An Analysis of the Environmental Elements in Araby（《阿拉比》中的环境要素解读）文献综述

 2022-01-06 08:01

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文献综述

1. Introduction1.1 Research backgroundJames Joyce (1882-1941) is one of the greatest writers in the 20th century and founders of postmodern literature. Joyce was born in Dublin, the capital of Ireland and a colony of Britain with constant wars. The Irish national independence movement and liberal ideas that appeared in European literature at the end of the 19th century exerted a great influence on him. Joyce's literary career began with his collection of short stories Dubliners, which he started to write in 1904. Up to now, the aesthetic value and artistic achievements of his Dubliners are widely recognized in the literary circle.American philosopher and psychologist William James was the first to put forward the stream of consciousness. The term mainly shows characters' internal flow of consciousness so that readers can see their trance and blurred spiritual world. Considered one of the greatest novels in the 20th century, Joyces novel Ulysses is representative of stream of consciousness. Until today, many writers and scholars are still reading and discussing this renowned work to explore their deep meanings.Joyce's Dubliners is a collection of 15 short stories and Araby is the third one. This book describes Dublin, which is at the foot of the "two mountains" of British colonial rule and Catholic oppression. The whole social atmosphere in Dublin is gloomy and dreary. In such an environment, people in the lower class are indifferent and depressed. At the same time, their personal ideals and hopes are destroyed. Joyce defines this state of mind as "paralysis". There are four themes of mental paralysis in his works including religious paralysis, political paralysis, emotional paralysis and psychological paralysis (Han, Zhang, Bi, 2006).Araby centers on a little boy's secret love. In order to win the attention of the girl he likes, the hero decides to go to the big bazaar Araby the girl wants to visit but cant afford the time. Because of his uncle's late return, he goes to the market late. He can only visit it for a short time before it closes. When the lights are out in the hall, he suddenly feels angry and painful. In the process of pursuing the idealization of love, he constantly realizes the difference between the real world and his own imaginary world. In other words, James Joyce aims to illustrate the process of disillusionment through the love story of the Irish teenager.Domestic and foreign scholars have conducted much research on Araby. They analyze various images to explore how the story shows the mental paralysis of people in Irish society. So far, almost no one has conducted an analysis of environmental elements in Araby, but they are an integral part. Environmental descriptions generally include descriptions of natural environments, social environments and details. Descriptions of environments in the short fiction highlight the theme and reveal the characters mentality. Therefore, this thesis is aimed to make an analysis of environment elements in Araby so as to enhance modern readers further understanding of Joyces writing styles.1.2 Literature reviewAraby embodies the charm of Joyces writing style and the stream of consciousness. The review of previous studies consists of two parts: domestic studies and foreign studies. 1.2.1 Domestic previous studiesThe study of Dubliners in China starts in the early 20th century and enters a relatively rapid development stage in the 1980s. The 1990s witnesses further development. Ling (1997: 96-101) uses Todorov's theory of narrative syntax, Genette's theory of narrative discourse and Barthes's code analysis method to analyze Araby in depth and shows the theme of disillusionment and mental paralysis. In the 21st century, the academic research of Araby based on western literary theories gradually occupies a dominant position in Chinese literary circles. Scholars explore the short story mainly in aspects of writing features and themes. In terms of writing features, Liu (2002) discusses the religious images in Araby and expounds that religion is illusory and unreal whereas Huang (2008) analyzes the images from the Gothic perspective and further explores the bleak reality of Dublin and Joyce's concern and worry about his hometown. Huang analyzes the image of death and the reality of repression, thereby showing that the protagonist is not defeated by the darkness of the market but the spiritual repression and helplessness brought by the paralyzed Dublin. Huang's research clearly reveals the theme of the story and the psychological state of people's mental paralysis in a repressive society. Furthermore, Cao (2006) reveals the inevitable failure of the hero's romantic pursuit in such a social environment from the perspective of symbolism, that is to say, the conflict between fantasy and reality. She also explores the symbolic meaning of Araby itself because it is the name of the market. In addition, the visual perception of light, shadow and color reveals the hero's inner world. Tao Zhao (2014) conduct a research on the symbolic meanings of colors and reveal the corruption and paralysis of Irish society. They study the influence of light on the boys' emotions and highly praise Joyce's vivid use of two symbols (light and color). The change of light from bright to dark indicates the boy's mood from good to bad, and finally his dream is shattered in the dark.In terms of themes, Yan (2008) compares this story with Eveline, explaining how the themes are highlighted through the presentation of background, plot and characterization. He also points out that metaphors and repetitions in the background description, and perspective switching that is used as one of the methods of characterization play a certain role in highlighting the theme of emotional paralysis. Zheng (2016) interprets Araby from two new perspectives (psychology and narratology), explaining the inevitability of "spiritual insight". She believes that environment is the beginning of cognition. Dublin's decadent social scene and mental outlook as well as the lack of parental love affect the protagonist's psychological cognition. The reason why he falls in love with Mangans sister is that the depressing environment makes him feel sad and cold, while her beauty makes him feel bright and warm.The description of the environment that runs through the story promotes the plot and helps shape the characters. It is a pity that there are no domestic scholars exploring the environmental elements of Araby as far as the author of this thesis collects, which will be the focus of this thesis. 