（英语语言文学专业论文）论《卡斯特桥市长》的狂欢化特征.pdf

iii 摘摘 要要 托马斯哈代（1840-1928）是英国著名的多产小说家和诗人。作为小说家，他 一生写了十四部小说和四部短篇小说集。他的作品为十九世纪的英国文学做出卓越 的贡献，同时也为他自己赢得了很大的声誉。他把自己的小说主要分为三类： “传奇 和幻想小说” 、 “机巧和实验小说”和“性格和环境小说” 。其中，他的“性格和环境 小说”给他带来很大成就，备受大多数的批评家青睐。这类小说主要包括： 远离尘 嚣 （1874） 、 还乡 （1878） 、 卡斯特桥市长 （1886） 、 林地居民 （1887） 、 德 伯家的苔丝 （1891）和无名的裘德 （1896） 。 作为“性格与环境小说”的代表作之一， 卡斯特桥市长一直以来倍受关注， 其批评角度呈现出多元化态势: 比如，从小说的主题思想、创作来源、悲剧性格， 乡土文化等等方面来评论小说。但是，很少有人尝试运用巴赫金的狂欢化诗学理论， 来分析渗透在文本中的浓烈的民间狂欢化色彩和体现出的“狂欢式的世界感受”。 本文试图运用巴赫金的狂欢化诗学理论来探究体现在文本中的狂欢化特征，力求为 该小说的研究提供一种新的视角和方法。 本论文主要从狂欢化的人物形象、狂欢化的情节和狂欢化的时空体三个方面， 对该小说进行分析。 “前言”部分是国内外研究现状综述，以及本文的写作目的和创 新意义；同时，介绍了巴赫金狂欢化诗学的基本理论，并指出巴赫金的这一理论与 卡斯特桥市长之间的直接或间接的关系，初步建立起卡斯特桥市长与狂欢 化理论的联系。第一章主要分析狂欢化的人物形象。这些形象由狂欢化的国王、小 丑、骗子、傻瓜和成对的形象组成。这一系列人物，是由狂欢节庆生活的游艺仪式 中转化而来的，具有鲜明的狂欢化特征，负载着狂欢节的世界感受。第二章主要通 过分析小说整体构思和人物形象方面隐含的一种脱冕型结构，体现了狂欢节中那种 交替更新精神，从而证实小说故事情节的狂欢化。第三章探讨小说中体现的狂欢化 的时空体。哈代利用狂欢化文学中的特殊的狂欢化的时空。在时间上，摆脱了自然 历史事件和叙事时间，把众多事件压缩到一瞬间发生，从而充满了狂欢广场的意味。 在空间上，把故事发生的地点安排在一些边缘性的场所，比如门口、楼梯、甲板上 等，或者广场上，创造出特殊的狂欢场景，使得小说体现出深刻的狂欢化特征。 “结 语”部分对整篇论文进行简要归纳，明确指出， 卡斯特桥市长是一部具有狂欢化 文学显著特征的小说。 关键词：关键词：哈代； 卡斯特桥市长 ；巴赫金；狂欢化 i on the carnivalistic features of the mayor of casterbridge liu jian (english language and literature) directed by hao lin abstract thomas hardy (1840-1928) is a famous and productive novelist and poet in english literature. as a novelist, he writes fourteen novels and four collections of short stories during his life, which make great contribution to the 19th english literature and bring great honor to him. he classifies his novels into three types, that is, “romance and fantasies”, “novels of ingenuity”, and “novels of character and environment”. among them, the “novels of character and environment” are the most famous praised by most of critics, which includes the novels: far from the madding crowd (1874), the return of the native (1878), the mayor of casterbridge (1886), the woodlanders (1887), tess of durbervilles (1891), and jude the obscure (1896). as one of the “novels of character and environment”, thomas hardys the mayor of casterbridge has attracted a lot of attention. it has received a variety of criticism. meanwhile, critics have interpreted the novel from different perspectives. for instance, they comment on its themes, its multiple resources, tragic character and country culture. however, few critics have attempted to analyze the folk carnival colors and the carnival sense of the world permeated in the text. the thesis is intended to explore the features of carnivalization in the text by applying bakhtins theory of carnivalization in order to propose a new angle and a unique method to analyze the novel. the thesis analyses the novel from the three perspectives of the carnivalistic characterization, the carnivalistic plot and the carnivalistic chronotope. the introduction makes a literature review of other critics ii studies at home and abroad, briefly explains the research purpose and significance of writing the thesis. moreover, it also introduces the basic concepts of bakhtins theory of carnivalization and points out the direct or indirect connection between bakhtins theory and hardys the mayor of casterbridge in order to show the similarities between the theory of carnivalization and the mayor of casterbridge. chapter one mainly analyses the carnivalistic characterization, which includes the carnival king, the clown, the rogue, the fool and the paired images. these typical images are the results of the transformation from the rituals in the carnival festivals, which embody the strong carnival sense of the world. chapter two approaches the crowning and decrowning rituals. the novel implies a decrowning structure by analyzing the whole artistic plot and the characterization, which reveals the spirit of change and shift, and certifies that the novel has the carnivalistic plot. chapter three discusses the carnivalistic chronotope in the novel. hardy makes good use of special carnivalistic concept of space and time used in carnivalized literature. he gets rid of the biographical time and narrative time, and chooses crisis time that is point of action, where a lot of events take place simultaneously. therefore, the novel fully shows a kind of carnival square in the aspect of time. as for the carnivalistic space, the plot often takes place in any place which shows carnival-square significance, such as the threshold, the stairway and