（英语语言文学专业论文）从原型的视角解读西尔维亚·普拉斯诗歌中的生与死内涵.pdf

ii 摘 要 摘 要 西尔维亚普拉斯（19321963）是美国二十世纪六十年代自白派诗歌的 代表人物。她以“辉煌的痛苦和神圣的嚎叫”屹立于美国诗坛。她的诗歌充满着 浓厚的死亡色彩，同时她用其短暂的一生创造了诗坛的神话。普拉斯对死亡的向 往与痴迷近乎疯狂，被众多评论家评为“死亡艺术家” 。本文用卡尔荣格的原 型理论和诺斯少普弗莱的原型批评方法分析其诗歌。原型批评是西方重要的批 评方法之一。作为一种探寻人类精神文化的批评方法，它试图发现文学作品中反 复出现的意象和叙事结构，进而发现人类精神真相以及艺术的本质。所以本文通 过对普拉斯诗歌中生死原型和仪式过程分析得出， 普拉斯对于生的追求是肉体的 消亡和精神的再生，这种消亡与再生恰恰是通过死亡来实现的。 本文共分五个章节。第一章导言中，对诗人的生平及其诗歌，以及荣格和 弗莱原型理论进行了概述。 第二章主要通过普拉斯的经历与部分典型诗歌分析了 普拉斯作为自白派诗人对生死的自我意识。第三章以原型理论为基础，解读其诗 歌中出现的生死原型，如月亮，大海，大树，黑色，猫头鹰和恐怖母神原型。第 四章运用原型批评方法，分析其诗歌中从生到死，和由死到重生的过程。最后一 章作出总结，普拉斯的生是通过死实现的，普拉斯诗歌中的死亡是去往新生的通 道，死亡对于她而言是用肉体消亡得到灵魂的再生。 关键词关键词：西尔维娅普拉斯；原型；死亡；再生 i abstract sylvia plath (19321963) is the representative confessional female poet in america in the 1960s. her poems are filled with the strong sense of death. and with her short life time, she creates a myth as a confessional poet. this thesis analyzes her poems from the perspective of archetype fathered by carl jung and the archetypal criticism advanced by northrop frye. the archetypal criticism is one of the important literary criticisms in the west. probing into the human spiritual civilization, it tries to find the repeated archetypes and narrative forms to reveal the truth of human psychology and the nature of arts. so the thesis finally gets the conclusion that plaths perception to life is achieved by death, and her fascination with death is not the pessimistic end to the real world, but a sign of longing for a spiritual rebirth. the thesis has five chapters. the first chapter introduces the life of plath and her poems, and the archetypal theories advanced by jung and frye. the second chapter mainly analyzes sylvia plath, as a confessional poet, her self-consciousness to death and life. the third chapter explores the archetypes that appear in her poems, such as the moon, the sea, the tree, black, the owl and the terrible mother. the forth chapter gives further analysis to the process to life and death separately by the archetypal criticism. in the last chapter, it gets the conclusion that life is achieved by death. and death in sylvia plaths poems is a way to a new life. she uses the physical destruction to gain a spiritual rebirth. key words: sylvia plath，archetype，death，rebirth 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： acknowledgements for the completion of my thesis, i am greatly indebted to many people who have offered their valuable help to me. first and foremost, i would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor prof. fan gexin who warmly gives me many valuable suggestions throughout process of my thesis writing. his scientific attitude and erudite knowledge quite influence me. i always feel so lucky to have him as my supervisor. without his kind guidance, continuing assistance and generous encouragement during these three years of studies, i would not have been able to complete my thesis. also i sincerely acknowledge my thanks to the professors who have offered me constructive suggestions to my thesis and broadened my horizons in the world of literature during the studies. they are: prof. wang jianhui, prof. guo zhongzhuang, prof. zhang chengyu, and prof. zhang ruoxin. my heartfelt gratitude also goes to my parents. due to their permanent support and selfless love, i would have been able to complete my ma course. their love is always the light on my way of life. last but not least, my special thanks go to my fellow classmates, especially my roommates xi yao and wang lin, for their precious advice to my thesis. and i own my sincere gratitude to my friends: yu xiaodan and zhao yang for their generous help during my researching for the thesis in beijing. 1 chapter i introduction a. a brief introduction to sylvia plath and her poems 1. sylvia plath sylvia plath was born on 27th october, 1932 in jamaica plain, a part of boston, massachusetts and committed suicide on 11th february, 1963. his father, otto plath was a german immigrant who worked as a biology professor specializing in bees at boston university. her mother, aurelia plath who was the student of his father at boston university and twenty years younger than him, was an english teacher in a high school. after marrying to otto plath, she became a homemaker. plaths brother, warren plath, was born in the spring of 1935, when otto plath began to feel unhealthy. finally, otto plath died of a pulmonary embolism after a leg amputation on 4th november, 1940 when sylvia plath was only eight years old. the loss of the man was a wound to the whole family and especially to sylvia plath. “when sylvia was told about her fathers death she declared that she was never going to speak to god again” (connell 24). sylvia plath is an outstanding and successful poet, but also a woman with miserable inner world and tragic life. going through the loss of otto plath, her mother did not marry again, but gave her daughter sylvia plath strong expectation. in this situation, plath had the inhabitation of hard studying and the character of loneliness and silence. sylvia plath was to some existent a genius who had the talent in writing and art. she kept journals at her 11th, and published her poems in the local magazines and 2 newspapers. she was an excellent student all through her education. even in junior high school, she wrote for the phillipian, the schools literary magazine. her first national publication was in the christian science monitor in 1950, just after graduating from high school. in 1950, she entered the smith college as a full scholarship student. during the study there, she received an opportunity to have a trip to new york as a guest editor for mademoiselle magazine. however, this opportunity became a disaster to plath. her confidence was undermined and she underwent a suicide attempt by taking an overdose