乃至世界文坛的地位都是不可动摇的。继“汤姆叔叔文 学” , “赖特派”之后, “艾里森风格”也日趋风靡,并带动美国非裔文学 走向新的发展。 艾里森的作品具有里程碑式的意义, 对欧内斯特 盖恩斯、 伊什梅尔里德、托尼莫里森等作家的创作产生了深远的影响。 在 1952 年,艾里森第一部长篇小说看不见的人的出版使他一举 成名,1953 年获“美国国家图书奖” ,1965 年经美国图书周刊杂志组 织的投票,该书被评为“近二十年来发表的作品中唯一最杰出的作品” 。 但是艾里森的艺术成就并不只限于看不见的人 ,他在短篇小说、文学 评论等方面也取得一定的成就。此外,艾里森倾注四十余年心血的长篇小 说六月庆典也于 1999 年编辑出版,进一步确立了艾里森的文学地位。 本论文拟以飞翔意象为切入点,进一步探讨艾里森短篇小说和长篇小说 看不见的人 、 六月庆典的主题意蕴。艾里森小说中的飞翔意象象征 意味浓厚,涉及历史、文化和社会的方方面面,与小说中人物的命运紧密 相连,在表现主题、推动情节发展等方面起着重要的作用,是艾里森小说 艺术的重要内容。 论文共分为四部分。第一部分为引论,简要介绍拉尔夫艾里森的生 平及其创作, 回顾国内外的研究现状, 并说明论文的研究目标和基本框架。 第二部分纵览西方和美国黑人文化、文学中的飞翔意象。飞翔,是人 类长久以来的梦想。在东西方文化,也包括黑人文化中,关于飞翔的意象 随处可见,飞翔神话故事也是层出不穷。这些意象和神话成了很多作家文 学创作的素材,使人类的飞翔梦想不断延续。本章首先对东西方文化中的 飞翔传统作一个简要回顾,接着概述美国黑人文化和文学,特别是小说中 关于飞翔的描写。 第三部分重点论述艾里森短篇和长篇作品中的飞翔意象。 在美国黑人 小说中,飞翔是一个很重要的意象,除了第二部分谈及的作家外,艾里森 也是这方面的重要贡献者,其作品中也有丰富的飞翔意象。本章将这些飞 - - 5 - 翔意象分成三大类来进行探讨,它们分别是:飞翔的动物,飞翔的物体和 飞翔的黑人。本章对分属于这三类的各式飞翔意象进行深入分析,研究这 些独特意象的象征意义, 并探讨作家的创作动机。 本章关注的文本主要有: 短篇小说广场上的宴会 、 图森先生 、 如果我有翅膀 、 飞家和长 篇小说看不见的人 、 六月庆典 。 第四部分为结论部分。 通过前面的探讨, 拟得出以下两个结论: 第一, 通过对飞翔意象和飞翔神话的运用, 艾里森继承和发展了美国黑人文学传 统;第二,从短篇小说到长篇小说,也包括短篇小说之间,艾里森的文学 创作呈现一种线性的发展,后期作品是对前期作品的丰富和发展。 关键词:关键词:拉尔夫艾里森 短篇小说 看不见的人 六月庆典 飞翔意象 主题意义 - - 1 - synopsis ralph ellison occupies an unshakable position in the 20th century afro-american literature as well as american literature. following “uncle toms literature” and “the wright school”, “ellisonian style” has become another good example of afro-american literature. his writings comprise a treasured literary heritage, having an enormous influence on such later writers as ernest j. gaines, ishmael reed, toni morrison and sherley anne williams, and randall kenan. in 1952, ellisons masterpiece invisible man appeared, which won the national book award for fiction in the following year and “was acclaimed by the book week poll as the most distinguished single work published in the last twenty years” (maxwell 4) in 1965. besides the great novel invisible man, ralph ellison has other artistic achievements. his outputs involve more than one novel. short stories, essays and reviews on literature, music, culture, and politics are also integral parts of ellisons success. and the posthumously published novel juneteenth is the fruit of his painstaking labor for more than 40 years. his achievement in short stories, essays, reviews and juneteenth is as important as that in invisible man. this thesis is an attempt to make a close and full study on ellisons fiction, from his short stories to invisible man and to juneteenth, focusing on the flying images in them. ellisons early stories, masterpiece invisible man, and second novel juneteenth abound in various kinds of flying images, which are highly symbolic, associating with history, culture and social condition, predicting the fate of characters, expressing the theme, and adding interest to the story as well. the flying images, their metaphorical meanings and their underlying themes are the focus of this thesis. - - 2 - the thesis has four parts. the first part is “introduction”, in which ralph ellisons life and contributions will be presented. a literature review and the basic structure of the paper are also included in this part. part two is about the tradition of flight. the power to fly has long been valued by human beings and thus many myths and legends about flight have been invented. flying images are commonly found in either eastern or western culture, not excepting black culture. in this chapter, an introductory survey of ancient myths and legends concerning flight will be given first; various winged gods in mythology, the tales about some famous emperors who are capable of flying, and the legend of daedalus and icarus will be included. and then the flying african myth will be explored, which is followed by an overview of flying images presented in classic african american novels. the flying images and symbolic meanings of them will be examined. part three centers on the flying images in ralph ellisons fiction. to some extent, ellison is an important contributor to this field for the use of abundant flying images in his writings. the flight images in his fiction could be categorized into three main groups: flying creatures, flying objects, and flying africans. and in this part, under these three categories, various flying images in ellisons fiction, including his early short stories “a party down at the square”, “mister