the deck of the ship. the special chronotope illustrates the distinct carnivalistic features of the novel. the conclusion makes a brief summary of the whole thesis and indicates that the mayor of casterbridge is a novel with special carnivalistic features. key words: thomas hardy; the mayor of casterbridge; mikhail mikhailovich bakhtin; carnivalization introduction 1 introduction 0.1 thomas hardy and the mayor of casterbridge thomas hardy (1840-1928) is a famous and productive novelist in english literature. as a novelist, he writes fourteen novels and four collections of short stories during his life, which makes great contribution to the 19th english literature and brings great honor to him. he classifies his novels into three types, that is, “romance and fantasies”, “novels of ingenuity”, and “novels of character and environment”. among them, the “novels of character and environment” were the most famous praised by most of critics, which includes the novels: far from the madding crowd (1874), the return of the native (1878), the mayor of casterbridge (1886), the woodlanders (1887), tess of durbervilles (1891), and jude the obscure (1896), the latter two considered masterpieces. hardys novels are all set against the bleak and forbidding dorset landscape, which is regarded as wessex in his novels. and even some critics call his novels wessex novels. these novels reflect the changes of life happening the rural areas in the late 19th century. meanwhile, hardy, who shows his deep understanding of the inner world of these simple and poor people, pays much attention to the rural classes and portrays the countryside people, whose novels has a great sense of folk color. the mayor of casterbridge, one of the most famous “novels of character and environment”, is also set against wessex and opens with a scene of such bleakness and cruelty that it still shocks readers today. a poor hay-trusser named michael henchard sells his wife and daughter in a drunken state at a country fair. then he swears off liquor and makes every effort to become a prosperous businessman and the respected mayor of casterbridge. but he cannot get rid of his shameful past. his wife, susan, comes back and finds henchard, which gives a chance for henchard to make amends for his past, but is an unfortunate beginning of his tragic fate. subsequently, henchard should face and accept a series of tragic things in his life. finally, he is completely defeated by all the people and dies lonely in a shabby hut. a dark, complex story, the mayor of casterbridge brims with invention, vitality, and even wit. on the carnivalistic features of the mayor of casterbridge 2 0.2 literature review of the mayor of casterbridge as for hardys novels of character and environment, modern literary critics have interpreted them from many different perspectives. some critics interpret the main figures from the psychological aspect. some discuss the tragic position of the female images by using marxist and feminist theories. others also make a good use of other literary theories, such as structuralism, new criticism, new historicism or reader-response criticism, to analyze the novels. the mayor of casterbridge, as one of hardys most important novels, also attracts much attention. virginia woolf gave this novel a high praise. in her opinion, “there is greatness in the contest, there is pride and pleasure in it, and the death of the broken corn merchant in his cottage on egdon heath is comparable to the death of ajax, lord of salamis” . likewise, many chinese critics interpret it from many perspectives. there are many books, which specially analyze this novel. for instance, qi shouhua, who wrote voices echoing tragic muse: essays on thomas hardys novels and poems, shows the tragic aspect of the novel; zhang zhongzai, who wrote thomas hardythoughts and creation, clearly explains that “the mayor of casterbridge turns over a new leaf in hardys writing career; it is not only a climax of plot in tragedy, but a breakthrough of characterization.” meanwhile, there are a number of essays and theses to analyze this novel and provide new methods to interpret it. some critics analyze the figures character. some pay attention to the relationship between environment description and the plot and discuss the writing techniques. others explore hardys philosophy and ideology reflected in