of sleeping pills, because she found she did not been accepted into the creative writing course at harvard. after the treatment, she went back to smith university and graduated from there with full scholarship to study in cambridge university in england where she received her master degree. at cambridge, in a party, she met and felt in love with the english poet ted hughes who later became englands poet laurent. she married him secretly on 16th june, 1956, with her mother in attendance. in 1957, after receiving her degree, plath moved to america with hughes. after a stay at the yaddo, the writers colony, they returned to england in 1959. the next year, her first child was born. in 1961, they bought the manor house in devon. but their marriage was trembled after the birth of their second child, because hughes was found to have extramarital affair. then the couple separated in late 1962, and plath moved to london with her two children. her depression brought by the hard lives and betrayal of her husband tortured plath, so in the cold winter, on 11th february, 1963, leaving out the breakfast for her two children, she ended her young life by gas 3 inhalation, when she was only thirty-one years old. 2. sylvia plaths poems “one might posit that plaths poetry evolved through four stages” (gill 75). the first was the period of her juvenilia, when she was at smith college in 1950 to 1955. these early poems explored the dilemmas of female subjectivity and demonstrated a subtle awareness of the limits and possibilities of figuration. in 1955, the year plath graduated from smith college, she won the glascock prize with “two lovers and a beachcomber by the real sea”. obviously, the poems written in this period were nave and from the mind of a female student. they showed the readers the experience of the poet, and had the trace of imitation. before 1956, she wrote 220 poems or more. rhyme of the poems written in this period was formal, and the vocabulary was large, besides, the structure was comparatively complicated. the pattern of her poems was standard, too. her poems were like the work of many other male writers. the themes and contents almost expressed her thought and happiness. “plaths second stage, a period of growth and experiment, lasted from when she married ted hughes in 1956 to their permanent settlement in england in 1959” (gill 76). when she was in england, she was happy. her maiden volume “the colossus and other poems” was written in this period，which was regarded as an achievement in her early period. “there was little in her work that could be identified as sylvia plath voice” (wagner-martin 177). during this period, she was still imitating other male writers works and quite influenced by ted hughes. from 1960 to the dissolution of her marriage in 1962 was the third stage of the poetry of sylvia plath. it 4 is “a dynamic period of passion and self-discovery” (gill 80). the poet became gradually mature, full of confidence. the vocabulary was obviously less, and the lines were much terser, more direct and the usage of oral english was quite often. the common events became the stage for her to express the mood, which were more intense and strong, and the meanings of metaphors, allusions were rich and sufficient. lots of her poems written in this period were collected in her second volume, “crossing the water”. during this period, she wrote numerous poems, and made her name known today. in these three years, it happened much to sylvia plath: birth of two children and the slipping of the relationship with hughes, which made the themes of her poems were about both domestic matters and psychic landscapes. in 1962, plath wrote most of the poems that would comprise her most famous book, ariel, which “astonished the literary world with its power and has become one of the best-selling volumes of poetry published in england and america in the 20th century” (gary 77).the notable poems, such as “three women”, “daddy”, and “lady lazarus” were all written in this period. “plaths final stage, a brief time of depression and withdrawal, occurred in the last weeks of her life in early 1963” (gill 87). even in her final days, she was still obsessed in the poetry writing. “edge” was written in this period, which is the last poem of sylvia plath. in fact, most of her poems were published posthumously: “ariel” in 1966, “crossing the water” and “winter trees” in 1971, some of plaths stories and essays in 1977 and “the collected poems” in 1981, which won the next years pulitzer prize for poetry. 5 b. a brief introduction to the confessional school in the modern america, it appeared such a poetic school, confessional poetry, which flourished a while in the 1960s, but it gave an impression of splendid and bold language and desperate mind activities. confessional poets were including john berryman, allen ginsberg, robert lowell, sylvia plath, theodore roethke, anne sexton, and william de witt snodgrass. they had outstanding talent, true emotion and intense impulse of self-expression. their particular style was quite different from the dull and convention of the poetry. confessional poetry was a fresh school following the “beat generation” in the american poetry. robert lowell who is one of the most influential poets in the modern america, is the leader of the confessional school. the subjects of confessional poetry of the mid-twentieth century dealt with the matters that had not been openly discussed in american poetry previously, such as private experiences and feelings about death, trauma, and depression. the confessional poetry was one of the confessional literatures. however, confessional poetry had the strong disapproval to the “non-individualized” viewpoint and the theory of getting rid of the personal emotion. they got