Abstract

Winston Groom’s work, Forrest Gump, has long been regarded as one of the world literary classics. It was made into the movie Forrest Gump by director Robert Zemeckis in 1993. This movie is based on the legend that a man of low intelligence grows to be a famous man, which is a typical example of the success of Anti-intellectualism, and proves that everyone can obtain success. The recent researches have stressed on the essence of the spirit of Forrest Gump, though ignoring the social significance of Anti-intellectualism reflected by his success. Therefore, from the perspective of Anti-intellectualism, this thesis attempts to illustrate the embodiment of Anti-intellectualism via the analysis of Forrest Gump’s speeches and behaviors, personality, and life experience, so as to explore the effects of Anti-intellectualism on the interpretation of the theme and the creation of the major characters’ images in the film. Meanwhile, this thesis also tries to probe the social significance of Anti-intellectualism to obtain a better understanding of the film, with the hope to offer possible ways to avoid its negative effects.
This thesis consists of four parts. Firstly, it introduces the movie and its original version. Secondly, it focuses on the origin, definition, features and evolution of Anti-intellectualism. Thirdly, it demonstrates the brilliance of less intellectual people by reviewing the plots, life experience of characters and their speeches in Forrest Gump. Fourthly, it makes a contrastive study of Anti-intellectualism between Chinese and western cultures, and puts forward some possible methods to relieve its negative effects.

Key words: Anti-intellectualism; Richard Hofstadter; intellectuals

摘  要

温斯顿•葛鲁姆的著作《阿甘正传》一直被认为是世界文学经典著作，1993年被罗伯特•泽米吉斯拍成同名电影并大获成功。《阿甘正传》讲述了一个智力低下的人成为著名人物的传奇故事，是体现反智主义成功的典型，意味着每个人都能成功。现有研究注重分析“阿甘精神”，往往忽略了从他成功中反映出来的反智主义的现实意义。因此，本文从反智主义的视角出发，通过分析影片《阿甘正传》主人公的言行、性格特征、人生经历，展示反智主义在影片中的具体体现，及其所起到的阐释主题、塑造人物形象的作用；同时，结合反智主义现实意义，探索消除其负面影响的可能途径，从而更深刻地理解影片。
本文分为四部分：第一部分，简要介绍影片《阿甘正传》及依据的原著；第二部分，阐述反智主义的起源、定义、特征和发展；第三部分从具体情节、人物事例及语言来展示智力较低的人的出色之处；第四部分，通过对比中西方文学中的反智主义现象，以提出消除其负面影响的可能途径。

关键词:反智主义；理查德•霍夫斯塔特；知识分子