论嘉莉妹妹中的自然主义 Naturalism in sister Carrie.doc

黄 冈 师 范 学 院本 科 生 毕 业 论 文 论文题目：An Analysis of Naturalism in Sister Carrie 作 者： 汪佳乐 专业班级： 英语201001班 指导教师： 童 彦 学 号： 201013140120 2014年5月16日郑重声明本人的毕业论文（设计）是在指导教师 童彦 的指导下独立撰写完成的。毕业论文（设计）没有剽窃、抄袭、造假等违反学术道德、学术规范的侵权行为，本人愿意承担由此产生的各种后果，甚至法律责任；并可以通过网络接受公众的质疑。特此郑重声明。 毕业论文作者：汪佳乐 2014年5月 13 日黄冈师范学院外国语学院本科毕业论文（设计）开题报告论文题目 An Analysis of Naturalism in Sister Carrie 学生姓名 汪佳乐 学 号 201013140120 专业班级 英语201001班导师姓名 童彦 职 称 副教授 2013年12月一、本课题研究的目的及其意义自然主义文学是现实主义文学吸收了实证主义、遗传学说和决定论的观点发展演变而来，产生于19世纪下半叶的法国，19世纪末20世纪初传至欧美和世界各国。美国著名小说家西奥多.德莱赛被很多人认为是美国自然主义小说的代表人物之一。嘉莉妹妹是德莱赛的处女作，讲述的是农村少女嘉莉如何从社会底层登上百老汇红五星宝座的过程，被视为德莱赛自然主义的发轫之作。自该作品问世以来，就一直饱受文学界与批评界的争议。有的人对他这部作品大加赞赏，认为他的这部小说基本上描绘了当时美国社会所有的阶层，把当时的那种社会经济状况表现得淋漓尽致。而也有人说他的作品太过现实违反了文学本身所要塑造的境界，特别是小说中嘉莉不择手段追求自己想要的东西这一形象被人们简单地贴上“堕落女人”的标签。随着时代的发展，对该作品的分析和解读也不断推陈出新，由消费主义、享乐主义、女性主义、自然主义等多个角度到城市观念和城市话语。当代中国社会，经济发展迅速，社会高速运转，在一定程度上与19世纪的美国社会相似，不少人面对社会现实之时，在物质与道德的抉择中陷入迷茫，因此对嘉莉妹妹的赏析，在当今中国有着很强的现实意义。通过对嘉莉妹妹本文通过对嘉莉妹妹这一作品的简要介绍和赏析，解读了嘉莉妹妹一书中的自然主义特色，并浅析了嘉莉妹妹一书对我们当代社会中年青一代的启发，从决定论和自然主义角度分析环境因素和遗传因素对嘉莉妹妹命运的影响。二、本课题研究的现状，并列出主要参考文献嘉莉妹妹自问世以来，国内外对其研究和评论数不胜数。在我国，目前仅在中国期刊网上就有相关的87篇学术文章，更有众多译著和专著出版。研究者多围绕自然主义倾向和“欲望”的主题，运用历史传记批评、文本分析、消费文化、实用主义、精神分析、女性主义、结构主义、宗教伦理等多种方法和角度解读该作品。薛尔曼于1915年在他的文章德莱赛的自然主义中评论说，很显然，德莱赛使人的价值观消失，使人的动物本能在社会生活中横行。到了30年代的时候，人们古关于嘉莉妹妹的争论和评价就逐渐从道德理论的层面转到政治和文学，批评家们认为嘉莉妹妹是美国资本主义的产物或辩护。在80年代的时候，大多数批评家认为它是德莱赛所生活时代的信仰和价值的反应。著名的评论家马希森把这部反应19世纪末资本主义发展的小说的杰作代表看成是小说家本人额生存状况的鸿篇巨作。新世纪以来，评论家着重讨论该小说中令人惊叹的城市生活的描写技巧。引人注目的是嘉莉妹妹作为记录美国社会伴随着大生产和消费文化城市化进程的主要文本所产生的那种张力。在国外对嘉莉妹妹的研究中，主要也是从哲学思想和文化道德等领域出发的。从1978年开始，中国的一些文学研究者也对嘉莉妹妹这部小说产生了极大地兴趣。他们从各种文学批评角度分析研究这部小说，主要的有自然主义的，现实主义的，女性主义的，结构主义的，以及心理分析的等等。另外，还有一些批评者把注意力集中在德莱赛是一位现实主义的小说家还是一位自然主义的小说家这一问题上。从以上的综述国内外关于嘉莉妹妹的研究正在不断发展繁荣。可待研究的方面和角度仍需进一步拓展，为此本文将借助新历史主义的相关理论资源重新审视这部小说中人物的命运。参考文献：1 David E.E. Sloane. Sister Carrie-Theodore Dreisers Sociological Tragedy. New York: Twayne Publishers,1992.2 Gao Yufen. Exploration into an Insatiable CharacterAn Analysis of Dreisers Portrait of Sister CarrieJ.辽宁师范大学学报,2005.03.3 Wollstonecraft, Mary. A Vindication of the Right of WomanM. Baltimore: Penguin, 1975.83.4 蒋道超. 德莱赛研究M.上海：上海外语教育出版, 2003.5 靳怀芳,胡宗锋. 新女性的背后-从女性主义的角度看J .浙江万里学院学报,2005(02).6 靳蓉. 从欺骗的主题看消费语境下地嘉莉妹妹J.河南大学学报（社会科学 版）,2007第六期第159页.7 李小江. 女性在历史文化模式中的审美地位J上海文论,1990（1）.8 李旭. 时代新女性-嘉莉妹妹形象评析 J.大庆师范学院学报, 2006(06) .9 李银河. 女性主义M.山东：山东人民出版社,2005.10林斌. 从嘉莉形象看德莱塞的女性观及内在矛盾性J.外国文学研究, 2003(2): 64-70.11龙文佩,庄海骅. 德莱塞评论集C.上海:上海译文出版社, 1989.12邱岳. 在抉择中成长的新女性浅析西奥多德莱赛笔下嘉莉形象的人物 塑造J .教书育人（高教论坛）,2009(5). 13伍柳. -时代生活的画卷J.柳州职业技术学院学报,2001 （3）:69-73.14西蒙波伏娃. 第二性M陶铁柱译北京：中国书籍出版社，1998.15朱振武. 生态伦理危机下地城市移民嘉莉妹妹J.外国文学研究,2006年第3期第137页.三、本课题研究的主要内容本文主题分四个部分。一、介绍部分简述作者和作品，对西奥多.德莱赛的生平和著作进行简要介绍，并对嘉莉妹妹情节进行简要概述二、第一章介绍自然主义，尤其是美国文学自然主义的起源、发展和特点三、第二章是本文的重点章节，从环境因素和遗传因素两方面分析嘉莉妹妹中自然主义的体现四、结论部分总结嘉莉妹妹一书中的自然主义特色，并浅述嘉莉妹妹对当代中国年青一代的启示。 四、本课题采用的研究方法及路线本课题主要采用文献资料分析法，归纳法，总结法1.文献资料分析法：通过查阅相关资料，了解小说的创作背景和具体内容2.归纳法：在阅读大量的相关材料的基础上，总结出小说的人物性格特征3.总结法：通过阅读和自己的总结，论述嘉莉妹妹中嘉莉的自然主义并从中得到的启发五、本课题研究的进度安排. 本课题（设计）的整体工作大体分为以下几个阶段：2013. 9. 10 -2013. 12. 30 论文选题，收集资料，完成开题报告2013. 12. 30-2014. 3. 20 完成论文初稿2014. 3. 20- 2014. 5. 15 完成论文定稿2014. 5. 25- 2014. 5. 