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Women’s Escape in Life – Interpretation of >Dear Life< from the Perspective of Fromm's View of Freedom [女性在生活中的逃离 – 弗洛姆自由观视域下的《亲爱的生活》解读], Master thesis, English Languange and Literature, Henan Normal University, Kaifeng, Henan, China 2019 [application of Fromm's theories to art].

  • 爱丽丝•门罗是加拿大女性作家,2013年诺贝尔文学奖得主。她终身致力于短篇小说创作,享有>我们的契科夫<的盛誉,是当代短篇小说大师。门罗最新的一部短篇小说集《亲爱的生活》于2012年出版,由十四篇故事组成,揭示了门罗关于成长,婚姻,爱情,疾病和死亡的永恒主题;这部小说一经发表就引起了广大评论界的关注;同时,它也是门罗力荐给读者的最后也是最好的一部作品。国内外许多学者以及文学评论家从多个不同角度评析爱丽丝•门罗的小说《亲爱的生活》。然而,大多数研究关注主题、文化、叙事艺术,女性主义、存在主义,比较文学及心理学等方面。门罗对女性生活日常的心理刻画细致入微,她笔下的女性人物在追寻着自由的同时又在逃避着自由;生活于她们而言是一场自由进行曲,这使得她们挣扎于个体自我、家庭和社会期望之间的矛盾需求。而弗洛姆的自由说中所蕴含的一些独特阐释又恰恰为这一研究提供了理论支持。本文借埃里希•弗洛姆的自由论试析《亲爱的生活》中五个故事里的女性。全文分为三个部分,引言、正文和结论;其中,正文本分由四个章节组成。引言介绍了爱丽丝•门罗和小说《亲爱的生活》,埃里希•弗洛姆的自由论,以及国内外对门罗的《亲爱的生活》的研究和评论,进而点明本文的研究意义:以弗洛姆的自由观中所涉及的>纽带<、>逃避<、>自发<为理论出发点,分析门罗的小说,揭示女性生活的实质。第一章是本文的理论基础。详细阐述了弗洛姆自由论的三个重要概念,>纽带<>逃避<与>自发<。在现代社会,个体为获得自由摆脱了曾赋予其生命以意义和安全的所有>纽带<,却又陷入了无能为力及孤立的状态。为了摆脱这种不安全的状态,个体开始竭力>逃避<自由,却被束缚在新纽带关系之中。但以牺牲个体自我为代价的新纽带并不能恢复他失掉的安全感。因此,这种>逃避<又给人套上了新的枷锁。而>自发<以不压抑自我、不割裂理性与本性为前提,能够帮助个体获得真实自我并依照其自由意志进行活动,使其重新找回安全感,实现真正意义上的自由。第二章从>纽带<的双重含义来具体分析女性在生活中所面临的困境。女性在不同的人生阶段扮演着多重角色,相应的也承受着多重的困境;而>纽带<,作为女性与家庭和社会联系的节点,在给予女性安全感的同时,也限制了她们对自由和自我实现的追寻;因此,女性徘徊于自我需求,家庭责任和社会期待的矛盾边缘,而她们的追寻也被现实生活中的日常琐碎日渐湮没,并逐渐在家庭与社会生活中变得无力与孤独。因此,>纽带<又成为了她们追求自由与自我实现的一种束缚与枷锁。第三章以>逃避<的深层次概念来关注女性在生活中的心理历程。自由所带来的孤独与无力感迫使女性个体在逃离束缚后开始寻求新的>纽带<关系。以感性占据统治地位的女性以爱之名屈从于外在男性权威,致使她们在生活中为了寻求丢失的安全感而牺牲掉一部分的自我。而内在权威又假借责任和良心之名无形地制约着女性,迫使她们在生活中放弃自我需求,回归理性。无论是感性占据抑或是理性占据,都是一种割裂自我,压抑自我的>逃避<,因此,新的>纽带<是暂时的,脆弱的。第四章从>自发<的概念进一步阐释了女性在生活中屡屡失败的根本原因及出路。女性>逃避<到新的>纽带<关系中注定是失败的,生活中的意外与悲剧便是最好的见证;女性对权威的依附其实是对安全感和权利的依附,而这种以牺牲部分或全部自我为代价的>逃避<是不牢固的,一旦时机成熟便会再次唤醒女性对内在自我的追寻;因此,自发性的缺失是导致失败的根本原因;唯有在实现自我的完整性的基础上,女性才能在寻求自由与幸福的同时与他人建立起平等独立的关系。基于以上的讨论和分析,结论部分指出门罗所塑造的女性人物在不同的人生阶段面临着不同的生存困境,表面上看似幸福的生活背后隐藏的是无尽的孤独与无力感。面对社会与家庭的双重压力,女性游走于社会或家庭需求与自我需求的矛盾边缘,不论是被动的屈服或主动地尝试,在现实生活中,她们仍然会与意外与悲剧不期而遇。尽管,这种生存困境对于女性而言是一种普遍存在的现象,但她们对自由和幸福的追寻是永无止境的。而且,她们终将通过自发性的活动找到生活的意义。
  • Alice Munro, a Canadian female writer, was the winner of Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013. She devotes all her life to the creation of short stories, known as >our Chekov<, and she is considered as a master of contemporary short stories. Munro’s latest collection of short stories >Dear Life< was published in 2012, which consists of 14 stories that reveal Munro’s eternal themes of growth, marriage, love, disease and death. It has attracted the attention of a wide range of critics once it was published; at the same time, it is also the last and the best work that Munro recommends to readers. Many scholars and critics at home and abroad have analyzed Alice Munro’s novel >Dear Life< from various perspectives. However, most studies focus on themes, culture, narrative arts, feminism, existentialism, comparative literature and psychology and etc. Munro’s psychological portrayal of women’s daily life is meticulous, and female characters in her novel are escaping from freedom while pursuing freedom; and life for them is the march of freedom, which makes them struggle with the contradictory demands among their individual selves, family and social expectations. And some of the unique interpretations contained in Fromm’s theory of freedom provide theoretical support for this research. This thesis tries to analyze the female characters of five stories in >Dear Life< from the perspective of Erich Fromm’s theory of freedom. It is divided into three parts, including introduction, body and conclusion, of which the body part is composed of four chapters. The first part introduces Alice Munro and >Dear Life<, Erich Fromm’s theory of freedom, as well as researches and comments on Munro’s Dear Life at home and abroad, and then points out the research significance of this thesis. And the paper takes the >bond<, >escape< and >spontaneity< involved in Fromm’s view of freedom as the theoretical starting points to analyze Munro’s novel and reveal the essence of women’s life. Chapter one is the theoretical basis of this thesis, which expounds three main concepts of Fromm’s theory of freedom in detail, such as >bond<, >escape< and >spontaneity<. The individual in modern society gets rid of all the >bonds< that once gave meaning and security to life