_赎罪_的文学伦理学解读_苏玉.doc

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1、 University Code： 10225 Register Code ： SI4389 Dissertation for the Degree of Master Ethical Literary Criticism on Atonement Candidate: Su Yu Supervisor: Professor Zhao Li Academic Degree Applied for: Master of Arts Speciality: English Language and Literature Date of Oral Examination: June, 2014 Uni

2、versity: Northeast Forestry University 摘要 伊恩 麦克尤恩在 2002 年出版了赎罪，作品自问世以来便受到了读者和批评界 的广泛关注并被拍成电影。赎罪以 1930 年为背景，描述了 13 岁的布利奥尼错误地质 控罗比为强奸犯，这一举动酿成了塞西莉亚和罗比的爱情悲剧，当布利奥尼意识到自己 的错误时，她选择用一生时间自我救赎，但是一切都为时太晚，塞西莉亚和罗比早己牺 牲在战场上。 文学伦理学主要探讨真、善、圣在人与社会、他人和自我关系中的体现。本文从文 学伦理学角度解读赎罪，为我们理解现当代英国文学提供更宽广的思路，在当代环 境下，研究伊恩 麦克尤恩细腻的人

3、物内心描写具有教育和指导意义。 本文主要分为四部分： 第一章简单地介绍了伊恩 麦克尤恩的生平，创作史和文学 成就，同时呈现了赎 罪的主要情节，最后分析了该作品在国内外的研究现状，进而提出本文的研究视角 一 一文学伦理学。 第二章论述了文学论理学理论研究的三种关系：人与社会、人与他人和人与自我的关 系，并探索了在这三种关系中对美、真、善和圣的追求。 第三章探讨赎罪中各人物之间三种关系的体现。本章中首先从罗比在监狱中的遭 遇中发掘人与社会关系中 “真 ”的体现。然后，布利奥尼，塞西莉亚和罗比三人的爱恨 纠葛展现了人与他人的关系中 “善 ”的意义。最后，通过对布利奥尼从自我意识膨胀到 自我精神的救赎

4、的成长经历的分析，试图 探索 “圣 ”在人与自我关系中的体现。 最后一部分是结论。本章总结了在个人与自然、社会、他人和自我关系中布利奥 尼，塞西莉亚和罗比对美、真、善、圣的追求，展现了悲剧面纱下隐蔽着的深层文学伦 理关系，为我们研究该作品中人物的成长开辟了新的视角，借以此部悲剧唤醒人们对自 我伦理意识的深刻反思。 关键词 赎罪， 伊恩 麦克尤恩；文学伦理学；布利奥尼 Abstract In 2002, Ian McEwan published Atonement which attracted a lot of attention from readers and critics. It pr

5、esents us Brionys atonement in all her life for her false accusation at the age of thirteen. Ethical literary criticism is put forward by Chinese critics, which aims to explore the beauty, truth, virtue and sublimation in human relationships with society, others and oneself respectively. The thesis

6、analyzes Atonement from the view of ethical literary criticism, which ofifers us a much broader mind in studying modem British literature. The thesis is mainly divided into four parts. Chapter One gives a brief introduction of the background and significance of the topic; a presentation of Iaa McEwa

7、n, including his life, writing history, and literary achievements and the research on Atonement at home and abroad. Chapter Two analyzes three relationships of ethical literary criticism: the relationship between human and society, the relationship between human and others and the relationship betwe

8、en human and oneself. The basic theory will also be referred to in this part. Chapter Three focuses on the three relationships presented in Atonement. Firstly, truth in the relationship between human and society is shown by the author5s description about war and social class system. Additionally, lo

9、ve and hate entanglements among Briony, Cecilia and Robbie puts emphasis on the kindness in relationship between human and others. Finally, by analyzing Briony5s own atonement experience, the author intends to discover the holy existing in relationship between human and oneself. The last part is the

10、 conclusion which concludes main characters5 pursuits of truth, kindness and holy in three relationships respectively and discloses the implied ethical literary relationships under the veil of love tragedy which provides us a new perspective to research into the main characters， growth. The thesis a

11、ims to awaken more peoples reflection on their own ethics as well. Keywords Atonement, Ian McEwatt； Ethical literacy criticism; Briony n Contents Abstract _ n 11ntroduction. _ . _ _ _ . _ .1 1.1 A Brief Introduction to Ian McEwan and His Works . 1 1.2 . A Brief Introduction to Atonement . 2 1.3 Lite