28 论文答辩及成绩评定六、指导教师意见签名 年 月 日 七、院论文指导小组审批意见签名 年 月 日6AbstractTheodore Dreiser is a representative naturalism writer of American literary history. He lived in the 20th century. In that period of time, with the development of technology and economy, peoples life got better and better, producing the contrast between poverty and wealth. At that time, while material pleasure is advocated, some people did whatever they could to become one of the social elites, and the morality and believes are neglected. In Theodores novels, he presented this social phenomenon and reality to the public. Sister Carrie is Theodore Dreisers first published works. It is a great fiction which sharply broke away from the traditional writing style at the beginning of the 20th century so that Sister Carrie became a milestone in American literature. In Sister Carrie, it tells a story of a beautiful country girl Carrie goes to Chicago alone to seek happiness and how she turns to a famous star in Broadway through all kinds of ways in the end.This paper takes Sister Carrie as an example, attempts to look into the literary naturalism and explains how environmental factors and hereditary factors influence peoples fate. It is divided into three chapters except an introduction and a conclusion. The first part gives a brief introduction about the writer and the novel, the second part draws attention to the produce and development of Naturalism. The third part, which is the most important one analyzes the Naturalism in Sister Carrie. Key words: Sister Carrie, Naturalism，Environment Factor, Heredity Factor摘 要 西奥多德莱塞是美国文学史上的自然主义代表作家。他生于二十世纪，在这段时间内,随着科技和经济的发展,人们的生活越来越好,贫富差距对比强烈。当时,由于对物质享受的倡导,有些人竭尽所能跻身社会精英行列,在此过程之中，道德和相信是被忽视的。在西奥多的小说,他向公众呈现这一社会现象和现实。嘉莉妹妹是西奥多德莱塞出版的第一部作品，写于20世纪初，是一部伟大的脱离传统的写作风格的小说。嘉莉妹妹是美国文学的一个里程碑。它讲述了关于一个美丽的乡下姑娘嘉莉独自去芝加哥寻找幸福和最终通过各种方式成为百老汇明星的故事。 本文以嘉莉妹妹为例,试图探讨文学自然主义和解释环境因素和遗传因素如何影响人的命运。除了介绍和结论，它分为三章。第一部分简要介绍作者和小说,第二部分关注自然主义和达尔文主义决定论第三部分,也是最重要的一个，分析自然主义在嘉莉妹妹中的体现关键词： 嘉莉妹妹 自然主义 环境因素 遗传因素ContentsIntroduction1. An Overview of American Naturalism11.1 The Origins of Literary Naturalism21.2 American Naturalism3 1.2.1 The Origins of American Naturalism.3 1.2.2 The General Review of American Naturalism in the 20th Century.4. The typical characteristics of naturalism in Sister Carrie.42.1 Naturalistic Environmental Factors in Sister Carrie.5 2.1.1 The Living Environmental Factors.5 2.1.2 The Social Environmental Factors .7.2.2 Naturalistic Hereditary Factors for Carrie8 3.2.1 Inborn Beauty Helps Her Success on the Stage.9 2.2.2 Desire for Pleasure Decides Her Destiny.10Conclusion.11Bibliography12iii黄冈师范学院本科毕业论文Introduction Theodore Dreiser is one of the most influential American writer with critical realism. His novels depict real-life subjects in a harsh light. Many of his works give the description of naturalism and weakened his critical spirit. Sister Carrie, which is his first novel, published in 1990 revealed the financial disparity and the moral decline of American society and thus regarded as a forbidden work. But now it has become the best-seller because of the naturalism in it. And thus Dreiser has become the representative writer and pioneer of American Naturalism. The themes of Darwinism and Determinism are the common features of Dreisers story which also characterize Sister Carrie. Instead of only dealing with the smiling and beautiful aspects of life like most of the other novels, Dreiser insist on the truthful reflection of life in his fiction. Sister Carrie is the first novel of Theodore Dreiser, and also is his most