Abstract

The 1960s has played an important role in American literature and produces a large number of classic literatures. But One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey is undoubtedly one of the representative works of that time. As the author of the milestone masterpiece One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey is beyond doubt an irreplaceable representative of the Hippies Age. Unlike the previous symbolism and existentialism analyses of One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, this paper chooses the famous power discourse theory of Michel Foucault, who is an important philosopher in the 20th century, to analyze the madness and the power in One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
This thesis will analyze this novel in the following four parts. First part talks about Foucault’s representative works and main viewpoints. Second part presents background and key characters of One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Third part uses madness theory of Foucault’s discourse theory to interpret madness and madman in One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Fourth part analyzes the equal power’s being oppressed in novel and people’s self-salvation in madhouse in order to obtain the power. Finally, it concludes that the madness of the current era is not just on some certain people, but on the entire community.
Through the interpretation of One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, this paper firstly hopes to enrich madman’s crazy overall image under Ken Kesey’s pen and to think about that whole era, in further, it also designs to interpret madman’s definition of madness and their pursuit and desire of power under the social background of the era. It explains that even though the madmen are in the mad situation on the surface, they more realistically reflect a society’s inequalities than usual people.

Key words: Ken Kesey; Madness; Power; One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest

摘  要

20世纪60年代对于美国文学具有十分重要的意义, 产生出一大批经典的文学作品, 肯•克西的《飞越疯人院》无疑是那个时代具有代表性的作品之一。不同于以往关注于《飞越疯人院》的象征主义及存在主义分析, 本文选取20世纪的重要哲学家米歇尔•福柯的著名的话语权利理论为解读方法, 对肯•克西《飞越疯人院》中的疯癫与权利进行分析。
本文运用福柯的话语理论，从四个部分进行分析。首先，阐述福柯的代表作及主要观点；然后, 分析作品的时代背景和主要特征；第三部分则用福柯话语理论中的疯癫理论, 去解读《飞越疯人院》中的疯人与疯态；最后, 探讨《飞越疯人院》中平等权利的被压制, 以及疯人院中的人物为了获得权利做出的自我救赎, 进而总结出当下时代疯癫的, 不仅是一部分人而是整个社会。
通过对《飞越疯人院》的解读, 本文首先期望丰富肯•克西笔下疯人们的整体形象和对那个时代的思考，进而解读大时代社会背景下的疯人们，对疯癫的界限分定和对权利的追求与渴望，说明疯人虽然表面处于疯癫状态，但他们比平常人更加真实的反应了社会的各种不平等现象。

关键词:肯•克西；疯癫；权利；《飞越疯人院》