12、rature Review on Atonement at Home and Abroad . 4 1.4 . The Innovation of Topic Choice . 5 2 The Theory of Ethical Literary Criticism _ 7 2.1 Basic Theory of Ethical Literary Criticism . 7 2.2 The Development of Ethical Literary Criticism . 8 3 Ethical Literary Criticism on Atonement _ _ _ _ . _ .9

13、3.1 Relationship between Human and Society . 9 3.1.1 Robbies Sufferings in the War . 9 3.1.2 Robbies Being Discrimined and Prejudiced . 13 3.1.3 Robbies being Oppressed by Upper Class . 15 3.2 Relationship between Human and Others . 17 3.2.1 Relationship between Briony and Robbie . 18 3.2.2 Relation

14、ship between Cecilia and Robbie . 19 3.3 Relationship between Human and Oneself. . 21 3.3.1 Brionys Self-consciousness and Self-realization. 22 3.3.2 Briony*s Self-redemption and Self-sublimation . 26 Conclusion . . . . . . _ _ _ . _ _ _ . _ . - - - .31 Notes _ 34 Bibliography. _ . _ _ _ . _ . _ . _

15、 .35 Publications during M.A. Study _ _ 38 Acknowledgements _ 39 1 Introduction 1.1 A Brief Introduction to Ian McEwan and His Works Ian McEwan was bom on 21st June, 1984 at Alderrshot in the southwest of London. David McEwan, Ian McEwan5s father, was bom in a working family. Although David was clev

16、er and smart, he had to drop school at the age of fourteen in order to earn a life by himself. David got hurt in Dunkirk Retreat, which occupied some space of description in Atonement, The government offered him a good chance to go to university, but he refused. Then he served in navy with a lower r

17、ank until his retirement at the age of sixty-five. Likewise, Rose McEwan, Ian McEwan5s mother, came from a working Irish family who also left school at the age of fourteen. The Me Ewans5 marriage was an extramarital affair. In order to hind their shameful past, all the family members proceeded their

18、 own act of self-exile, which made Ian McEwan a lonely childhood. When Ian McEwan was eleven years old, his parents took him back to Britain and his freedom time came back. Ian McEwan entered Woolverstone Hall School. When he recalled his experience here, Ian McEwan regarded it as a t;sexual heir?wh

19、ich influenced his literary works of early times. Ini 967, Ian McEwan went to the University of Sussex majoring in English and French. At that time, Ian McEwan was not excellent in school recordings. He was a man of few words, thin and short with a pair of thick glasses. However, he developed two ha

20、bits during the last year of his university: to read Freud5s works and to write novels. In 1970, after Ian McEwan got his Bachelor Degree of English literature, the curriculum revolution of the University of East Anglia came. Malcolm Bradbury, a famous critic, initiated creative writing course which

21、 meant that the graduates need to hand over a certain number of literary works rather than the final theses and only the qualifiers had the opportunity to get the Master5s Degree. Fortunately, Ian McEwan got his Master Degree thanks to the curriculum revolution. In 1975, the short novel collectionFi

22、rst Love, Last Riteshelped Ian McEwan to achieve Somerset Maugham Award. After his success, Martin Amis and Philip Roth gradually began to make friends with him. However, Ian McEwan still kept himself out of the main stream of the social circle and avoided being labeled by any community, any genre o

23、r any style. In 1978, Ian McEwan gained the nickname of Ian Macabre by his second novel collectionIn Between The Sheets. In the same year, The Cement Garden was published. During the next three years, he was preparing for his novel called The Comfort of Strangers which told a story of two couples in

24、 a vocation. Later he wrote several plays naming The Imitation Game： Three Plays for Television(9%)y Or Shall We D/e?(1983)5 The Ploughmans Lunch (1985), Sour (1988) and so on. From 1987 to 1997, he published five novelsThe Child In Time (1987), The Innocent(l990), The Black Dogs992), The Daydreamer

25、99A) and Enduring Love(997). But he did not become more famous until he published Amsterdam in 1998 which won the Man Booker Prize for him. In 20015 his novel Atonement won National Book Critics which was also put into a film in 2007 and won the Golden Globe Awards. Later Ian McEwan went on his writ

