论《金翅雀》中的地理景观书写_英语论文

The Geographical Landscape Writing in Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch

摘要

唐娜·塔特是一位美国当代著名女作家，其代表作包括长篇小说《校园秘史》、《小朋友》等。于2013年创作的小说《金翅雀》是她的第三部作品，并于次年获得了普利策奖及其它多项荣誉。整部小说中，作者对于各类地理景观的描写着墨较多。本文从宏观与微观角度重点分析了小说《金翅雀》中的典型地理景观书写。

本论文包括五个部分。前言部分叙述了《金翅雀》的文学背景、地理景观描写的文学意义及本论文的大致结构。本论文在研究对象、内容和范围上具有一定的创新性。

正文分为三个部分。第一章分析了小说主人公西奥人生转折点所在的场景——纽约大都会博物馆。作为全文中最重要的地理景观，作者对其的描写都很大程度上推进了情节发展，并反映出当时沉重肃穆的社会氛围及对人物性格与生涯的扭转。第二章描述了西奥童年时期曾居住的两处环境。由于西奥的心态变化、周围环境的不同，其景观差异对他的影响截然不同，麦迪逊大道上的公寓让他在一个简单而又温馨的环境下度过了十三岁以前的童年生活；公园大道上巴伯一家的房子却使他不得不适应一个陌生的环境，在别人的家庭里拘谨地生活。第三章选取了作者对小说中两个重要人物居住地内部结构的描写为例。内部环境的具体特征分别反映了居住者的怀旧而又随意、干练而又神秘的性格特征，塑造了主要人物的形象。

最后为本论文的结尾段。本文旨在将各著名建筑的历史意义、具体设计的文学意义与小说《金翅雀》中的地理景观书写相结合，从多方面分析小说中地理景观书写的技巧、方法与作用。

关键词：唐娜·塔特；《金翅雀》；地理景观书写；文学意义

Abstract

Donna Tartt is a famous contemporary American female writer, whose masterpieces include novels such as the Secret History, and the Little Friend. The Goldfinch is the third novel of her written in 2013, which won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in the next year among other honors. In the whole novel, the author put much effort in depicting the geographical landscapes. This paper focuses on analyzing the geographical landscapes in The Goldfinch from both the macro and micro perspective.

This thesis includes five parts. The introduction displays the literary background of The Goldfinch, the literary significance of geographical landscapes, and the general structure of this paper. This paper owns a certain degree of both innovation on the objects, contents and boundaries of research.

The main body of the thesis is includes three parts. The first chapter analyzes the background scene of the turning point of the main character’s life. As the most important geographical landscape throughout the whole novel, the writing for the New York Metropolitan Museum pushes the development of plots to a great extent. They also reflect the oppressive social atmosphere at that time and the influence on the Theo’s personality had his life. The second chapter depicts the two residences in which the main character has lived for a long time during his childhood. Due to the changes in both the main character’s mind and the environment surrounding him, the influences of the two landscapes on the main character were distinctly different. The apartment on the Madison Avenue provided him with a simple and free childhood before the age of thirteen; but the house of Barbour on the Park Avenue made him live overcautiously under eaves of others. The third chapter sets three typical examples to analyze the descriptions of the inside structure of the three important characters’ houses respectively, directly reflecting the character traits and portraying the character images.

The last part is the conclusion for this paper. The paper is aiming to associate the historical significance of the famous buildings and the literary significance of the specific design with the geographical landscapes writing in The Goldfinch, to analyze the techniques, methods and functions of geographical landscape writing in the novel.

Key words: Donna Tartt; The Goldfinch; geographical landscape writing; literary significance

Contents

Acknowledgementsi

摘要 .ii

Abstract.iii

Table of Contentsiv

Introduction.1

Chapter One  Landscapes of the turning point5

1.1 The landscape before the accident.5

1.2 The scene after the accident and repetitive memories.7

Chapter Two  Landscapes of the main character’s residents9

2.1The previous home on the Madison Avenue.9

2.2 The house of Barbour on the Park Avenue11

Chapter Three  The structure and style of important role’s houses13

3.1 James Hobart’s house on the West Tenth13

3.2 Kitsey’s apartment beside the Alwyn Church14

Conclusion16

Bibliography.18