the novel. in addition, many critics make every effort to find the tragic roots of the novel and intend to show the tragic effect of the novel. as for all these critical perspectives, i find out that they can be classified into the following categories. firstly, as the subtitle of the novel is “a story of a man of character”, many critics analyze the main figures character by connecting with the environmental elements. through analyzing the relationship between character and environment, the theses will reveal that character is fate and henchards tragedy is inextricably related with the hostile woolf, virginia. the novels of thomas hardy a, the common reader (second series) c. .au/w/woolf/virginia/w91c2/chapter21.html introduction 3 social environment. also, many critics pay more attention to henchards character. for example, ma xiaoqi uses “the structuralism binary opposition analysis way to explain henchards multiple personality and his characters continual self-perfect and self-evolution from different aspects of beauty and ugliness, good and evil, brave advance and dejection, reason and passion an finally illustrate henchards pursuing and longing for beauty and humans sublime soul.” in the essay, about binary opposition of henchards character. these articles make a comprehensive analysis on the protagonists character, but their analysis only concentrate on the one point of character, which is limited to understand fully the text. secondly, some critics explore the archetype of the bible to provide an insight to the archetypal structure of characterization and the significance of the novel. through applying northrop fryes theory of archetype, those theses intend to identify the biblical archetypes of the main figures, analyze the displacements and transposed parallelisms in the relevant biblical myths, and show hardys intention of using the biblical archetype. for example, zhang chunmin connects the relationship between henchard and farfrae with the contact of saul and david in bible to analyze the novel from three aspects, the outline, the character and the details, which reveals bible is the prototype of the mayor of casterbridge, in the essay, a probe into the biblical prototype of the mayor of casterbridge. li yu also writes an essay, character archetypes in the mayor of casterbridge and uses the archetypal theories of many archetypal critics to find that hardy applies archetypal characters- henchard as cain; mr. fall, the furmity woman, and joshus jopp as erinyes, whose analysis gives us a new way to understand the novel. thirdly, a lot of critics compare this novel with the ancient greek tragedies and the shakespearean dramas. for example, henchard is compared with oedipus and shakespeares hamlet and king lear. d.a.dike writes an essay, a modern oedipus: the mayor of casterbridge in 1952 and john paterson writes the mayor of casterbridge as tragedy in 1959. feng qian also writes an essay, henchard, the 19th century oedipus, in which the author makes a detailed analysis of the novel compared with oedipus. through this comparison, they will prove hardy inherits the traditional tragic consciousness. on ma xiaoqi. about binary opposition of henchards character-on hardys the mayor of casterbridge j. journal of lanzhou jiaotong university (social sciences), 2007(26): pp. 33-35. on the carnivalistic features of the mayor of casterbridge 4 one hand, hardys fatalism reflects the classical tragedy; on the other hand, he might borrow from the classical tragedy some tragic themes, tragic images, tragic methods and so on. fourthly, some critics discuss hardys thought reflected in the novel though making a detailed analysis of the mayor of casterbridge. for example, ye lirong discusses hardys philosophy of destiny, combining the social changes in the 19th century in england, in the essay, on the philosophy of destiny of hardy in the mayor of casterbridge. hou lizhi writes the reflection of hardys tragic view in the mayor of casterbridge, in which the author briefly discusses hardys tragic view through the analysis of the characters fate, the progression of the plot and the depiction of the surrounding. also, many critics interpret henchards tragic fate by probing into the influence of darwinism and social evolution on hardys thought. further, some critics analyze this novel from the aspect of the dimension of