inspiration from the free style in poetry of ezra pound and williams. without any taboos, they went into the deep of ones own life and mind. so, the trait of this school was self-exposure. exposing ones inner world, telling the individual feelings and recalling the past with the honesty were the style of the confessional poetry. the most important work of lowell was life studies which showed the talent and techniques of the poet. lowells book life studies was a highly personal account of his life and families, and it had a 6 great impact on american poetry. plath and sexton were both students of lowell and their own writings were quite influenced by his works. the publication of life studies brought a great reaction to the american poetry. the confessional poetry was postmodernism which tried to explore that the world is absurd and the life was meaningless. people who underwent the ww suffered considerable spiritual pressure. fear and death became the main theme of the postmodernism, so death and desperation were common subjects in their poems. finally every confessional poet jumped into the deep self-doubt and self-hatred, which were the results of over confession. the word “confession” just had the meaning of repentance, and also, the confessional poets had strong religious emotion. they gave their own voice by the throat of god. the tradition of confessional changed the poetic landscape of the american literature. in 1959, during the study with robert lowell, sylvia plath was influenced by the free style of his life studies. from then on, she began her new writing methods. she almost exposed the tragic self in the confessional poetry to the most. sylvia plath was the outstanding poet among the confessional poets. the starting of the confessional poetry was robert lowell, but the poet who pushes the mode to the peak was sylvia plath. misery, madness and suicide attempt are the characteristics of the confessional poets. the integration of the tragic life and the tragic poems deeply impressed the readers all over the world. as a confessional poet, her confession was much stronger, more obvious and more absolute. all the themes of her confessional poems could be concluded as “the glorious pain and the sacred howl.” 7 c. a brief introduction to archetype and archetypal criticism archetypal criticism came into being in the early of the 20th century and flourished in the 1950s. the greatest cultural anthropologist sir james frazers the golden bough, and psychologist carl jungs psychoanalysis and his theory of collective unconsciousness, and canadian literary critic northrop fryes anatomy of criticism impelled and gave the great efforts to the emergence of archetypal criticism. the cultural anthropology offered the angle of view for archetypal criticism. the cultural anthropology rose in the 19th century, which was a crossing and comprehensive science. it was beyond the boundary of nations and regions, and emphasized the occurrence, development and changeable process, with the purpose of finding the common law of human culture and identifying the particular pattern of the individual culture. the english scholar sir james frazers the golden bough contributed much to the anthropology. in the golden bough frazer found out the necromancy, which was the principle of way of thinking of primitive people and the law of behavior. after the great deal of researches to the primordial materials, frazer believed that primitive human beings all had such a belief: there were always kind of reactions between the human beings and the nature. people could express their feelings, desires and emotion to the nature by kinds of symbolic activities, in order to get the purpose to control the subject. necromancy was the key to understand all the behaviors of life and mind. the primitive believed that they, with the desires, could influence the nature by their activities. according to the principle of necromancy, 8 frazer did more researches to the related rituals to find out the universal “death and rebirth” archetype, which existed in western culture and literature. but, directly using the archetypal theory to study the human science and art was carl gustav jung who was the student of sigmund freud. different from freud, jung believed that libido is not the psychological power based only on sex, but a power of life process. to unconsciousness, jung admitted the existence of it; however, different from freud who believes the unconsciousness was only the individual unconsciousness, jung held the idea that unconsciousness included not only individual unconsciousness but also collective unconsciousness which comprised the racial memories. from the primordial society, the psychological experience passed down generations by generations was under the status of accumulation and creation. it was a kind of accretion in every human being, and became a universal, collective and historical unconsciousness. the theory of collective unconsciousness was the core of jungs psychological theory, and also the theoretical basement of archetypal criticism. archetype that jung also called it the primitive image was the content of the collective unconsciousness. moreover, applying the archetypal theory to the literature and arts systematically was the canadian scholar northrop frye. his represented work anatomy of criticism was regarded as the bible of literary criticism by the western scientific field. frye gave a new explanation to the archetype, and brought the concept to the literary field. to frye, the archetype was the medium for the connection of literature and tradition. in anatomy of criticism, frye pointed out that an archetype 9 was “a symbol, usually an image, which recurs often enough in literature to be recognizable as an element of ones lit