26、ing and publishing more novelsSaturday(2005), On Chesil Beach(2007), Solar(200) and Sweet Tooth(20l2). Ian McEwan5 s narrative seems to walk on the border forever, which divides hope and disappointment, horror and comfort, coldness and warmth, absurdity and lifelikeness, violence and weakness， and r

27、eason and emotion and so on， and then his accounts cover both sides. Ian McEwans border accounts let him have the vast feelings of life. As Ian McEwan9s literary works are achieving a higher and higher praise, more and more satisfactory sales records are created on the book markets all over the worl

28、d. 1.2 A Brief Introduction to Atonement The story begins on a burning hot summer day in 1935. Young, experienced but naive aspiring writer Briony Tallis, who is aged 13, has written a play for welcoming her elder brotherLeon coming back to their home. In the play, the characters will be played by h

29、er cousins, that is, a 15-yeax-old girlLola and 9-year-old twinsJackson and Pierrot and all the three children coming from Briony divorced aunt. Briony 23-year-old elder sister Cecilia Tallis, has come back home from Girton College, Cambridge, and she is confronting her confused feelings to her hous

30、e keepers only son Robbie Turner， whose college studies were all financed by her father Jack Tallis and who, like Cecilia, learnt literature at Cambridge University. While Cecilia is trying to water some flowers, she and Robbie unfortunately break a valuable vase and the pieces of the vase falling t

31、o the fountain which sites in front of their house. To Robbie9s surprise, Cecilia strips to her underwear and suddenly jumps into the fountain in order to retrieve the fragments of the vase. At the same time, Briony witnesses all the ensuing moment of sexual tension from an upstairs bedroom window a

32、nd she is confused as to its real meaning. Later, Leon Tallis arrives with his good friend who is called Paul Marshall and Paul is an aspiring businessman who aims to sell chocolate bars to the army. Also Leon invites Robbie to dinner, which annoys much to Cecilia, for she is still much confused as

33、to why Robbie is always disturbing her so much. Meanwhile, Robbie comes back to his bungalow in order to write a sincere letter to Cecilia. After completing the letter, he adds a lewd proposal on to the bottom of the letter by using the word Ucunt55. Although he then writes another version of the le

34、tter to present to Cecilia, it is the first letter that inadvertently is delivered to Cecilia especially by Briony, who also reads it before it reaches Cecilia and in her fertile imagination， Briony is convinced that Robbie is a real “sex maniac”. On reading the letter, Cecilia realizes her true lov

35、e for Robbie, and they then declare their deep love for each other in a warm encounter in the library. However, it is Briony who interrupts their lovemaking, which, in her opinion, is a sexual assault upon her elder sister. During dinner, the twin cousins run away, only leaving a letter and all the

36、family starts to look for them in the extensive grounds of the estate. In the dark, by coincidence, Briony comes across Lola who is being raped by an unknown attacker- Briony convinces herself to believe that the rapist is Robbie, and Lola also acquiesces to this false claim. The police arrive at th

37、e estate to investigate the rape, but when Robbie arrives with the rescued twins, he is unfortunately arrested solely on the basis of Brionys untested testimony. Apart from Robbies mother， only Cecilia believes in his innocence. Part two of the novel jumps directly to 1941 and World War II and follo

38、ws Robbie as he tries to survive the Battle of Dunkirk in 1940. Robbie has spent three years in prison before being released on condition of enlistment in the army, Cecilia has trained to become a nurse in the war and she has broken all contacts with her family. They have been in contact by letter w

39、hile Robbie has been in prison and Cecilia has promised to wait for him forever. On being released and before going to France, Robbie meets Cecilia once; a fleeting half hour spent in awkwardness, but they share a kiss before parting. In France, the war efFort is going badly and the army is retreati

40、ng back to Dunkirk. We follow Robbie and two other soldiersNettle and Maceon their journey to Dunkirk. The event reflects the real life of Dunkirk evacuation in 1940. At the end of this part, Robbie is in Dunkirk, but his fate is still unknown. Part three concentrates exclusively on Briony that is n

41、ow performing as a trainee nurse in London during the weeks leading up to and following the Dunkirk evacuation. She believes now that it was Paul Marshall who raped Lola in 1935 and she feels deeply guilty for accusing Robbie of raping Lola when she was 13. In this section, it becomes apparently that Briony regards her nursing work as a kind o