（英语语言文学专业论文）论亨利·詹姆斯的现实主义独创性.pdf

2 摘 要 亨利詹姆斯一向被文学史家归类为美国文学史上重要的现实主义作家之一，同时 认定其小说创作在从现实主义转向现代主义的文学潮流过程中起到了承上启下的作用。 其现实主义创作手法上的特点，与标准意义上的现实主义已经有了诸多歧义。本论文主 要发掘了其在一些通常的现实主义创作手法中比较独特的品质。 本论文主要由四章构成。第一章对亨利詹姆斯的独特的现实主义手法的发生、发 展与流变进行了探讨，并对亨利詹姆斯的现实主义主观选择性进行了分析：主要体现 在审美选择上, 他的审美选择，体现了他对唯美主义的真正态度，既统一又讽刺; 他的经 验选择，也就是对现实的选择，以伊莎贝尔的视角去体验现实生活，感悟人生的真谛， 把主观性和经验完美地结合，体现了对现实的富有想象的转化。第二章对其独特的心理 现实主义创作手法从三个方面进行了深刻的分析：揭示人物的内心世界；描述人物的心 理变化；及展示人物意识。第三章对现实主义与浪漫主义冲突的倾向进行了分析，他向 人们展示了一个令人信服而充满幻想的世界。第四章对产生这种独特现实主义的原因进 行了分析。 通过分析，本文表现了亨利詹姆斯的小说即体现了时代性，又具有与同时期作家 相区别的独特品质。因此, 亨利詹姆斯的作品在从现实主义到现代主义过渡过程中起 到了不可替代的作用。 关键字: 亨利詹姆斯 独创性 主观选择性 审美 心理现实主义 1 abstract henry james is usually known as one of the most important realistic writers in the american literary history. meanwhile the historian has admitted the effect of james novel creation, which demonstrates the literary transition from realism to modernism. the features of james realistic creative methods have presented a lot of ambiguity, compared with normal meaning of realism. this thesis mainly demonstrates his rare traits revealed in his realistic creative methods. the thesis is composed of four chapters. the first chapter mainly focuses on the discussion of the commencement, improvement and evolution of henry james unique realistic approach, and the analysis of the subjective selectivity of henry james realism, especially the analysis of his choice of aesthetics. we can feel his true attitudes towards aestheticism unity and satire. from his choice of experience, we can see that james regards the choice of experience as the choice of reality. in the unity of the subjectivity and the experience towards isabel s life, we can sense the change from imagination to reality. the second chapter mainly analyzes his psychological realism from the following three aspects: revelation of the characters inner world; depiction of the characters psychological change and portrait of the characters consciousness. the third chapter attempts to study his romantic and realistic conflict in his novels, and shows the world, which is full of conviction and imagination. the fourth chapter analyzed the reasons of the forming of his uniqueness of realism. by analyzing it, the thesis reflects the realism uniqueness in the novel of henry james. at the same time, it is proved that the works of henry james played an important role in the process transiting from traditional realism to modernism. key words: henry james uniqueness subjective selectivity aesthetics psychological realism 学位论文原创性声明 本人所提交的学位论文 论亨利? 詹姆斯的现实主义独创性 ，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 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 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 4 introduction henry james (1843- 1916) is generally acknowledged to be one of the greatest novelists and critics in american history. he is the third major literary figure of his times besides mark twain and william dean howells. he created 22 novels, 113 tales, 7 plays, numerous literary criticisms, and two autobiographies. henry james is a prolific writer. he produced a number of novels, among which the most important include roderick hudson (1876), the american (1877), daisy miller (1878), and the portrait of a lady (1887) which made him win international fame and revealed james fascination with his “ international theme” and “ international novel” . he also attempted to use various literature forms and creative skills, themes and styles of literary creation. the genre of his works include: novel and short story, comment and play. he depicts the inter- personal relationships among his characters by his subtle tales. he composed a few novellas, such as the three great novels: the wings of the dove (1902), the ambassadors (1903), and the golden bowl (1904), which represented the summit of his art and thus constituted “ the major phase” of his career. james contribution to literary criticism is immense. james literary critical idiom had made him exceptionally popular in the world of literary criticism. his criticism is a component part of his literary creation. his most outstanding contributions are the prefaces to the new york edition and the art of fiction. henry james was also known as the founder of psychological realism who believed that reality comes from the perspective of life. he put the descriptive techniques of the psychological novels into practice. therefore his novels reflected the tendency of literature in the late 19th century and the early 20th century. it initiated the “ stream of consciousness” writing style and marked the transition from traditional realism to modernism. in abroad, there are a plenty of commentary and review about henry james. during 1920s and 1930s, henry james was criticized by some critics. for instance, van wyck brooks said his american aesthetics was lack of reality of history. vernon louis parrington protested against james s doubt and exploration of inner world. besides, james was often labeled an aesthete. jonathan freedman, a professor at the university of michigan, is well- known jamesian scholar on analyzing the subject of his rich and subtle response to the aesthetics at present, such as his the cambridge companion to henry james, which is well known to the 5 readers. in the 1930s, the early development of henry james of cornelia p. kelley explored the critic henry james. it symbolized the beginning resurgence of henry james. and then, p. r. blackmur s the art of the novel and hound and horn s homage to henry james were published. the art of the novel collected james prefaces to the new york edition. thirteen papers were collected in homage to henry james, e.g. “ the ambiguity of henry james by edmund wilson” . the paper used psychoanalytic ideas of sigmund freud to analyze his “ the turn of the screw” . after