Abstract

Letter from an Unknown Woman is one of the best novellas by Stephan Zweig and in the world. Zweig is renowned for his dedicate delineation in the literature world, while Letter from an Unknown Woman reflects his unique style. The essay will explore the unknown woman’s inner world from a Freudian perspective to find the deep impetus behind her irrational love. Furthermore, with a glimpse on the author’s life experience and the social background at his time, the essay attempts to analyze Zweig’s own spiritual world and to excavate the deeper meaning of the novella. The Freudian psychoanalysis exposes that the runaway libido caused by the heroine’s overuse of self-defense mechanism and her Electra complex are the deep impetus of infatuation in her herself. And through analysis on Stephan Zweig’s background, one discovers that the infatuated heroine is an artistic reflection of Zweig’s own spiritual world as a humanitarian, who feels despaired about the world distorted by the Great War at his time.

Key words: Stephan Zweig, Letter from an Unknown Woman, psychoanalysis, Freud

摘要

斯蒂芬•茨威格的《一个陌生女人的来信》是世界短篇小说中的经典篇目。茨威格以细腻的心理描写而享誉世界文坛,而他的代表作《一个陌生女人的来信》生动入微地体现了这一创作风格。论文从女主人公的内心入手,通过弗洛伊德的精神分析法，探究女主人公痴情背后的深层动因,并结合作者的生活经历和当时的时代背景,发掘潜藏在作品深处的精神自传，在更深层次中挖掘作品的内涵。在精神层面，女主人公的痴情主要来自于个体心理防卫机制滥用引起的力比多失控以及自身爱列屈拉情节的推动。而通过对作者个人背景的分析，可以发现小说中痴情的女主人公是因战争而对世界感到失望的人文主义者茨威格的精神世界的艺术化的表现。

关键词：斯蒂芬•茨威格，《一个陌生女人的来信》，精神分析，弗洛伊德

Introduction
Letter from an Unknown Woman is a novella by famous Austrian author, Stefan Zweig. Published in 1922, it tells the story of a well-known, yet frivolous novelist who, while reading a letter written by a woman he does not remember, gets glimpses into her life story.
Although one of the best critical realistic writers in the world, it seems that Stefan Zweig pays little attention to the real earthly world. On the contrary, his targets are always inside human beings. He searches for the undulation of emotions deep inside human hearts and displays one’s destiny and reflects social reality in this way. Zweig greatly respects and admires Freud, the founder of the discipline of psychoanalysis. Actually, he himself is an expert in Freud’s theory. This explains why many of his works are greatly influenced by Freud’s theory, showing obvious characteristic of psychoanalysis. Letter from an Unknown Woman is with no exception.