（英语语言文学专业论文）赫斯顿的扩展——析《他们眼望上苍中》的混血女性成长主题.pdf

iii 摘 要 左拉尼尔赫斯顿是 2 0世纪最著名的作家之一。她被誉为黑人女性文学 之母。她的代表作? 他们眼望上苍? 更被誉为是美国文学，黑人文学及女性文学的 经典。很多文学理论与方法都对这部伟大的作品作了阐释，然而，他们中的大多 数都是从以下几个方面探讨的：女性意识，话语权，黑人女性形象，黑人文学传 统，黑人性，黑人民俗及文学中的象征意义。赫斯顿对于传统成长小说的扩展这 一主题却长期受到了评论者们的忽视。本文通过研究成长小说的起源与发展，将 从文章的人物与主题两个方面去解析赫斯顿对于成长小说的扩展。 本文由以下四部分组成，第一章主要介绍了作者赫斯顿的生平，她的代表作 ? 他们眼望上苍? 以及与作品相关的评论。第二章与第三章是本文的重点部分。在 第二章中，作者主要从文章的人物方面来分析赫斯顿对于传统成长小说的扩展。 通过将传统成长小说中的男性主人公， 女性主人公及赫斯顿笔下独特的女主人公 进行对比分析，我们将看到一个崭新的女性形象及她的成长历程。本文的第三章 将从文章的主题这个角度来探究赫斯顿对于成长小说的扩展。 赫斯顿是最先关注 混血儿成长问题的作家之一。在? 他们眼望上苍? 中，赫斯顿描写了混血儿对自己 的种族身份的困惑及她们所受到来自于种族与性别的双重的压迫。 并为解决混血 儿的悲剧命运提出了新的解决方法，即使她们融入到黑人的集体中，从黑人传统 文化中吸取养分并对其它的文化采取兼容并包的原则， 真正的做到文化的和谐共 生。 本文的最后一章作为文章的结论部分， 再次从文章的主题与人物两个方面来 总结了赫斯顿对于成长小说的扩展， 并为解决混血儿的悲剧命运提出了一些宝贵 iv 的解决方案。 关键字：赫斯顿; 扩展 ; 混血儿; 性别 i abstract zora neal hurston was one of the most outstanding writers in the 20th century and was praised as “ the mother of black woman literature” . her masterpiece, their eyes were watching god, was regarded as the classic among the american literature, black literature and women s literature. lots of approaches and methods are applied to interpret this great piece of arts; however, most of them have concerned it from the perspective of women s consciousness, the right of speech, black woman image, black literary tradition, the feature of negroes, black folklore, and its symbolic meaning. hurston s expansion to the traditional initiation story as an important theme has long escaped critic s attention. therefore, by studying the origin and development of the initiation story, the author of this thesis will prove hurston s expansion from the perspectives of the characterization and themes in their eyes were watching god. this thesis is composed of the following four chapters. in the first chapter, hurston s life and her masterpiece their eyes were watching god are introduced, and the scholarship in this field will be reviewed. the second and the third chapters are key parts of this thesis. the second chapter mainly analyzes the expansion of the text from the perspective of characterization. by comparison between male and female protagonists in traditional initiation story and the peculiar female images in hurston s their eyes were watching god, we could get a conclusion about what kind of female protagonists hurston has created and in what way it is different from traditional initiation characters. then in the third chapter, the author of this thesis will further ii explore how hurston broadens the initiation story from its theme. it s hurston who first notes the issues of miscegenation, concerning their anxiety over racial identity and their attitude toward the culture of the white and black. moreover, by describing the culture blending and harmony in the novel, hurston finally introduces a new way for mixed- blood to solve their embarrassing state. the final chapter serves as conclusion, which summarizes the analysis of hurston s expansion in two aspects mentioned above and shows further concern for the tragic fate of mixed- blood s and the methods of solving these problems. key words: hurston, expansion, mixed- blood, gender ii 学位论文独创性声明 本人郑重声明：所呈交的硕士学位论文，是本人在指导教师的指导下， 独立进行研究工作所取得的成果。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作品成果。对本文的研究 做出重要贡献的个人和集体，均已在文中以明确的方式标明。本人完全意 识到本声明的法律结果由本人承担。 作者签名： 日期： 学位论文使用授权声明 本人授权沈阳师范大学研究生处，将本人硕士学位论文的全部或部分 内容编入有关数据库进行检索；有权保留学位论文并向国家主管部门或其 指定机构送交论文的电子版和纸质版，允许论文被查阅和借阅；有权可以 采用影印、缩印或扫描等复制手段保存、汇编学位论文。保密的学位论文 在解密后适用本规定。 作者签名： 日期： v acknoledgments firstly, my heartfelt appreciation goes to my supervisor prof. wang jianhui, who is kind, patient, generous and always encouraging. during my preparation of this thesis, he provided his invaluable advice and constant encouragement. secondly, sincere thanks go to all the teachers who taught me in the field of literature. their professional proficiency in this field has also influenced me quite a lot. finally, i am grateful to my family and friends, who provided me with great supports and encouragements. 1 chapter i introduction a. introduction to zoar neale hurston and her work: their eyes were watching god zora neale hurson is one of the most significant afro- american women authors, who lived through the harlem renaissance in 1920 s america. the written legacy left by hurston is a voluminous production including ethnography, folklore, novels, and plays. in her whole literary life, hurston had published four novels, namely jonah s gourd vine, their eyes were watching god, moses, man of the mountain and seraph on the suwanee, two books of folklore mules and men, tell my horse, one volume of autobiography dust tracks on a road. in addition to above- mentioned books, hurston had written a number of stories, sketches, articles, and investigative papers. furthermore, through the presentation of negro songs and dances to american concert audiences, she had expedited the awakening of interest in negro folk materials. although she had influenced such writers as ralph ellison, toni morrison and alice walker to a great extent, interest in her has only recently been revived after decades of neglect. most of her works are inseparable from her life experience. she was born in 1891 in notasulga, alabama. by 1892, her family moved to eatonvile, florida, the first incorporated all- black town in america, where she was raised. this unique place served as an important source of inspiration for hurson s creative writing. her father, with whom she rarely shared a peaceful hour, had been the town s alderman, three 2 times its mayor, and had written many of the town s laws in the late 1800s. zora neale hurston moved to new york in 1925, just as the harlem renaissance was at its top. after her graduation from barnard college, she returned to her hometown of eatonville to collect folklore as material for her writing career. the 1930s marked the peak of hurston