famous and important one. It is the representative work of American naturalism. The novel tells the story of Carrie Meeber，a poor girl alone in Chicago. She lives with a traveling salesman and then runs off to New York City with Georg Hurstwood，a prosperous married manBut Hurstwoods fortunes decline after that，and eventually he becomes a bum and commits suicideCarrie finally finds success ，but not happiness，as all actress The novel sold poorly and was not widely promoted largely because of moral objections to the depiction of a country girl who pursues her dreams of fame and fortune through relationships to menHowever, now the book has acquired a considerable reputationIt has been regarded as one of the greatest of all American urban novels.From 1900 to now, critics around the world have never stopped their study on Dreiser. Their researches have provided us with lots of meaningful information about the writer. Since 1980s, scholars have employed new devices of Determinism, heredity, social environment in their researches. These new methods help us know Dreiser and his work from different and new angles. In China, some Chinese critics have also show their deep interest in Sister Carrie. This paper attempts to analyze the character of Carrie, and Naturalism in this novel. . An Overview of American Naturalism1.1 The Origins of Literary NaturalismIt seems hard to give a precise definition of naturalism that all can accept. Oxford Concise Dictionary defines naturalism as “a more deliberate kind of realism in novels, stories, and plays, usually involving a view of human beings as passive victims of natural forces and social environment” (Baldick, 2000:146). And in The New Encyclopedia Britannica, there is a more comparatively detailed definition: Naturalism, late 19th and early 20th century aesthetic movement, inspired by adaptation of the principles and methods of natural science, especially the Darwinian view of nature, to literature and art. In literature it extended the tradition of realism, aiming at an even more faithful, unselective representation of reality, a veritable “slice of life”, presented without moral judgment. Naturalism differed from Realism in its assumption of scientific determinism, which led naturalistic authors to emphasize mans accidental, physiological nature rather than his moral or rational qualities. Individual characters were seen as helpless products of heredity and environment, motivated by strong instinctual drives from within, and harassed by social and economic pressures from without. As such, they had little will or responsibility for their fates, and the prognosis for their “cases” was pessimistic at the outset. (Ottawa, 1993： 559) In the 19th century, the industrial revolution spread over the entire Western Europe and North America, which brought about dramatically social and economic changes. Furthermore, in 1859, Charles Darwins On the origin of Species was published and his theory of evolution became prevailing. Darwins evolutionary theory provides naturalism the theoretical basis, as Donald Pizer points out, “Darwin also creates a context that makes naturalism with its stress upon theories of heredity and environment, a convincing way to explain the nature of reality for the late 19th century” (Pizer, 2000: 47). Thus, literary