the 1960s, he kept “ the master s” seat. the critics developed towards all the directions and continual academic. in 1961, wayne booth s rhetoric of fiction investigated “ the point of view” and “ implied author” . dorothea krook s the ordeal of consciousness in henry james gave an overview of philosophy and moral principles in the portrait of a lady. in the 1980s, the phenomenology of henry james by paul armstrong deals with the relationship between james novel and philosophic schools. james work was first translated into chinese in 1934. the study of him did not begin in china until the last two decades in twenties century. his name is still quite strange to chinese readers. he was known to us only by daisy miller and the portrait of a lady. these two novels the ambassadors and the golden bowl could hardly be appeal to the readers in china due to their complex and peculiar sentences structures. xiao qian was the first chinese scholar who made attentive study of henry james and wrote literary reviews on james s important novels and discussed james writing skill and styles. studies on henry james monographic were v ery little in the early 1990s. from 1994 to 1999, there were about 20 commentaries on the monographic. there are more and more studies of henry james works after 2000 in china. the scholars main interests were james international theme, feminist studies of his female protagonists, and cultural perspectives, etc. there is wang qing s construction of “ americanness” in henry james novel, wei zhongjun s from omniscient point of view to limited point of view and by chen ping s fictional theory study: a study of henry james s practical criticism of fiction. this thesis focuses on discussing the commencement, improvement and evolution of henry james unique realistic methods. realism is the mainstream of literary creation in the 6 late 1980s, which constructs the core of literature and art in that period. that reflects the majority consciousness of the times. accuracy, completeness, and value of truthfulness are all fundamental and important for the realism that obtains the recognition and manifestation on the basis of practice. thanks to the indirect influences of pater, james practices his writing style of subjective selectivity excellently. walter pater is called “ the grandfather of british aestheticism” . he is the major theorist and advocator of british aestheticism, whose advocacy of “ art for art s sake” became a central doctrine of british aestheticism. according to pater, every form of art, including literature is the search for beauty. he insists on the idea of art and culture as both means and ends to life and emphasizes that art is independent from all moral and social conditions and judgments. he adopts the notion of an aesthetic life devoted to amoral impulses on the basis of his realism, the analyzing of the psychological realism and the conflict between realism and romanism, demonstrates the rare traits in another realistic creative method. psychological realism is a creative method of narrative literature and an important literary trend of the 20th century. it is the realistic writing that probes deeply into the complexities of characters thoughts and motivations. this writing technique depicts the characters in an objective, plausible manner and insists that characters be clearly motivated. “ psychological realism consists of two aspects: psychology and realism. they are complementary and indispensable to each other and form an organic whole. on the one hand, it emphasizes the reflection of reality and the objective world through inner world of the characters; on the other hand, it stresses the necessity of the correspondence between the description of the psychological content and the objective reality, to achieve the organic unity of the objective world of reality and the subjective world of the mind. based on realism, it discloses the consciousness of the characters by means of psychological description and psychological analysis. this is a new principle in literary creation.” 1 the paper is divided into four chapters. the first chapter shows the uniqueness of realism from the prospective of the subjective selectivity. the second chapter studies the uniqueness of psychological realism through james revelation of the characters inner world, depiction of the characters psychological change and portrait of the characters consciousness. the third chapter attempts to study his romantic and realistic conflict in his novels. the fourth chapter analyzed the reasons of the forming of his uniqueness of realism. 7 chapter one the uniqueness of his subjective selectivity the realistic creative method presents the characters naturally, which is conveniently accepted by both readers and creative writers. the trait, such as balance and equivalence of writing and reading in the subjective and objective sequence, contributes to maintaining the noble and dominant place in the literary history for a long time. most of the realism literature is narrative, especially in the field of the novel. the realistic creative method achieves the unprecedented prosperity. the novel reflects the whole times and the society custom, and reveals the intricate historical events and social historical phenomenon vividly. this typical method was demonstrated by the works of balzac, dickens, tolstoy, and dostoevsky. in the aspect of concrete demonstrating method, realism novel has been more mature than the past in terms of aesthetic narration, plot and characters description. in particular, the realism novel has accumulated precious experience in the description of landscape, character, psychology, language, expression as well as emotion conveyance or inner monologue. nevertheless, realism itself is not unchangeable. its manifestation