论霍桑_红字_中的人文主义清教观_王颖慧.docx

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1、 On the Humanized Puritanism of Nathaniel Hawthorne in The Scarlet Letter by Wang Yinghui A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the College of Foreign Languages in Partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Arts in English Language and Literature Shaanxi Normal University May,

2、 2009 学位论文独创性声明 本人声明所呈交的学位论文是我在导师的指导下进行的研究工作及取得的研 究成果。尽我所知，除文中已经注明引用的内容外，论文中不包含其他个人已经 发表或撰写过的研究成果，也不包含为获得陕西师范大学或其它教育机构的学位 或证书而使用过的材料。对本文的研究做出重要贡献的个人和集体，均已在文中 作了明确说明并表示谢意。 作者签名 : 日期： MLA.3 学位论文使用授权声明 本人同意研究生在校攻读学位期间论文工作的知识产权单位属陕西师范大 学。本人保证毕业离校后，发表本论文或使用本论文成果时署名单位仍为陕西师 范大学。学校有权保留学位论文并向国家主管部门或其它指定机构送交论

3、文的电 子版和纸质版；有权将学位论文用于非贏利目的的少量复制并允许论文进入学校 图书馆、院系资料室被査阅；有权将学位论文的内容编入有关数据库进行检索； 有权将学位论文的标题和摘要汇编出版。 作者签名： M 氣 日期 ： K L Acknowledgements With the fulfillment of this thesis, I am greatly indebted to Professor Hou Yuhai, my advisor, who had guided me during my three years culture study and assisted me duri

4、ng my process of thesis preparation, creation and revision with his illuminating insight and valuable suggestions. Without his patient guidance and valuable advice, it would be impossible for me to complete this dissertation. My thanks also go to other professors of the College of Foreign Languages

5、who helped me greatly in my three years study and gave me their supports and suggestions. They are Professor Wang Wen, Professor Bai Jingyu, Professor Dai Jiguo, Professor Yangming, and Professor Ma Zhenduo. My classmates offered me their help and encouragement in the process of drafting this thesis

6、 in different ways at different times. I would express my heartfelt gratitude as well， especially to Cao Runxia and Fan Qingyun, And lastly, my heart-felt gratitude should be given to my parents and my husband, although I believe they loved and aided me in everything without expecting my thanks. How

7、ever, I want to record my sincere gratitude towards them for their support and love. Without their constant and unselfish love and support, nothing would be possible. On the Humanized Puritanism of Nathaniel Hawthorne in The Scarlet Letter Wang Yinghui Abstract: Nathaniel Hawthorne was one of the mo

8、st important romantic writers in American literary history. His literary fame did not rely only on his artistry and writing techniques, but also on his penetrating insights into humankinds. He chose New England history and Puritanism as his main topics and made both a vivid description and a deep an

9、alysis about human nature under the pressure of New England Puritanism. Because of his topics, there always hovers a veil of blackness and ambivalence in his works, so he is also taken as one of the most controversial writers in America. Numbers of his works, such as The Scarlet Letter, The House of

10、 the Seven Gables, Blithedale Romance, Marble Faun enjoy great prestige both at home and abroad. Among his works, The Scarlet Letter is taken as the best and has drawn much attention of the world critical fields ever since its publication. Critics mainly focused on its historical studies such as its

11、 New England background, its relationship with slavery and the emerging Feminism of America. Some other ones concentrated on Hawthorne Js own experiences, including his Puritan ancestors, determining to find some similarities between this novel and Hawthornes personal life. In this dissertation, the

12、 author employs the archetype criticism to render a chance to reconstruct the cultural personalities of Hawthorne with the text of The Scarlet Letter from which his pursuit of a humanized religion can be explicitly presented The paper will probe into Hawthornes humanized mind and his critical lash o

13、f Puritanism by dividing into six chapters. Chapter one is the introduction of the thesis. Chapter two is the literature review in which three important mythic archetypal theories are presented, so as the hypothesis and methodology. In chapter three, a generalization of Hawthorne is introduced, incl

14、uding his literature writing, his literary view and his contribution to American literature. Chapter four is intended to probe into the four aspects of the novel which correspond to FryeJs four mythoi of seasons: Spring with comedy, summer with romance, autumn with tragedy and winter with satire. Ap

15、art from these four aspects, another “spring” is also added to the final analysis of the story representing the theme of “rebirth”， the similar cyclical process as the cycle of four seasons. In chapter five, the cultural personalities of Hawthorne are reconstructed from the following aspects: his hu