and gains freedom but again falls into the state of powerlessness and isolation. In order to get rid of this state of insecurity, the individual strives to >escape< from freedom but is driven into a new bond. But this bond, at the expense of sacrificing the individual self, would not restore his lost security. Therefore, this >escape< from freedom makes the individual trap into a new bondage. However, based on the premise of without suppressing oneself or splitting reason and nature, >spontaneity< can help the individual obtain the real self and behave by his free will, which makes him regain security and realize the true sense of freedom. Chapter two illustrates women’s dilemmas in life from the dual meaning of >bond<. Women play multiple roles at different stages of life, and correspondingly suffer from multiple dilemmas. However, >bond<, as a node connecting women with family and society, not only gives them a sense of security but also limits their pursuit of freedom and self-realization. Therefore, women linger on the brink of contradiction among their individual demands and family responsibilities and social expectations, and their pursuit seems to be annihilated by daily trivialities in actual life, and gradually become powerless and isolated in family and social life. Thus, the >bond< again becomes a kind of bondage and yoke which gets in the way of their pursuit of freedom and self-realization. Chapter three focuses on the deep concept of >escape< to pay attention to women’s psychological process in life. The state of isolation and powerlessness brought about by freedom forces women to begin to seek the new >bond< relationship after escaping from bondage. Women dominated by sensibilities succumb to external male authority in the name of love, which make them sacrifice parts of their individual selves in life to find the lost sense of security. But the internal authority again restricts women intangibly in the name of responsibility and conscience, forcing them to give up their individual demands and come to their senses in life. Whether woman’s emotional occupation or rational occupation, it is a kind of >escape< that separates oneself and suppresses oneself, therefore, the new >bond< is temporary and fragile. Chapter four further explains the fundamental cause and the way out of women’s successive failures in life through the concept of >spontaneity<. It is doomed to fail for woman to >escape< to the new >bond< relationship, and the accident and tragedy in life are good evidences. And their attachment to authority is actually a dependency on the power and security, and the >escape< at the expense of sacrificing parts or all of the self is fragile. Once the time is ripe, they will be awakened again to pursue their inner selves. Therefore, the absence of spontaneity is the fundamental cause of failure. Only on the premise of the realization of self-integrity, can women build the equal and independent >bonds< with others while seeking freedom and happiness. Based on the above discussion and analysis, the conclusion part points out that the female characters created by Munro are confronted with different predicaments at different stages of life, and endless isolation and powerlessness hide behind the seeming happiness in life. Being confronted with the double pressure from society and family, women struggle on the edge of the contradiction between social or family demands and individual self’s demand. No matter the passive submission or the active attempt, woman still meet with accidents and tragedies unexpectedly in actual life. Although these plights of survival are the universal phenomena for women, their pursuit of freedom and happiness is endless. And they will eventually find the meaning of life through spontaneous activities. [Author’s translation]

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Metadaten
Author:Qian Wang
Document Type:Dissertations
Language:Chinese
Year of first Publication:2019
Release Date:2020/11/03
Format:no copy existent / keine Kopie vorhanden
IdNo:Wang_Qian_2019
Writings about Erich Fromm (Secondary Literature):Dissertations / Dissertationen
Erich Fromm's Library and Erich Fromm Archive:Dissertations / Dissertationen
Licence (German):
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