Analysis of the Tragedy of the Heroine and Marginal Characters in The Grass is Singing Under the Theory of Modernism 现代主义视阈下的《野草在歌唱》女主人公及边缘人物悲剧分析文献综述

 2021-10-26 22:34:28

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1.Introduction1.1Background of the researchNowadays, there are people who stand and live with us, but they are not part of the same community. They are usually possessed with some particular personalities and different from the people around them. Generally speaking, such kind of people are regarded as Marginal Characters, who live in areas in which two or more cultures or social conventions exist. Whats more, marginal characters not only live between two or more cultures, but also not be accepted by neither culture. Thus they are alienated. The sense of alienation brought by the marginal people is not only their own resistance to the public, but also their own exclusion from the environment. They are treated as strangers by those with the most universal values. Even more, they are criticized, excluded or bullied. The term people with universal values refers to people whose common values tend to be the same under long-term natural selection.Marginality can be traced from George Simmels stranger. Concerning strangers, Simmel thinks that although he is in a particular social space, he does not belong to the group because he does not understand the internal mechanism of society. Being a German of Jewish origin, it is clear that Simmel considers this term from the stance of immigrants. A thorough system of Marginality has been established by many other scholars, such as Everett V.Stonequist and R. E. Park. According to Jiang (1992), the term Marginality was firstly proposed during1920s by American sociologist R. E. Park. From Parks point of view, owing to marriage and immigration, those who live between different social conventions are suffering a sense of alienation. And their relationships between members living in the same area or community are ambiguous, for that they are not accepted by those living in the same area or community. Later, the meaning of this term has been wider and wider, symbolizing the conflict in economic and cultural aspect resulted from the movements in social and economic aspects (particularly the movements between city and country). As for The Grass is Singing, the author, Doris Lessing, lived in South Africa with her parents from her childhood and deeply experienced the various manners and customs in the different parts around the world, especially the South Africa. Whats more, in South Africa, the marginal characters are not only the native blacks, but also the white women. Tracing back to the time when the South Africa was colonized by the British, it is obvious that patriarchy is the fundamental values. So the white women are also marginal characters comparing with men. As the marginal characters, their fates are doomed to be failures.1.2Purpose of the researchThe purpose of this article included three aspects. Firstly, the most simple and direct, it will explain the research background of Marginality and Modernism and illustrate why it will analyze the tragedy of the marginal characters under the theory of Modernism. In addition, this thesis would also introduce Doris Lessing and The Grass is Singing thoroughly. Secondly, many details selected from The Grass is Singing would be presented to illuminate the tragic root of those marginal characters. Whats more, apart from the tragic root of those marginal characters, it will analyze The Grass is Singing under the theory of Modernism. Finally, this thesis would point out the realistic meaning and cultural meaning about why The Grass is Singing would take efforts to describing those marginal characters. It also could be a thesis focusing on Doris Lessings modernist writing style.1.3Organization of the research This thesis would be divided into five parts. Chapter one will focus on introduction, including Doris Lessing, The Grass is Singing, literary review and research background, the reason of choosing this topic. Chapter two will illuminate the tragic root of the marginal characters symbolizing many typical kinds of people living in South Africa during the time in which this novel was finished. Chapter three will also analyze the modernist writing skills and explain how the writing skills, such as the use of dream and psychological description, easily convey the tragic root of those marginal characters and express the intention of the author. Chapter four will set forth the realistic meaning and cultural meaning of writing The Grass is Singing. Furthermore, this thesis would give some advice on dealing with Marginality. Finally, this thesis will end with the summary of the causes of the tragic root of those marginal characters, the theoretical implications, limitations and suggestions for the future research in Chapter Five.2.Literature Review Foreign scholars have been studying the marginal people in Doris Lessings novels. Since the 1970s, scholars have paid attention to the survival situation faced by the protagonists inLessings works and analyzed the specific performances of the survival crisis and the social causes leading to the survival crisis. On the contrary, in China, the research on the marginal people in Lessings novels started relatively late. After Lessing