presents kaleidoscopic change, with rich and colorful feature. realism is the mainstream of literary creation in the late 1880s, it is the mainstream of literature and art in that period. it reflects the majority theme of the time. accuracy, completeness, and value of truthfulness are both fundamental and important for the realism that acquires the recognition and manifestation on the basis of practice. engels establishes his famous definition of realism, which is based on scrupulously reading the works of balzac and others. engels said, “ from my perspective, the meaning of realism, apart from the truth of details, is to reappear the typical character in the proper circumstance faithfully.” in a broad sense, realistic literature is based on the life experience and objective observation. moreover, it attaches more emphasis on the choice of theme and style, such as accurate description, real behavior and conversation, the upright moral value as well as the open value of democracy. realism pays more attention to objectivity, and provides an objective and non- idealism perspective for human nature and human experience. realism writers focus on exploiting the connection between human and objective world, treasuring individual value, emphasizing on the role that environment influences in the formation of human nature, and these writers 8 regards the description of the characters life in accordance with what it is may well display and effort orientation in the special circumstance. based on the above, the realism of henry james creative method reveals a variety of nature that is beyond what realism deserves. a. his choice of aesthetics aestheticism flourished in the late 19th century in europe, where henry james had lived for thirty- three years until he died. in 1876, he traveled in europe and lived in london at the end of life. he had visited athenaeum, a place where there are some words of the nation s eminent men and philosophers. this place became a daily necessity for him. owning to his experience to europe, james s acquired some materials though aestheticism or aesthetic movement, which flourished from 1870s t o 1880s. by 1880s, it has reached the peak of british aestheticism. in pater s aesthetic ideas, social sense helped to modify the public s taste of aesthetics and was infatuated with collecting and connoisseurship of article. in a word, it created a harmonious atmosphere where “ the sphere of fashion and of art met.” 2 james met with walter pater, and pater s famous work the renaissance drew james s attention. so in his early work the portrait of a lady shows not only a great unity but also oppositeness between pater and james. the portrait of a lady is regarded as his masterpiece and the best novel of james s. in the portrait of a lady, osmond is an italian- american. firstly, he shows fully grown appearance in the following paragraph: he was a man of forty, with a well- shaped head, upon which the hair, still dense, but prematurely grizzled, had been cropped close. he had a thin, delicate, sharply- cut face, of which the only fault was that it looked too pointed; an appearance to which the shape of his beard contributed not a little. this beard, cut in the manner of the portraits of the sixteenth century and surmounted by a fair moustache, of which the ends had a picturesque upward flourish, gave its wearer a somewhat foreign, traditionary look, and suggested that he was a gentleman who studied style.3 9 the word “ style” is borrowed from aestheticism, since the french aesthete “ gautier is above all a man of style” ,4 and pater promotes that “ style be the man and good literature is “ good literary style” .5 osmond, with a great deal of fastidiousness and sophistication from dressing to wording, draws consciously a prominent line that separates him from commonness and vulgarity. james thought that a paterian aesthete would be conscious of his pursuit of style and art at the beginning. osmond is also an amateur poet whose poet rome revisited dedicated to isabel archer during his courtship, which quite touches her heart. besides, the artistry constitutes osmond s standards of value. his statement that “ one should make one s life a work of art” (the portrait of a lady p.264) reflects pater s insistence to “ the love of art for its own sake” .6 to osmond, art is both the meaning and pursuit of life, which is exactly pater s belief. pater mentions “ the poetic passion, the desire of beauty” 7 are artistic motivation and source of knowledge. similarly, osmond s imagination and creativity come from these facilities. he “ thinking about art and beauty and history” (the portrait of a lady p.223) with the “ languid- looking.” osmond represents the indolent paterian aesthete who thinks being is actually proficiency. in addition, osmond has good taste. taste, what pater calls “ mystical appetite,” 8 is a valuable element in the aesthetic activities. as kathy psomiades points out “ mechanics have to learn good taste because they have to make more beautiful objects” 9, so aesthetics should have good taste to appreciate and create beauty and produce the sublime. for james, an aesthete is a person who ludicrously and curiously seeks perfection and consummation. his “ attitude towards the human creature is, in a sublimated degree, that of a barber or a tailor. he anoints and arranges and dresses it to perfection” .10 to others, osmond is recognized as cultivated, stylish and tactful man. madame merle, his mistress, exclaims: “ you understand this sort of thing as nobody anywhere does. you ve such adorable taste.” (the portrait of a lady p.195) the heroine of the portrait of a lady, isabel archer finds that osmond is “ the man who has the best taste in the world” . (the portrait of a lady p.367) isabel s cousin, ralph touche