family ethics, just as the essay, the dimension of family ethics in hardys the mayor of casterbridge, which is written by ding shizhong and zhu song. this essay intends to show the influence of the invasion of capitalist economy upon british rural patriarchal clan society and the great impact on the traditional family ethics in social transformation period. besides, some critics make an attempt to probe into the artistic techniques of the novel. some think that hardy, with his realist sensitivity, has looked deeply into the whole process of the development of the wessex society and written a tragic history of the english rural society, revealing the real life of the peasant class. he belongs to the realist traditional approaches. for example, tian ying writes a pastoral elegy in “the mechanical age”, which makes a study on alienated nature in the novel. however, some think that hardy pays much attention to psychological analysis, reveals the inner world of the figures, and uses the modern writing techniques like symbolism, which are the features of the 20th century modernist literature. for instance, wang zhihua shows a lot of symbolic techniques in two famous hardys novel in the essay, the art of symbolism in thomas hardys tess of the durbervilles and the mayor of casterbridge. therefore, they conclude that hardy was the transitional bridge for english literature to enter its modern stage from the victorian period. finally, there are a few critics who make a comparative study on this novel. taking introduction 5 xiao huis thesis as an example, xiao hui writes a thesis, the carnival of refusing loneliness: a comparative study on thomas hardys the mayor of casterbridge and jia pingwas turbulence，by using bakhtins carnival poetics and the theory of the novel. this thesis tries to elucidate the realistic care of jia and hardy and emphasizes on the realistic care and country color of the novels. all the views mentioned above, to some extent, are making beneficial attempts to reveal the variety embedding in the novel. in light of the last one, although the thesis applies some bakhtian theories to analyze the novel, it seems to be more superficial and partial. up till now, few people have attempted to specially analyze the folk carnival colors and “the carnival sense of the world” permeated in the mayor of casterbridge. the thesis intends to start from the perspective of the folk culture and explore the features of carnivalization in the text by using bakhtins theory of carnivalization, in order to propose a new angle and a unique method to analyze this novel. 0.3 the basic concepts of bakhtins theory of carnivalization mikhail mikhailovich bakhtin (1895-1975) was a russian philosopher, literary critic, semiotician and scholar who studied the poetics of carnivalization in his two books: problems of dostoeveskys poetics and rabelais and his world. based on researching the folk carnival culture, he revealed the relationship between carnival and literature in his theory of carnivalization. in bakhtins theory of carnivalization, there are three basic and main concepts: carnival, carnivalesque and carnivalization, which constitute the basic framework of bakhtins poetics of carnivalization. what is carnival? “etymologically, this is the old latin ecclesiastical word for the several-day festival of meat-eating before lent.” . according to bakhtin, carnival is a kind of special festival and just a concept of time in a narrow sense. with the historical development in the following centuries, its meaning has been broadened far beyond its origin. carnival can include the whole folk festivals. in rabelais and his world, carnival is a way of life to express universal freedom: “carnival is not a spectacle seen by the people; they live in it, and everyone participates because its very idea embraces all people. while carnival lasts there is no other life outside ning yizhong. carnivalization and joseph conrads fictional world m. changsha: hunan normal university press, 1999, p. 14. on the carnivalistic features of the mayor of casterbridge 6 it. during carnival time life is subject only to its laws, the laws of its own freedom.” . carnival is also a kind of special life, “the final life of consciousness, freed from all the conditions, positions, obligations, and laws of ordinary life, as it were a life outside of life” . in