TY - GEN A1 - Liao, Chunzhou T1 - The Battle between Dream and Love: On the Modernity Predicament in Hardy’s >The Return of the Native< [梦与爱的较量—论哈代《还乡》中的现代性困境], Master thesis, English Language and Literature, Yunnan Normal University, Kunming, Yunnan, China 2017 [application of Fromm's theories to art]. N2 - 作为19世纪至20世纪期间最具影响力的现实主义作家之一,哈代对于所处时代的社会变迁十分敏感,其著名的>威塞克斯小说<展示了英国西南部多塞特的自然风光和社会风俗习惯,呈现了工业文明给当时社会所带来的变化和不良影响,揭示了人性的美与丑、善与恶。哈代的第一部悲剧小说《还乡》出版于1878年,虽名气不如其后期小说《德伯家的苔丝》或《无名的裘德》,但仍属哈代的杰出作品之一。《还乡》一书主要写了两位男女主人公幸福结合而又走向悲惨破裂的故事。男主人公克莱姆在大都市巴黎从事珠宝行业,事业有成、前途似锦。然而他却厌恶大都市的奢靡生活,一心只想回到家乡创办一所学校,帮助乡民改变自己的命运。而出生于城市却因父母去世而搬到埃顿荒原与外祖父生活的尤苔莎,厌恶这个地方,一心向往的就是能生活在巴黎这样的大城市,过上上流社会的美好生活,来实现自身的人生价值。可想而知,生活目标如此截然不同的两个年轻人的婚姻,最终只能走向失败。再者,小说中另一个重要角色达蒙,为了追求尤苔莎推迟了与托玛辛的结婚。他一心只想占有尤苔莎,而并不是真正的爱。通过讲述这样一段悲情的爱恋故事,《还乡》展现了一段爱与梦想之间的纠葛,洞察了现代性给人类社会所带来的负面影响,抨击了工业文明对自然、人类以及两性情感所造成的扭曲。《还乡》这个标题仅从字面意思理解远远不够,它有着更深层次的内涵。诚然,这部小说围绕着从巴黎远道归来的克莱姆展开。哈代的这位归乡者是一个有着现代面容的现代人,怀揣着教书育人的梦想从现代都市巴黎回到埃顿荒原。他的回归象征着现代性的对立面,这正是哈代的理想归宿。整篇小说的行文结构都在围绕着游苔莎与克林的梦想展开。梦想是他们生存的希望,也是造成他们悲剧发生的根源所在。字里行间,作者哈代从未评价过他们的梦想的对与错,他只是在呈现现代人的痛苦与生存困境。男主人公还乡的梦想正是作者对工业文明和现代性的斥责以及对淳朴生活的怀旧之情的体现。提及现代人的生存困境,美国人本主义哲学家弗洛姆对现代人的生存境况所表现出的审美关怀以及对爱的探讨,不论是应用于文本分析,还是对当代社会,皆具有积极的启示和借鉴作用。因此,本文试图以弗洛姆的审美思想为理论基点,解读《还乡》中主人公的梦想、爱情、婚姻、激情、异化以及焦虑,探讨哈代对现代人生存困境的理解。在新的时代背景下重新解读《还乡》,有助于我们在伟大作家们对现代工业文明的批判中找到共鸣,更好地寻找到人生的意义、把握人生的奥妙,提醒人们关心自我、关爱他人,以审美的方式消弭现实中的压抑与异化,实现诗意的栖居。 N2 - Being one of the most influential realistic writers between the Victorian Age and the 20th century, Thomas Hardy was sensitive to the social transformation of his day. His works are known as >Wessex Novels<, which show the natural landscapes and social mores of Dorset in Southwest of England, assuming the social alteration and the side effects brought by industrial civilization, and demonstrating the beauty and ugliness, kindness and wickedness of human nature. >The Return of the Native<, the first tragic novel of Thomas Hardy, was published serially in an English magazine in 1878, which was not as well received as Hardy‘s later works like >Tess of the D’Urbervilles< (1891) or >Jude the Obscure< (1895), but remains firmly as one of his canons. It was a story that two protagonists married happily but ended with a tragic ending. Clym worked in a jewelry shop in the metropolis Paris with a promising future. However, he disliked the extravagant lifestyle in Paris, bending upon returning to his hometown, to start a school for helping his fellows to change their destinies. Born in a prosperous city and moved to Egdon Heath to live with her grandfather because of her parent’s death, Eustacia repelled the heath and yearned for living in a big city like Paris, leading a better life to achieve her own value. It is conceivable that the marriage of this young couple, whose life goals were so different, ultimately can only come into failure. Moreover, Damon, another important character in this novel, postponed his marriage to Thomas in order to pursue Eustacia, he concentrated on possession rather than genuine love. The novel reveals the conflicts and paradoxes of modernity through narrating such a complex and miserable story of love triangle happened in Egdon Heath, and drawing a compelling description of love and passion. Straightforward as the title The Return of the Native, far from being downright literal, has deeper meanings. Indeed, this novel is all about a long-absent native of Egdon Heath who returns from the metropolis Paris. Clym, Hardy‘s returning native, is a modern person with modern countenance and modern thought from a modern city, who dreams to impart knowledge and educate to his village fellows. Clym‘s return to Egdon Heath represents the antithesis of modernity, which is Hardy‘s ideal. This novel revolves around Eustacia‘s and Clym‘s dreams. Dream is both their hope to survive and the root of their tragedy. Nonetheless, Hardy didn‘t give his judgment of their dreams, nor preach at his readers. He just vividly drew a picture of the agony of modern people and the survival predicament. Clym‘s return is the embodiment of Hardy‘s lash at the industrial civilization and modernity, and his nostalgia for simple life. When referring to the existential plight of modern people, American humanist philosopher Erich Fromm‘s aesthetic concerns to the living conditions of modern people and the exploration of love, whether for text analysis or contemporary society, have positive implications and influences. On this ground, Fromm‘s theory of aesthetics is applied to interpret the protagonist’s dream, love, passion, alienation, and anxiety in The Return of the Native. Reinterpreting The Return of the Native helps us to find echoes in great writers‘ criticism of modern industrial civilization, discovering the meaning and mystery of life, reminding people to care for themselves and others, using an aesthetic way to eliminate the depression and alienation, and to achieve poetic dwelling. That entails the exploration of the modern people‘s existential predicament, providing an aesthetic outlet for the miserable people in contemporary society. [Author’s translation] Y1 - 2017 ER -