won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2007, a large number of translated works began to enter the readers horizon, and the research on the marginal people also began to emerge. Scholars both at home and abroad noticed that the marginal characters written by Lessing represent the predicament of the modern people life. Not only do the foreign scholars started earlier, but also they did research from more diversified angel. However, the domestic scholars mainly researched Doris Lessing from postcolonial criticism and feminist criticism.2.1Overseas study Foreign research on Doris Lessing started during the period of 1970s. Since Lessings first novel The Grass is Singing was released, this novel had always been attracting much attention from the scholars around the world. Relatively early, Paul Hitmde, an American scholar, believes that modern women in Lessings novels are confronted with survival predicament and emphasizes that women should actively participate in social life. He also stresses that women, being independent individuals, should be responsible for themselves. In the article The Pathology of Feminine in the Fiction of Doris Lessing, Alice Bradley Markow (1974) put forward that The Grass is Singing is a book of combination of withdrawal and separation of husband and wife. This article mainly researches this book from the perspective of feminism. He also points out the women predicament and the reason. Living in a society in accordance with patriarchy, women fates are doomed to be failures. In such a society, men are encouraged to be active, creative and powerful, while women are forced to seek their own values through their marriages. Once a woman is married, she should totally pay her attention to her marriage, her house and her husband. In the end, Alice indicates that a healthy male/female relationship should be achieved on the basis of mutual independence and mutual efforts. In the paper Sites of Paranoia and Taboo: Lessings The Grass is Singing and Gordimers Julys People, Sheila Roberts (1993) studies this novel from both feminism and post-colonialism, as well as from the perspectives of Gothic novel. Roberts also points that Mary is powerlessness within patriarchy and within patriarchal norms of colonialism. Later, Robin Visel (2008), a scholar focusing on African literature, indicates that the novel The Grass is Singing should be read as a foreseeable anti-colonial text dealing with contemporary post-colonialism in his paper Then Spoke the Thunder: The Grass is Singing as a Zimbabwean Novel. He also pays special attention on Moses-a black man. He puts forward that Moses is a symbol of active power while Mary negative power. Although Lessing does not take much efforts to describe Moses, Robin Visel holds that Moses is worthwhile to explore for its profound effects. Due to the fact that former studies mainly concentrate on the main character--Mary, it is no doubt that this thesis provides a wider view concerning The Grass is Singing.Apart from these papers concentrating on feminism and post-colonialism, there are many articles focusing on the marginal people in The Grass is Singing, especially the insane aspect of those marginal people. Female characters in Lessings novel The Grass is Singing are tended to be insane. Foreign scholars generally hold a view that the insanity of the marginal people is the manifestation of the awareness of the marginal people. And it is of great significance to women independence. In 1978, Madness and Sexual Politics in the Feminist Novel written by Barbara Hill Rigney was published. This book studies many female characters presented in many novels finished by female writers, such as Bronte, Lessing, and Atwood. However, Barbara specially points that the female characters in Lessings novels are experiencing a period of realizing and reestablishing own individual identity. Bonomo Jacquelyn (1980) addresses that the female characters in Lessings novels are usually isolated, despaired and hopeless in her Mater Dissertation The Free Women And The Traditional Women In Novels By Doris Lessing: Analysis And Poetry. She argues that Marys madness is the unconscious madness of traditional female oppression. She does not realize her social status and the social factors that suppress her. Mary does not realize that Dick chooses her as his wife, not because she is Mary, but because she is a woman. Sima Aghazaden (2011) studies the question that being a marginal people in The Grass is Singing, the gender, politics and class haved pushed Mary to death in the paper Sexual-Political Colonialism and Failure of Individuation in Doris Lessings The Grass is Singing. According to the rules made by colonial power, Mary, as an individual, must act on the terms of her status. Mary must keep silent although she is disintegrated, because her existence greatly shook the authority of the traditional society.From above all mentioned, we can easily come to the conclusion that major foreign research study the marginality of female characters, no matter living in England or living in the colonial area. Foreign scholars have earlier noticed the significance of the madness of marginalized people in The Grass is Singing. Combination of survival crisis and marginal people provides enlightenment for domestic researchers.2.2Domestic Study