16、manist view of church, his romanticist literary characters, his critical cultural spirit and his optimistic view of life, along with the main causes of his cultural personalities respectively from social, religious and biographic perspectives. In chapter six, a conclusion will be given that Hawthorn

17、e cultivated his own humanized Puritanism even though his had been influenced most by the traditional cruel one. He advocated that the achieving of salvation depend on the free wills of human beings rather than Gods help. Hawthornes intention was not to lash Puritanism bitterly as a whole, but to ad

18、d some humanistic elements to it to achieve a balance between religion and human conscience. Key Words: Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, Cultural Personality, Humanized Puritanism. 论霍桑红字中的人文主义清教观 王颖慧 摘要：作为美国文学史上最杰出的浪漫主义作家之一 ，霍桑的文学地位不仅是奠定在他娴熟 的写作艺术和技巧方面，更重要的是他对人性的深层次的探析。他选择新英格兰历史和清教 主义作为写作的主要

19、话题，并在此基础上对生活在新英格兰清教残酷压迫下的人性做了生动 的描写和细致的分析。由于他写作主题的缘故，他的作品总是带有一定的黑暗色彩，闵此霍 桑也被称为是美国文学史上最具争议的作家之一。 霍桑的许多作品在国内外享有很高的声誉，例如：红字，七个尖角阁的房子，福谷传 奇，玉石雕像等等，其中红字被齊遍认为是其最成功的作品，并引起学术研究界的 高度重视。大多数评论家集中在对红字的历史性研究方面，包括它的新英格兰历史背景 和它与美国奴隶制度和女性主义的发展的关系。有些评论家把目光集中在霍桑的个人经历方 面，试图从作品情节中找山与霍桑经历类似的地方，其中霍桑的清教徒祖先被作为重耍关注 点之一。 本篇论

20、文将采用神话原型批判理论对红字进行分析，以此解读作者霍桑的文化人格并 从中探究他的人文主义清教观。全文共分六章。第一章是前言。第二章文献综述部分介绍了 原型批判理论的发展和观点，和本文的设想和方法论。第二章对作者霍桑在其文学作品，文 学观点，和文 学贡献方面进行了详细的介绍。第四章重点利用弗莱的四种叙事结构和主题对 红字情节进展进行剖析。四种叙事结构构成神话的四个主耍部分，依次由四个季节代表 : 春季代表喜剧，夏季代表传奇，秋季代表悲剧，冬季代表讽刺。红字的情节由春季主人公 的出现而开始，又以春季主人公的再生而结柬，形成与四季相同的循环特点。第五章从四个 方面对霍桑的文化人格及其影响因素进行解

21、读：一是他的人文主义清教观，二是他的浪漫主 义人物，三是他的批判的文化精神，四是他乐观的生活态度。第六章结论部分总结了霍桑的 人文主义清教观。尽管霍桑受到 了残酷的传统淸教主义的不可忽视的影响，但他却以一种清 醒的头脑形成了自己的人文主义清教观。他崇尚的楚一种人 自我的救赎而不是传统的上帝 的救赎，所以在他的人文主义清教观中，他并非耍抨击所有的清教教义思想，而是在其加入 一些人文主义的元素，以达到宗教和人的 C由意识的平衡。 关键词：霍桑，红字，文化人格，人文主义清教观 iii Table of Contents Chapter 1 Introduction . 1 Chapter 2 Lit

22、erature Review . 3 2.1 . The Theory of the Archetypal Criticism . 3 2.1.1 . Birth and Growth of the Archetypal Theory . . . 3 2.1.2 Major Views of the Forerunners . 3 2.1.2.1 . The Death-Rebirth Theory of James G Frazer . 3 2.1.2.2 Theory of the Collective Unconscious of Jung . 4 2.1.2.3 . Theory of

23、 Mythos of Northrop Frye . 6 2.1.3 Critical Approaches . 8 2.2 Hypothesis and Methodology . 9 Chapter 3 An Introduction to Nathaniel Hawthorne .10 3.1 Hawthorne and His Literary Writing . 10 3.2 Hawthornes Contribution to American Literature . 14 3.3 Hawthornes Literary View . 15 Chapter 4 An Archet

24、ypal Criticism of The Scarlet Letter .17 4.1 The Scarlet Letter and its background . 17 4.2 The Precis of the Plot . 20 4.3 Cyclical System of Cultural Archetypes in the Novel . 21 4.3.1 SpringComedy . 22 4.3.2 SummerRomance . 25 4.3.3 AutumnTragedy . 27 4.3.4 WinterSatire . 29 4.3.5 SpringRebirth .

