被扭曲和异化的人-解读《嘉莉妹妹》中的男性受害者_英语论文

Distorted and Alienated Men—Interpreting the Male “Victims” in Sister Carrie

摘要

西奥多·德莱塞是20世纪美国杰出的小说家，自然主义文学的先驱。《嘉丽妹妹》是其早期力作，展现了20世纪初美国的社会风貌，刻画了美国社会中处于劣势地位的贫寒女子形象，批判了资本主义社会的黑暗。

尽管国内外学者对《嘉莉妹妹》进行了不同角度的研究，但研究重点多集中于嘉莉的形象分析、欲望与环境对嘉莉造成的影响等，却忽略了对男性群像的研究。本文将聚焦于《嘉丽妹妹》中的三大男性：赫斯特伍德、杜洛埃、汉森，解读他们人格被扭曲和异化的深层次原因，揭示他们与女性一样同为受害者的事实，并对20世纪初美国资产主义社会加以批判。

论文第一部分主要介绍了德莱塞的生平、主要作品、写作特色以及小说《嘉莉妹妹》的主要内容、写作背景及研究现状。第二部分将着眼于小说中的三位男性，分析他们被扭曲和异化的人性，揭示男性也是“受害者”的事实。第三部分将从小说的历史背景入手，分析资本主义社会中人性被扭曲和异化的深层次原因，揭示20世纪初美国资产主义社会中贫富对立、人情冷漠、追逐金钱等社会现实。最后是论文的总结部分。

关键词：《嘉莉妹妹》； 男性“受害者”； 扭曲和异化； 资本主义

Abstract

Theodore Dreiser is not only an outstanding novelist in America in the 20th century, but also a pioneer of naturalism literature. Sister Carrie, as one of his early works, exposes the social reality in the United States at the beginning of 20th century, by portraying the image of poor women who were in the inferior position in American society and by criticizing the darkness of capitalist society.

Although domestic and foreign scholars have studied Sister Carrie from different perspectives, they mainly focus on the analysis of Carrie, the effects of environment and desire on Carrie, etc., while seldom paying attention to the analysis of the male characters. Therefore, on the basis of previous study, this thesis will put its emphasis on three males: Hurstwood, Drouet, and Hanson in Sister Carrie, interprets the deep reasons for their distorted personality and alienation, as well as explores the fact that they are victims like the female, so as to criticize the cruel social reality, such as confrontation between the rich and the poor, people’s crazy pursuit of money, and so on.

This thesis will first introduce Dreiser’s life experience and writing styles, and the main idea and literature review of Sister Carrie. For the second chapter, it will dwell on the analysis of the three male characters and analyze their distortion and alienation to draw a conclusion that they are also “victims”. The third chapter will elaborate on the deep reasons why their personality is distorted and alienated from the perspective of historical and social background. The last chapter is the conclusion of this thesis.

Keywords: Sister Carrie  male “victims”  distortion and alienation  capitalism