s literary career. during this time she graduated from columbia, published four novels and an autobiography, and was awarded a guggenheim fellowship. although her work was receiving the increasing acclaim from the white critics of american, she often felt under attack from many members of the black arts movement. by the mid- 1940s hurston s writing career was declining. a stroke in the late 1959 forced hurston to enter a welfare home in horida, where she died penniless and alone in 1960. she was buried in an unmarked grave in the segregate cemetery of fort pierce. to some extent, hurston escaped the hurt that racism inflicts on many black writers. she was nourished by a tradition of storytelling and expressive, colorful, metaphoric speech. because she experienced both herself and her people as beautiful and powerful, hurston was able to explore and express black life on its own terms, not primarily in the hatred to white society. from the publication of the first book, hurston had tried a wide variety of genres novels, short stories, essays, poetry and biography. among her productions, their eyes were watching god can be regarded as the best of her literary creation, which was seen as the classic among the american literature, black literature and women s literature. 3 this novel concerns about the story of janie crawford s search for love and initiation. in the first few pages, janie returned to her hometown of eatonville, florida, after nearly two years absence. her neighbors were curious to know where she had been and what had happened to her. janie told her story to her friend pheoby watson and after the whole story, which actually spans nearly 40 years of janie s life, is “ emerged” by an evening visit between two friends. nanny, the grandmother of janie, raised her alone after her mother ran off. they were poor, but nanny did the best for her granddaughter and finally persuaded her to marry a relatively wealthy owner of a farm named logan killicks. logan was much older than janie and was unromantic and almost treated her like a mule. this loveless marriage lasts until joe starks passes by, on his way to becoming “ a big voice” . janie and jody run away from home to all- black eatonville, where jody became the mayor and set up a successful shop in town. jody didn t allow janie to interact with “ common” people and preferred to keep her on a shelf as a showpiece to his success. on the surface, janie silently submitted to jody; inside, however, she remained passionate and full of dreams. after almost twenty years marriage, janie s unhappiness was almost completely unbearable. one day, with a serious quarrel, their marriage as well as jody died. after jody s death, janie fell free and love for her new found independence. however, when tea cake, a man twelve years her junior, entered her life, janie was once again “ ready for her great journey” . she treasured every moment she spent with him because he nevertheless engages both her heart and her spirit. with him janie can finally enjoy 4 life without being one man s mule or another s property. unfortunately, a terrible hurricane burst into the everglades, in order to save janie s life, tea cake was bitten by a dog and contracted rabies. one night, convinced that janie was cheating on him, he started firing a pistol at her and janie had to fire back to save her own life, killing tea cake. after all this, janie gets other turning points of her lives; she recollects the whole journey of her life and become more and more fortitude, independence and matures. b. the origin and development of initiation story since my study focuses on hurston s innovation to the traditional initiation story, it is necessary to provide an overview of the state of research on the history and theory of the initiation story in this part by tracing german bildungsroman, english bildungsroman and american initiation story. 1. tradition and development of bildungsroman a. origin of bildungsroman in germany the german bildungsroman as a novel genre emerged firstly in the late 18th century. “ bildungsroman” , a german word, with “ bildung” referring to “ formation” , “ picture” “ shaping” and “ portrait” , and “ roman” indicating “ novel” in english. generally speaking, the bildungsroman can be considered as the novel that has the subject of the protagonist s growing process, in other words, it is the narration of the growing experience of the protagonist. by telling the growing experience of one or several persons, it indicates the transformation from innocence to maturation of protagonist s thought and mentality. from this point, the bildungsroman can be 5 defined as “ a narration of the making of an individual and of the maturation process of a young man who searches for his identity through various schools, jobs and political or religious institutions” , it is “ the story of a child s initiation into adulthood or youths struggling for identity, maturation, and a place in society.” (sun 10) bildungsroman flourished briefly in the age of goethe. goethe s wilhelm meister s apprenticeship is generally considered to be the first and prototypical story of this genre. so the study of the bildungsroman in german, goethe s work remains a kind of touchstones. the term “ bildungsroman” was first used by the critic karl morgenstern in his lectures published in the 1820s at the university of dorpat. “ morgenstern linked the word bildung to the protagonist s development and experience, to his education, and to the bildung of the reader” (feng 6). as for morgenstern, bildung reflects a twofold purpose of the genre in its first stage: first, to describe the bildung or formation of the hero in its beginning and growth to a certain level of perfection; second, to further or apply the reader s bildung to a greater extent than any other kinds of novel. in the simplest sense of the word, bildungsroman is considered the story of a child s initiation into adulthood or youth struggling for identity and self, maturation, journey love, research on the meaning of life and a place in society. in the initial stage, bildungsroman focused on the “ inward construction” of personality. then it paid more attention to the experiences and understanding of the protagonist during the conflicts with surroundings, at last the center was shifted to the “ outward construction” (rui 14). 