naturalism is the result of the combination of the dramatically social, economic changes and such innovations in scientific theory. As a literary movement, it originates in France. Emile Zola, a French writer and theorist, is universally labeled as the founder of naturalism. Zola argued, “the best novelist was an empirical observer rather than an imaginative creator” (Lehan, 1984:529). Zolas preoccupation with scientific theory led him to believe, controlled by heredity and environment, man was theproduct of his temperament in a social context. Thus, naturalistic writers apply to a scientific method to create their writings by studying human beings governed by their instincts and passions as well as the ways in which the characters lives are controlled by forces of heredity and environment. The concept of pessimistic determinism has commonly been assumed as the dominant characteristics of American naturalism, so naturalists depict characters who are determined not by their personal will or moral principles but by their nerves, blood and natural forces which they can not fully comprehend or control. Naturalism also holds the philosophy that life is unpredictable and contains misadventures. “People in naturalistic works do not act by their reason and thought, instead they act by outer forces or inner impulses and instincts” (Jiang Chengyong, 2002: 193).1.2 American Naturalism1.2.1 The Origins of American Naturalism In the latter part of the 19th century in America, great historical changes took place. This period witnessed the rapid growth of industrial cities, the rise of corporate business, the influx of immigrant labor, and the practice of wretched working conditions. In such a historical context, under the influence of Darwins evolutional theory and the rise of European naturalism, American naturalism, as a convincing means to explain the nature of reality for the late 19th century, also rose at the end of the 19th century. With regard to literary theory and writing skills, Zola is the most influential figure on American naturalism. He provides a narrative methodology, a way of seeing reality for American naturalists. And, like those of Zola, Frank Norriss and Theodore Dreisers novels take their being from a naturalistic biology. Characters like McTeague, Carrie are very much the product of an animality that leads to decline and degeneration. With a French origin and a deterministic ideology, American naturalism of late 19th century rests on a biological model, depending heavily on the theory of evolution and new scientific ideas, viewing man as the victim of natural forces and his social environment, with the lack of free will and reason. It essentially assumes mechanistic in its view of matter and deterministic in its attitude toward human will. Although it is greatly influenced by European naturalism, American naturalism has its own features. According to Furst, American naturalism grows in direct response to the native social and economic problems, the struggle of the poor with the capitalists are always the theme of naturalist writings. “In this way American naturalism owes much to local factors than to outside influences, and it is worth recalling the so-called local color tendencies of the 1870s and 1880s which carried on into naturalism, though with certain