Reading A Good Man Is Hard to Find from a Spatial Perspective 对《好人难寻》的空间解读文献综述

 2022-01-05 07:01

全文总字数：7391字

文献综述

1.Introduction1.1 Research backgroundIn the early years post-World War II, racial segregation remained severe in the southern United States. At that time, there were still 15 million Blacks in the south, and there was no fundamental change in racial relations. The principle of isolation but equality sounded grand, but the truth was separation and inequality. Schools, restaurants, cinemas, libraries, restrooms and even cemeteries in many southern states continued to be strictly segregated. Waiting rooms for blacks, for example, were clearly marked colored waiting rooms and white only-ladies rest room. Thus, mass protest movements againstracial segregationanddiscriminationcame to national prominence during the mid-1950s. American civil rights movement was born.Mary Flannery OConnor (1925-1964), an excellent contemporary American Southern female writer and an important spokesperson of American literature. Her works were mostly created during World War II. She, combining religious belief, moral ethics, southern regional background with personal experiences skillfully, depicts a unique picture of social life, and inspires readers to discover the absurd and cruel social reality in America in the 1950s. A good man is hard to find is such a work, which was most widely discussed among all Flannery OConnors stories. It is also an excellent representative of the accomplishment of OConnor in that it contains all the major elements of the remarkable literary legacy left by this woman who only lived to be thirty-nine-years-old and who was too ill to write in her last years.This research will study A good man is hard to find in light of the Henri Lefebvres Theory of Space, which includes three levels: geographical space, social space and psychological space. The geographical environment, psychology of Characters and social space in the novel, under the seemingly unconscious arrangement of the writer, actually have profound implications. Thus, as a new prism of interpreting literature texts, the perspective of spatial criticism can offer new views or more details and comprehensive interpretation. Associating with the text, this thesis will analyse thecharacterizationof anomalies in the story as well as the social characteristics and racial conflicts of that time, based on the analysis of geographical, social and psychological spaces. 1.2 Literature reviewMary Flannery OConnor is considered one of the most important short story writers of the twentieth century because of her strange but interesting characters, her violent plot elements, and her religious world view. Since the publication of OConnors first work, interest in studying this unique female writer has never stopped and the enthusiasm for research is endless. The study of OConnor abroad can be divided into the following aspects. Some scholars study the religious significance. Madison Jones (1993: 122) sees The Misfit as the victim of circumstance. Jones compares The Misfits penitentiary experience to the conditions created in the world after original sin was committed by Adam and Eve void of Gods sustaining grace and submitted to the rule of a Prince who is Darkness. Some researchers pay attention to the relationship between OConnors body and literature, and study the influence of disease on her literary creation. Representative studies in this area include The presence of disease: On the language of disease, in which Walker (1996) explores the potential impact of OConnors disease on her literary creativity and imagination. In addition, foreign scholars also take the feminist perspective into concern. Teresa (2004) uses Feminist Theory to consider the female identity and analyze the social life and the image of male and female under the patriarchal discourse of the South, showing clear feminist consciousness.Although OConnor began to write short stories in the 1940s, it was not until 1979 that Tu Zhens first translation A good man is hard to find appeared in China. Thus, compared with foreign research results, the domestic research on A good man is hard to find started late. Moreover, domestic scholars focused on the theme, character analysis and religion in her works and feminist analysis. Li Yin (2018) reinterprets themes in A good man is hard to find from the perspective of personality. He argues that OConnor tore off the hypocritical mask of Southern elitism by shaping The Misfit in order to achieve a violent redemption. According to Wu Pei (2020), as a Catholic, OConnors literary works ultimately point to religious beliefs. She believes that the evilness of human nature is the presupposition of religious ethics, violence is a way to transcend religious ethics and death is the ultimate concern of religious ethics. Yuan Rui (2019) attempts to interpret the restrain and oppression of male society on women in OConnors short stories, taking feminist geography as the theoretical support and combining with the social background.In recent years, some scholars turned to study A good man is hard to find from the perspective of spatial criticism. An Cuifang (2017) introduces two basic concepts of space put forward by Lefevere (absolute space and abstract space) to explore the related relationship of spatial transformation and then to reveal the spatial alienation of the industrial civilization of capitalism to the agricultural civilization of the South. Yue Jing (2020) discusses the survival crisis, the psychological alienation of the characters, and how to place the soul after the reconstruction of the personality, so as to show the authors profound insight into the darkness of human nature. From the perspective of space theory and tragedy transcendental thought, Li Kang (2020) argues that OConnor uncovers the hiddenness of evil and universality of tragedy through the openness of physical space, demonstrating the grotesque social background and tension in the relationship between characters through the collapse of spiritual space.Generally speaking, religious belief, southern background, life experience, female identity and other elements have always been the entry points for critics and readers to study and interpret OConnors works. Although some scholars have studied A good man is hard to find from the perspective of spatial criticism, the study is relatively small in number and usually based on multiple works by OConnors rather than one single work. Thus, there is still more space in the study of A good man is hard to find for us to explore.1.3 Need of the studyOConnor was good at applying Gothic technique which was widely used in Southern literature to create all kinds of behavior quirks, psychopaths, and perverse characters. Therefore, in her works, there is a strange atmosphere of death. Some critics believe that OConnor suffered from illness for a long time, so she has special sensitivity and attention to the morbid and vulgar personnel of society. For a long time, critics were interested in examining OConnors novel, especially her A good man is hard to find, from perspectives of psychoanalysis and philosophical study of morality. Reading A good man is Hard to Find from a spatial perspective, not only provides us with a new approach to interpret text, but also helps to explore the connection between the American South and OConnors religious belief, careful scene arrangement, southern features.

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