25、 31 Chapter 5 Reconstruction of Hawthorne Cultural Personality. 33 5.1 Humanist View of Church- . . 33 5.2 Romanticist Literary Characters . 38 5.3 Critical Cultural Spirit . 41 5.4 Optimistic View of Life . 43 Chapter 6 Conclusion . 45 Endnotes . 47 References . 51 Papers Published . 53 Chapter 1 I

26、ntroduction Chapter 1 Introduction Nearly 150 years have past since his death in 1864, Nathaniel Hawthorne remains one of the most important American writers both at home and abroad. His works, such as The Scarlet Letter, The House of Seven Gables, The Blithedale Romance The Marble Faun continue to

27、enjoy enormous prestige in American literary classic canon. Even now, Hawthorne is still very popular as the subject of biographical and critical interest in the research fields. Bom into a prominent Puritan family in Salem, Massachusetts in 1804, the life of Nathaniel Hawthorne lived such a common

28、life that we can hardly find any excitement or unusualness in it. Even though his father died very early, he still lived a serene childhood with the financial support of his uncles. He read extensively and widely including Bunyans， Spensers and Shakespeares works, which gave him literary thoughts an

29、d humanistic minds. From 1821 to 1825, he attended Bowdoin College in Maine where he made lifelong friends with Franklin Pierce, Horatio Bridge, and Jonathan Cilley. In his senior year (1824-1825), he absorbed himself in writing short stories and making literary plans, and it is said that Fansbawe a

30、nd Seven Tales of My Nativeland were written that year. After his graduation, Hawthorne settled down to a serious literary career. The Scarlet Letter, The House of Seven Gables and The Marble Faun came out one after another. With the publication of Twice-told Tales in 1837, Nathaniel Hawthorne gaine

31、d recognition as an important American author and his friend Henry Wadsworth Longfellow took him as “a new star rises in the heavens1. Later in 1850, the publication of his masterpiece The Scarlet Letter made Hawthorne rank among Americas greatest writers. Among all his works, the most successful an

32、d influential one should be his masterpiece The Scarlet Letter. Henry F. Chorley, waiting no time to express his appreciation of The Scarlet Letter as soon as it was published, took the novel as a successful work with t6a mixture of Puritan reserve and wild imagination, of passion and description， o

33、f the allegorical and the real.2 He even ranked Hawthorne on the same level with Brockden Brown and Washington Irving because of his originality and peculiarity in this work. As Hawthorne 5s most famous and most critically acclaimed novel, The Scarlet 陕西师范大学硕士学位论文 Letter has drawn much attention of

34、the critical fields since it was published in 1850. Numerous books， essays, and papers of different researching aspects came out one after another, not only on this work but also on Nathaniel Hawthorne, the genius writer Among other things, The Scarlet Letter is not only a representative of Hawthorn

35、e literary creation, but also a work filled with many cultural elements. The New England history, the Puritanism, the penetration on psychology of Hawthorne, as well as his techniques in adopting cultural symbols and allergies, worked together all in one book in attracting the sight of the critical

36、world. There is no doubt that the research on this novel is the nearest and the most efficient way to get attached with the cultural personalities of Hawthorne. In this dissertation, the author will employ the archetypal criticism to render a chance to reconstruct the cultural personality of Hawthor

37、ne with the text of The Scarlet Letter from which his pursuit of a humanized religion can be explicitly presented The present chapter is the introduction of the thesis. Chapter two is the literature review in which three important mythic archetypal theories are presented, so as the hypothesis and me

38、thodology. In chapter three, a generalization of Hawthorne is introduced, including his literature writing, his literary view and his contribution to American literature. Chapter four is intended to probe into the four aspects of the novel which correspond to Fryes four mythoi of seasons: Spring wit

39、h comedy， summer with romance, autumn with tragedy and winter with satire. Apart from these four aspects, another “spring” is also added to the final analysis of the story representing the theme of “rebirth”, the similar cyclical process as the cycle of four seasons. In chapter five， the cultural personality of Hawthorne are reconstructed from the following aspects: his humanist view of church, his romanticist literary characters, his critical cultural spirit and his optimistic view of life, along with the main causes of his cultural persona