toussan”, “that i had the wings”, and “flying home”, and his novels invisible man and juneteenth are examined and analyzed. part three is the main part of the thesis. part four is “conclusion”. through the study on the flight images in ellisons fiction, two conclusions could be reached: firstly, ellisons fiction is a great contribution to development of the black literary tradition; - - 3 - secondly, ellisons literary creation follows a step-by-step development; the earlier exploration in short stories is a good basis for his great success. key words: ralph ellison, short stories, invisible man, juneteenth, flying images, thematic meanings - 原创性声明原创性声明 本人声明兹呈交的学位论文是本人在导师指导下完成的研究成 果。论文写作中不包含其他人已经发表或撰写过的研究内容,如参考 他人或集体的科研成果,均在论文中以明确的方式说明。本人依法享 有和承担由此论文所产生的权利和责任。 学位论文作者签名: 日期: 学位论文版权使用授权声明学位论文版权使用授权声明 本人同意授权华侨大学有权保留并向国家机关或机构送交学位论 文和磁盘,允许学位论文被查阅和借阅。 论文作者签名: 指导教师签名: 签 名 日 期: 签 名 日 期: 6 part one introduction 1.1 ralph ellison and his works afro-american literature is an important part of american literature, and in its development in the 20th century, ralph ellison was among the most remarkable leaders. with his milestone contribution, ellison occupies an unshakable position in the 20th century afro-american literature as well as american literature. following “uncle toms literature” and “the wright school”, “ellisonian style” has become another good example of afro-american literature. his writings comprise a treasured literary heritage, having an enormous influence on such later writers as ernest j. gaines, ishmael reed, toni morrison and sherley anne williams, and randall kenan. born in 1914 in oklahoma city, ralph ellison was the son of lewis alfred and ida millsap ellison. his parents were descendants of freed slaves, coming to oklahoma in 1909 regarding the city as a promised land for blacks. when ellison was three, his father died in an accident, and his mother solely took the responsibility of bringing up two little children. the support and love of his mother enabled ellison to have “a relatively happy childhood and adolescence” (phillips 1). ellisons impressions of his early years experiences impinged upon his later life in a number of ways. music, reading, black folklore and gossip appealed to him very much. jazz was then gaining widespread popularity in oklahoma city, where various kinds of orchestras and blues singers gathered and performances of jazz were often given. growing up in such an environment, ellison was thus deeply influenced by music. and despite a lifelong fascination with music, ellison also took great interest in reading. he began to 7 read at an early age and never lost the love for reading throughout his life. he once said that books are “things which spoke of a world which i could some day make my own” (lutz and bloom 5). and besides music and reading, black folklore and gossip too were part of ellisons good memories of childhood. in such crowded places as churches, barbershops, he listened attentively to the black folklores, superstitious stories and gossips circulated among the neighborhood. through this he has gathered rich materials about black culture and tradition for his later writings. all those impressions and interests mentioned above have influenced him profoundly. “while ellison did not begin his writing career early, the seeds were planted” (lutz and bloom 11). music, reading, black folklore and gossip, all these had great influence on ellisons development as a writer, and in his later writings he adeptly weaved these valuable materials into his works. in 1933, ellison won a scholarship to tuskegee institute in alabama, which was a new beginning of his life. on college campus, he read t.s. eliots the waste land for the first time and was fascinated by it instantly. “that really was a beginning of my literary education and, actually, it was the beginning of my transformation from a would-be composer into some sort of novelist,” as ellison later recalled (lutz and bloom 15). since then ellison gradually came into contact with the works of ezra pound, ford maddox ford, gertrude stein, james joyce, sherwood anderson, f. scott fitzgerald, earnest hemingway, herman melville and mark twain, et al. after completing his junior year, ellison left tuskegee for new york with the wish that he could earn enough tuition money to finish his studies. in harlem, he