shifts of emphasis” (Furst, 1971:34). Another distinction from European naturalism is, “American naturalism, extending from the mid-1880s well into the twentieth century, has a far longer life-span than its European counterparts” (ibid: 36).1.2.2 The General Review of American Naturalism in the 20th CenturyAmerican Naturalism of the turn of 20th century is acknowledged as a significant movement in American literature history, as an appropriate expression to reflect the closed and destructive mechanistic and Darwinian world of struggle against the forces of economic and social oppression. Despite the hostile conventional criticism, as an expression means of the new reality of America to dramatize “a panoramic world and chaotic inner life”, naturalism indeed seems to appeal to American writers of each generation. As Donald Pizer points out that “naturalism thus truly refuses to die in America” (Pizer, 2000: 14). Naturalism, in its various interests and strategies, has continued to flourish, and the most striking characteristic of this literary expression in the 20th century is its adaptability to fresh currents of value and experiences in each age while maintaining a core of naturalistic preoccupation. With its ongoing vitality, in the 1930s the theme is worked out in narratives of “group defeat or of personal emptiness and collapse” (ibid: 13) in the works of John Steinbeck and John Dos Passos, and James T. Farrell. It continues into the generation of the 1940s and 1950s in the early works of William Styron, and Norman Mailer, with the theme that is often “combined with the existential theme of the need for a quest for meaning in the face of the inadequacy of social life and belief” (ibid: 13). “And it persists in the partial recovery of the naturalistic themes of political constraint and urban blight” (ibid: 13) in the works of such contemporary novelists as Robert Stone, Joyce Carol Oates (in her early novels), and John Barth, Thomas Pynchon. Besides the writers mentioned above, we can also find the powerful naturalistic tendency in the fiction of such literary giants as Faulkner and Hemingway. “Faulkners major theme of the burden of the past as expressed through regional and family destiny strikes a firm naturalistic note, as does Hemingways preoccupation with the behavioristic interplay between temperament and setting”(ibid: 14). Even Edith Wharton is increasingly viewed as a naturalist, with her central theme of “the entrapment of women within social codes and taboos” (ibid: 14). Indeed, according to Pizer, “the most perceptive and important critic of American naturalism since Walcutt at least”(Giles, 1995: 7), has emphasized that in the United States this literary genre has been constantly evolving, rather than static and fixed.The Typical Characteristics of Naturalism in Sister CarrieIn Sister Carrie I find out that some of its themes differ from those of other naturalistic works.2.1 Naturalistic Environmental Factors in Sister CarrieOne outstanding feature of naturalism is its stress on the influence of environment upon mans fateAccording to naturalism，man is a helpless pawn，at the mercy of the surrounding. As Dreiser has declared in his novel, “all of us are more or less pawnsWere moved about like chessman by circumstance over which we have no control”. This