1.2.2 Foreign previous studiesMany scholars explore the cultural and political significance of Joyces works, and discuss the issues of sex, colonialism and nationalism (Spenks, 155). However, Dubliners does not get their due attention. Most people prefer to focus on his Ulysses and Finnegans Wake. In the stream-of-consciousness narration, people's psychological activities tend to change with the flow of time, so researchers prefer to study the timeline in his works. But after the 21st century, more and more researchers pay attention to the spatial images and spatiality constructed in Joyce's works. They also generally analyze Araby from the perspective of symbolism, religious doctrine, narrative style and theme of mental paralysis. For instance, Snart (2006) analyzes the religious images in the story, thinking that it is metaphorical to connect the abandoned house in the story with the central character. Some of the houses described at the beginning of the story represent part of the destructive Dublin culture. However, the abandoned house is in sharp contrast to the opposite houses on both sides of the street. It is totally dilapidated, just like the decline of religion in Ireland. The little boy is thinking about religious ethics in this ruined house. Salma (2012) interprets oriental features, believing that the story deals with the contradictory attitude towards the East and thus becomes a tool for the hero to understand his own history and reality, which is contrastive to his fantasy. Khorsand (2014) studies the symbolic meaning of religion in the story and reveals the decline of religion. Khorsand also analyzes the symbolic meaning of the hero's uncle and Mangans sister, believing that the former symbolizes tyrannical England, while the latter represents oppressed Ireland. He also studies the transformation of narrative tone from the perspective of narratology. The story begins with a childlike tone. With the change of the protagonist's mentality, the narrative tone is gradually changing from naive to mature. Eskandari (2020) elaborates Raymond William's analysis of cultural materialism and power of language from the perspective of cultural materialism, which shows that language plays an important role in revealing the theme of Araby. Language, to certain extent, is influenced by Joyce's thoughts, which shows that he hopes Ireland can regain its culture.It is worth noting that most domestic and foreign scholars explore Araby from its writing features, such as images and symbols, as well as the themes of declined religion and spiritual paralysis but few focus on the analysis of the effects environmental elements can exert, including providing social and family background information, contributing to the characterization of the protagonist and the antagonist, setting up always-changing atmospheres (joyful→ depressing →gloomy) and strengthening the two important themes (the conflict between ideal love and reality; declined religion), which will be the center of this graduation thesis.1.3 Need of the studyAs to the need of the study, this thesis focuses on the analysis of the environmental elements, which can provide the social and family background information as well as set off the atmospheres of the whole work. On the other, the analysis of environmental elements can help readers understand Araby and James' stream of consciousness more deeply.ReferencesBarlow, R. (2020). James Joyce and Walter Scott: Incest, rivers of histoty, and old useless papers. Scottish literary review, 12(1), 1-18.Eskandari, S. (2020). Language discourse in James Joyces short stories the Grace and the Araby: A cultural studies. Budapest international research and critics in linguistics and education, 3(1), 411-420.Fuchs, D. (2020). James Joyces The Dead and Macrobiuss Saturnalia: The Menippean encyclopedic tradition and the mythical method. James Joyce quarterly, 57(3), 275-292.Jasim, H. A. (2015). The themes of escape in James Joyces Dubliners (Masters dissertation). Cankaya University, Turkey.Joyce, J. (2000). Dubliners. London: Penguin UK.Ju, B. M. (2016). The symbols in James Joyces Araby. In L. Hale et al. (Eds.), Proceeding of the fifth northeast Asia international symposium on language, literature and translation (pp.436-440). Marietta: The American Scholars Press.Khorsand, G. (2014). Paths to paralysis: Symbolism and narratology in James Joyces Araby and Eveline. Epiphany journal of transdisciplinary studies, 7(2), 92-104.Nuhiu, U. (2020). An analysis of themes and the language of the characters in James Joyces Dubliners. Journal of the association-institute for English language and American studies, 9(11).Papi, M. B. (2003). The unsaid in J. Joyces Araby: A linguistic perspective. Journal of the short story in English, 17-28. Salma, U. (2012). Orientalism in James Joyces Araby. Research on humanities and social sciences, 2(2), 67-79.Snart, J. A. (2006). Detached and empty: Subtexts of the unoccupied house in James Joyces Araby. English scholarship, 44, 90-93.Spinks, L. (2009). James Joyce: A critical guide. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Stone, H. (2013). 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