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Distortion and Loss of Love – Comment on the Family Relationship in Henry James's >Washington Square< [爱的扭曲和缺失 –评亨利•詹姆斯《华盛顿广场》中的家庭关系], Master thesis, English Language and Literature, Xiangtan University, Xiangtan, Hunan, China 2012 [application of Fromm's theories to art].

  • 亨利•詹姆斯(1843–1916)是美国19世纪后期三大现实主义大师之一,其多部作品历来倍受国内外学者的关注,其中的道德伦理主题引起了学者们的热烈探讨,然而其讨论却都相对忽略了詹姆斯早期作品中的道德伦理主题。本文拟从伦理批评的角度对其早期中篇小说《华盛顿广场》进行分析,探讨其作品所再现的家庭关系,挖掘出詹姆斯早期作品中的伦理思想。家庭关系是家庭成员间的人际互动或联系,属于社会关系的一种,是伦理批评的一个重要组成部分。家庭关系以主体为标准分为亲子关系、夫妻关系和其他家庭成员之间的关系。爱是处理家庭关系的核心原则,是维系婚姻和家庭的纽带。德国伦理学家爱利希•弗洛姆认为在家庭生活中,爱表现为亲子之爱、两性之爱和手足之爱三种形式,并认为爱包含了解、尊重、责任心和关心等基本要素。爱这一概念也因此体现了其伦理价值。《华盛顿广场》讲述了19世纪中叶纽约一个中上层阶级家庭的悲剧。本文以弗洛姆对爱的理论阐述为指导,分析《华盛顿广场》中的家庭关系及悲剧,试图揭示出19世纪三四十年代造成美国社会人性的扭曲和异化、道德的沦丧和滑坡的深层原因。全文共三章,第一章从作品的父女关系和母女关系入手,认为作品通过父亲对女儿的压制表现了一种扭曲的父爱,通过母亲对女儿的婚姻教导再现出错误的母爱,从而展示出一种亲子之爱的偏离,这种亲子之爱的偏离违背了老慈幼爱的伦理原则。第二章探讨两性之爱的缺失,认为未婚夫的贪婪表现出恋人间物化的爱,伪善表现出恋人间欺骗的爱,这两种爱都违背了男女互爱的原则。第三章则从弟弟的利己主义表现出的自私的爱,以及兄妹对婚姻的态度中传达出的相互矛盾的爱,分析了手足之爱的丧失,指出手足之爱的丧失违背了互谅互助的伦理原则。本文认为作品所体现的爱的扭曲和缺失是资本主义社会经济结构变化所带来的产物,是19世纪美国社会转型时期政治、经济、文化、历史多重社会因素造成的结果。詹姆斯在《华盛顿广场》这部早期作品中,就开始围绕爱的主题表达出对异化的家庭关系的批判,呼吁爱的社会的回归。
  • Henry James (1843-1916) is one of the three realist masters in the late nineteenth century and most of his works have aroused the domestic and foreign critics’ attention. They often discuss the moral theme in James’s works. However, the moral and ethical themes in the early works of James’s are relatively ignored in these discussions. The thesis attempts to criticize James’s early excellent novella >Washington Square< from the ethical point of view, exploring the family relationships in the novel and James’s ethical thinking in his early works. Family relationship, as an important part of ethical criticism, is the interpersonal interaction or contact among family members, belonging to a kind of social relations. Family relationships, based on the subject as standard, are divided into the parents-children relationship, the husband-wife relationship and relationships among other family members. Love is the core principle of dealing with family relationship and the link to maintain marriage and family. German ethicist Erich Fromm maintains that in the family life love registers as parental love, connubial love and sibling love and contains the basic elements, such as, understanding, respect, sense of responsibility and the care. The concept of love reflects its ethical value. Washington Square tells an upper-middle-class family tragedy in New York in them idle of the19th century. The thesis analyzes the family relation and tragedy in the novel in the light of Erich Fromm’s theory of love and tries to expose the underlying reason why there exists the distortion and alienation of the human nature, decay and landslide of the morality in the American society of19th century. The thesis is divided into three chapters. Chapter one, with the father-daughter relationship and mother-daughter relationship as the starting point, concerns distorted fatherly love through analyzing father’s suppression over the daughter and misguided motherly love in surrogate mother’s marriage guidance for the daughter, showing the deviation of parental love. This kind of parental love violates the principle of love and beloved.– Chapter two mainly explores materialized love and deceitful love between lovers due to fiancé’s greed as well as his hypocrisy, demonstrating the lack of connubial love. Such two kinds of love deviate from the principle of reciprocal love.– Chapter three focuses on selfish love showed by the young brother’s egotism and contradictory love interpreted by sibling’s attitudes toward marriage, pointing out the loss of sibling love, which has deviated from the principle of mutual understanding and support. Through the above analysis, the thesis points out that the distortion and loss of love results from the change of the economic structure of the capitalist society as well as various social and cultural factors in the transition period of American society of the19thcentury. James expresses his criticism on the alienation of family relationships in his early work Washington Square around the theme of love and calls for the return of the society with truelove. [Author’s translation]

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Metadaten
Author:Si Lue
Document Type:Dissertations
Language:Chinese
Year of first Publication:2012
Release Date:2020/11/03
Format:no copy existent / keine Kopie vorhanden
IdNo:Lue_Si_2012
Writings about Erich Fromm (Secondary Literature):Dissertations / Dissertationen
Erich Fromm's Library and Erich Fromm Archive:Dissertations / Dissertationen
Licence (German):
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