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On >Loneliness< in Raymond Carver's Short Stories, [论雷蒙德·卡佛短篇小说中的>孤独<], Master thesis, World Literature, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, Guangdong, China 2021 [application of Fromm's theories to art].

  • Raymond Carver is the >father of minimalism< in the United States in the 1970s and 1980s. He is famous for his minimalism in form and length, style and material. There is always an important theme in Carver’s works – >loneliness<. Starting from the predicament of interpersonal communication, Carver writes about people’s experience and feelings of loneliness in life. There are frequent communication dilemmas in Carver’s novels, including gender communication dilemma and intergenerational communication dilemma, and the latter is the continuation of the former in family life. If there is often silence between the sexes, then there is also a lack of normal and warm communication between generations, replaced by verbal conflicts. In addition, TV culture also has a great impact on interpersonal communication. Carver’s characters are often addicted to TV programs, which makes the communication barriers that originally exist in interpersonal communication become more serious, and strengthens people’s spiritual emptiness and boredom and lonely, closed state of existence. Carver not only focuses on this kind of loneliness in the ordinary sense of everyday life, but also depicts the abstract, universal and philosophical picture of loneliness. In the way of literature, he echoed and verified the theory of American social psychologist Erich Fromm: >loneliness<, as the shadow of >freedom<, coexists with >freedom< and lies in the whole human living condition. The problem of >loneliness< can’t be solved fundamentally. The characters in the novel often use violence to escape loneliness, which is obviously undesirable. There is also a more rational and beautiful way for human beings: love and understanding – this is the right way to deal with the problem of loneliness and relieve the pain of loneliness, and it is also the glimmer of hope revealed in Carver’s later novels. In addition, Carver shows the theme of loneliness with his unique minimalist artistic techniques – >vacancy< narrative strategy, uncertain discourse and time and dull and narrow narrative scene. Carver often deliberately omits some important plots and dialogues, resulting in a certain >vacancy< in the process of the novel, in order to invite readers to explore the rich implication and strong sense of fear, threat and loneliness hidden behind the simple text. He also creates a new atmosphere through uncertain discourse, the narrator’s ambiguous narration of events and the design of uncertain time. It creates a suspense atmosphere and a terrible sense of threat, which perfectly sets off the desperate psychological state of the characters surrounded by loneliness. Finally, the dull and narrow narrative scene limits the characters’ activity space, creates a dull and depressing atmosphere, and highlights the characters’ lonely living condition. [Translation: www.cnki.net, 11/2022]

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Metadaten
Author:Hui Jin
Document Type:Dissertations
Language:Chinese
Year of first Publication:2021
Release Date:2024/04/04
Format:no download and copy possible
IdNo:Jin_Hui_2021
Writings about Erich Fromm (Secondary Literature):Dissertations / Dissertationen
Erich Fromm's Library and Erich Fromm Archive:Dissertations / Dissertationen
Licence (German):
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