met his “early mentors” (a controversial term. ellison himself never accepted this. but most reviewers see wright as ellisons mentor or even literary father.) richard wright and alain locke, who enlightened ellisons cultural studies. under the encouragement and help of wright, ellison began 8 his literary writings. in 1937, his book review on waters edward turpins these low grounds appeared in new challenge magazine, which was his first published work. as soon as ellison finished the change from a musician to a writer, he devoted himself heartily to his writing career. most of ellisons published pieces at that time were reviews and essays for magazines. he finished his first short story “hymies bull”, which remained unpublished until 1996. from the late 1930s to 1950s, several of ellisons short stories were published, including his first published story “slick gonna learn” and some better-known ones as “in a strange country”, “flying home” and “king of the bingo game”. by this time, ellison had become renowned as a short story writer. in 1952, ellisons masterpiece invisible man appeared and became a sensation overnight. it won the national book award for fiction in the following year. and “on september 26, 1965, the novel was acclaimed by the book week poll as the most distinguished single work published in the last twenty years” (maxwell, 4). its significance is attested to by its having gone through “20 hardcover and 17 vintage book paperback printings during the 30 years since its original publication”. “additionally, there was a modern library edition and by 1982, the novel could be read in czech, danish, dutch, finnish, french, german, hebrew, hungarian, italian, japanese, norwegian, portuguese, slovak, spanish, and swedish” (lutz and bloom 33). this proves that ellison has a wide-ranging and far-reaching influence. and after his first success, the readers have been looking forward to his second novel. it is a pity that the work remained unfinished during his lifetime although ellisons efforts on it never stopped. in 1964, shadow and act, the first collection of ellisons personal essays, was published. the book contains essays from 1942 to 1964 and gives readers 9 more insights into ellison. that year ellison was also elected to the national academy of arts and letters. over the next few years, ellison continued to write, widely lecture and teach at universities. he was crowded with honors. tuskegee, rutgers, michigan, williams, harvard and wesleyan conferred on him the honorary doctorate. “he was a charter member of the national council of the arts, served as trustee of the john f. kennedy center for the performing arts, and was honorary consultant in american letters at the library of congress” (bloom 2). and other awards he received include chevalier de iordre des artes er lettres, the medal of freedom, langston hughes medallion, national medal of arts. then in 1986, going to the territory, his second collection of essays, containing essays form 1957 to 1980, was published. on april 16, 1994, ralph ellison died of pancreatic cancer, in new york. after his death, several of his manuscripts were edited and published. the posthumously published books include a collection of short stories entitled flying home and other stories, his second novel juneteenth, the collected essays of ralph ellison, “american culture is of a whole”: from the letters of ralph ellison, trading twelves: the selected letters of ralph ellison and albert murray, and living with music: ralph ellisons jazz writings. 1.2 literature review invisible man has received a variety of responses from scholars and critics, and interest in the book has still grown till today. many of the reviews were enthusiastic praises right after its publication. saul bellow characterized invisible man as “a book of the very first order, a superb book which is immensely moving and has greatness” (butler, xx). alain locke “pointed out that in his thirty years of reviewing he has seen three points of peak 10 development in negro literature; he ranked invisible man with jean toomers cane and richard wrights native son as seminal works and regarded invisible man as a great novel” (butler xxi). and orville prescott remarked that ralph ellisons first novel, the invisible man is the most impressive work of fiction by an american negro which i