6 to sum up, in the classical bildungsroman, reconciliation and assimilation the finale target for this genre and for the ultimate aim of hero in the bildungsroman is to fit into the society. b. popularity of bildungsroman in britain in england, the bildungsroman is generally thought to have emerged in the nineteenth century. in 1824, thomas carlyle translated wilhelm meister into english and imitated it in his sartor resartus. since then, this kind of novel was particularly popular in victorian england; many authors of this time were creating works focusing on the journey from childhood to adulthood, from innocence to mature. charles dickens s great expectations and charlotte bronte s jane eyre are generally considered examples of this genre. english bildungsroman attracts the universal attention on individual s growth and finally promotes it into a literary theme. since the 19th century, many novelists in different periods make profound exploration on this theme and they also make great contribution to later american initiation story. 2. initiation story: succession of bildungsroman in america maybe because americans think their nation is a young one, initiation story as a literary subject occupies an important place in the american literature history. authors in different periods create many novels based on the initiation theme of youth. a. the definition of initiation story the word “ initiation” derives from the latin word “ initiation” , which drives from anthropology. initiation means that a young man experiences a series of ordeals and hardships and gets the knowledge, courage and confidence to live independently in the community. it marks that young man enters a new period of life adulthood. 7 and according to anthropologists, these frustration and hardships are often some kinds of ceremonies, which include physical torture, abstention from and ritualistic use of food, isolation from the community, and indoctrination in secret tribal beliefs (marcus 221). mordecai marcus, famous scholar and critic in american, first explains the term “ initiation story” in his article what is an initiation story? since then, american scholars tend to use this term to describe a young man s life journey. according to marcus, the definition of the initiation story has two kinds: “ one kind is that it describes the initiation as the knowing process of the adolescent towards the outside world; and the other one is that it interprets initiation as the process of knowing self- identity and value, and also the process of adjusting the relationship between self and the society” (ibid. 225). in sum, an initiation story is a narrative of the growing experiences of the hero who suffers all kinds of frustration and difficulties and finally becomes maturity and perfection in the mind and psychology. b. features of initiation story by studying some typical and classical initiation stories, we can sum up some important features of this kind of literary genre. first, in terms of the contents of the novel, most of initiation stories should include the initiation theme and its autobiographical components. the narration of the novel must contain the initiation of characters. generally speaking, the protagonist, who is often a sensitive and gifted young man or woman, accompanied by some 8 walk- ons, tracing the true meaning of life, the mature of himself and recognition about society. in other words, the narrations of growing process, the experience of growing journey and the changes of hero or heroine s personality are the essential parts of the novel. besides initiation theme, the content of the novel must include the author s own experience. the author reproduces his own lives and experiences consciously and artistically through the description of a specific protagonist. second, in terms of the structure of initiation story, most of them have the following characteristics. the first is the similarity of the basic plot pattern of this genre. the plot pattern is being innocent - meeting with temptation - taking adventure - becoming perplexed - getting epiphany - losing innocence - comprehending life and self. in fact, one or more elements may be ignored in a particular novel. but, these basic principles are present in almost every initiation story. the second is the open- ending. the author does not describe the protagonist s future at the end of the novel. in other words, the hero of the novel must be the “ dynamic character” . in this way, the protagonist is going to prepare to face his fate rather than to accept his fate. third, in the themes of the novels, initiation story can be defined as many binary oppositions, such as youth and maturity, innocence and experience, individual and society, freedom and constriction, tradition and modernity. by studying the origin and development of the initiation story, we can see that hurston s their eyes were watching god can be considered as a typical initiation story. it is a novel that foregrounds the theme of protagonist s initiation into maturity, depicting her struggling for identity and self, journey love, research the meaning of 9 marriage and a suitable place in society. furthermore, hurston also broadens the traditional initiation story in her their eyes were watching god. it s hurston, who first notes the status and identity issues of mulatto who is suff