In China, studies about Doris Lessing and her works are much later than the foreign scholars. At the beginning, she attracted the interests of scholars from Taiwan. And the researches are not systematic and comprehensive. Those scholars just mentioned her name in their studies. Not until she won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2007 did she enter the horizon of those scholars.In CHKI, the earliest study on Doris Lessing is a paper named An Honest Female Writer---Doris Lessing written by Sun Zongbai in 1981. Sun says Lessings view of life is greatly changed by her life living in South Africa. Then this kind of living experience also has an effect on her writing style. It is obvious that themes and thoughts in Lessings works are mainly colonialism and racism. He also advocates the theme of striving for womens freedom and equal rights. However, in his paper, he studies the feminism and colonialism on the basis of The Golden Notebook and Children of Violence Series without mention of The Grass is Singing. During the later years before 2007, studies on Doris Lessing also mainly focus on the book The Fifth Child and her writing skills from the perspectives of feminism and politics. In Distorted Humanity and Colonial Elegy---on Doris Lessings The Grass is Singing written by Xia Qiong in 2001, she stresses the colonialism in The Grass is Singing. In her novel The Grass is Singing, through describing the tragic fate of her protagonistand the struggle of white colonialists in South Africa, Lessing ruthlessly reveals the distorted humanity under the weight of western colonialism and racial discrimination, and makes people hear a harsh elegy of colonialism. After 2007 when Lessing won the Nobel Prize for literature, many papers concerning Lessing appeared. Among those papers, there are a large proportion of papers studying The Golden Notebook through which Lessing won the Nobel Prize. Concerning Lessings first novel, there are generally 309 articles in CNKI according to the research result at present. Those research angles include feminism, colonialism, tragic fate, patriarchy, dualism and racial discrimination and the number of paper related with colonialism is largest, up to near 60. Xia Qiong studies Lessings first novel from the perspective of colonialism while she studies the same book under the theory of psychoanalysis about individual unconsciousness and collective unconsciousness. She analyzes the profound psychological world of the heroine to find the fact that unconsciousness is the internal psychological motivation for her self-loss and eventual in the paychological world. In 2009, Sun Yan and Li Zhengshuan wrote an article named Prototypes Reading of Lessings The Grass is Singing from the point of view of prototype. In 2009, in Shi Yis Marginal Grass---the Post-colonial feminist interpretation of The Grass is Singing, she firstly mentioned the marginal people in this novel. She pointed out that marginal peoples tragic fate and illustrate the reasons. In the later years, more papers mentioning marginal people showed up. Xiao Ye also noticed the marginal people from the perspectives of post-colonialism and feminism in his doctoral dissertation Marginal themes in The Grass is Singing. His paper analyzes the conflicts and marginalization between the three main characters in The Grass is Singing, and explores the distortion of human nature, the hardship of survival and the cause of the heros destruction in colonial society caused by racial discrimination and the oppression of patriarchy. In A Study of Marginal People in Doris Lessings Works on Africa, Li Shanshan studies The Grass is Singing on the concept of marginal people in sociology, psychology and philosophy. In Shu Lians doctoral dissertation A Study of the Marginal People in Doris Lessings Novels, she divides the marginal people into three kinds from the point of gender relations, christian perspective and existential perspective. Mary belongs to the traditional woman, and Dick is both the beneficiary and sufferer of the traditional value while Moses, representing the power of christian, is always protected by Christians. Recently, more and more studies pay attention to Eco-feminism. Wang Yans doctoral dissertation On Womens Suffering in The Grass is Singing from the Perspective of Eco-feminism. She discusses Marys suffering from three angles--nature, society and spirit to systematically analyze the survival predicament of female characters in this novel.All the above is literature review about domestic study on The Grass is Singing. Through this review, it is apparent that both overseas and domestic study all pay much attention to the feminism, colonialism and marginal people. Concerning the theory of modernism, almost no one studies it on the basis of The Grass is Singing. The few studies on Doris Lessings modernist techniques also focus on The Golden Notebook, so this thesis will study the causes of the tragic fate of marginal people in The Grass is Singing under the theory of modernism.References:Bill, S. (2016). The fact of whiteness: Doris Lessings The Grass is Singing - a historians notebook. Journal of southern African studies, 42, 127-136.Doris, L. (1950). The Grass is Singing. NY: Harper PerennialJames, G. (2007). An abject land? 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