have ever read. unlike richard wright and willard motley, who achieve their best effects by overpowering their readers with documentary detail, mr. ellison is a finished novelist who uses words with great skill, who writes with poetic intensity and immense narrative drive. (butler xxi) and other critics such as richard chase, r.w.b. lewis, and william barrett held similar opinions, all taking ellisons work as a great success by connecting it to masterpieces of other highly influential writers. despite these favorable comments, quite a few scholars, critics, and writers had negative assessments. marxist and some african american critics were two major groups who criticized invisible man. the former “faulted the novel for its political vision” while the latter “saw the novel as presenting an inadequate or warped vision of black life in america” (butler xxi). lloyd brown “characterized ellison as a sort of judas who has betrayed his people by writing a novel which is profoundly anti-negro because it shows a contempt for the negro working masses” (butler xxi). abner berry “charged ellison with not only presenting a crudely stereotyped view of the negro masses but also unfairly vilifying the communist party” (butler xxii). and other critics with negative opinions includes roi ottley, marguerite d. cartwright and john o. killens, who have expressed similar objections respectively, and in fact formed the consensus that ellison presented negro life in a one-sided and negative way. 11 besides the novel invisible man, ralph ellison has other artistic achievements. his outputs involve more than one novel. short stories, essays and reviews on literature, music, culture, and politics are also integral parts of ellisons success. and his second novel juneteenth is the fruit of his painstaking labor for more than 40 years, becoming another important achievement. but his other fiction, essays, reviews, and juneteenth have long been ignored by the critics; few critics have taken critical notes of them. therefore, a total study on ralph ellisons works is on the expectation. so far, in the academia researches on ralph ellison can be roughly categorized as follows: first, thematic studies. quite a number of scholars and critics give a detailed analysis of ellisons invisible man and part of his early stories, exploring thematic complexity of ellisons works. in the 1960s, both ihab hassans radical innocence: studies in the contemporary american novel and marcus kleins after alienation: american novels in mid-century devote a chapter to ellison, digging into some profound themes of invisible man, especially the definition of identity. and edith schor, a professor from the city university of new york, also makes a detailed study of ellisons fiction in his visible ellison: a study of ralph ellisons fiction. in this book, the study on ellisons short stories is divided into two parts: early explorations and the big three. the short stories are viewed as the authors explorations before his final fruition; the themes embodied in them are repeated and developed in invisible man. and the research on the novel invisible man is also divided into two parts: accommodation and revolt and after, in which the thematic richness is explored by schor. another work which is considered authoritative in this field is mark busbys ralph ellison. busby works at how ralph ellisons regional background influences his writings and holds the opinion that “amalgamation, assimilation, and cultural syncretism characterize his (ellisons) work” (busby ix). making sensitive analyses on ellisons early stories, masterpiece, later stories, essays, and reviews, busby goes deep into the themes ralph ellison 12 valued, which is a development in this field. second, studies on artistic features. ralph ellison is also considered as a great stylist by many critics. he has the unusual capacity to blend symbolism, fantasy, allegory and such stylistic devices as pun, joke and blues together and develops his own “ellisonian style”. ellisons technical achievement is highly acknowledged in william schafers “ralph ellison and the birth of the anti-hero”. “comparing the books complicated narratives to a blues performance, schafer concludes that ellison achieves the highest levels of formal excellence” (butler xx

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