A Study of Alienation Theme in >The Man of the Crowd< [《人群中的人》异化主题分析], Master thesis, English Language and Literature, Liaoning University, Shenyang, Liaoning, China 2017 [application of Fromm's theories to art].

  • 埃德加•爱伦•坡是19世纪美国杰出的小说家、诗人和文学评论家,是美国文学界最具世界影响的作家之一。同时,他也是美国文学史上最有争议的作家之一。进入20世纪以来,爱伦•坡作为美国浪漫主义时期的作家引起了现代派的极大的关注和兴趣,各批评流派都从不同的角度来审视他和他的作品。爱伦•坡的《人群中的人》不同于他被众人熟知的侦探小说、哥特小说、恐怖小说,是爱伦•坡最具现代意识的小说,也被认为是那个时代最出色的艺术品。作品中透视出来的异化现象,值得深一步的探索与研究。本文拟借助马克思劳动异化理论、弗洛姆的心理异化理论以及文学作品中异化观点的应用,对爱伦•坡具有自传性质的小说《人群中的人》进行分析。对穿梭于伦敦大街小巷的形形色色的人群做了细致的描写,也通过他对城市人群孤独、虚无的内心世界的描绘,对叙述者与追逐对象踪动机的探寻,折射异化这一社会现象产生的严酷的影响,表现了人类在现代工业文明笼罩之下人性被扭曲和异化之后所衍生出的精神空虚、情感孤寂的精神状态,呼吁人们要重视人类的生存状态,彰显了作者对人类生存困境和发展危机的深刻焦虑和人文关怀,为走出异化的迷途,构建和谐社会而努力。论文包括引言、正文、结论三大部分。引言介绍国内外对爱伦•坡《人群中的人》这一作品的研究现状,从而体现本文的创新之处。正文部分为论文主题部分,拟分为四章。第一章为介绍理论。在整个异化理论的起源和发展分析中,主要集中在马克思的异化劳动和弗洛姆的异化的心理分析上。此外,在这一部分论文还对文学中异化主题及与人群中的人这一作品进行了概括性分析。第二章分析人群中的人这一作品中的异化主体的体现,是论文的最主要部分。论文把马克思劳动异化理论、弗洛姆的心理异化理论与具体作品进行结合分析。阐述作品中的老人与人群、人群与自然、社会以及老人自身的异化关系。第三章分析了《人群中的人》中异化产生的原因。主要包括社会环境影响、作者爱伦坡的生平经历对主人公异化的影响、关爱的缺失、归属感和安全感的缺失、以及自我认知不清。第四章根据之前的分析,提炼出异化的结果,这些危害性结果在作品及当代社会都有所显现。在异化无法消除的情况下,针对其产生原因及结果提出一些抑制异化危害的措施。最后一部分是结论部分。概括论文主要观点,点明主旨,并结合文章的分析,揭示出本论文研究的现实意义。随着异化现象越来越普遍的情况下,透彻的了解无论是文学作品或是显示社会中的异化,都有助于减轻其不良影响。希望本篇文章能够给致力于研究异化理论和埃德加•爱伦•坡的文学爱好者提供参考和借鉴,并为现实社会中减轻异化危害,提供一些行之有效的建议,从而走出异化的生活困境。
  • Edgar Allan Poe is an outstanding American writer, poet and literary critic in 19th century and is regarded as the most influential and most controversial one in American literary history. As a representative writer of American Romantic period, Poe causes great attention and interests in 20th century. His literature works are explored and studied by various schools and in different perspectives. Different from his widely acknowledged detective stories, Gothic novels and horror fiction, >The Man of the Crowd< is his autobiographical short story, which is regarded as his most outstanding art works with modern consciousness at that era. The alienation theme which reflects in the story is worth being explored. This paper adopts the alienation theme to analyze a variety of people shuttling back and forth in the streets of London in the autobiographical short story. The characters display people’s mental state of being spiritually barren and lonely, which comes from the humanity distorted and alienated by the modern industrial civilization. By exploring the motivation of the narrator’s tracing and the old man’s wandering, Poe illustrates the severe alienation impact of this social phenomenon, which also manifests the writer’s deep concern over the living predicament and development crisis of humans under the pressure of industrial civilization. Writer appeals to attach more importance to human survival, revealing the anxiety to human existence and development crisis, struggling for getting rid of the alienation predicament and building a harmonious society. Through the help of alienation theory of Marx, Fromm and alienation theme in literature works, the thesis examines the theme of alienation in >The Man of the Crowd< in three parts which are the introduction, the main body and the conclusion. Its main contents are as follows: The first part is the introduction. It shows research status at home and abroad of the short story in order to present a better introduction, as well as the creation and writing value of this thesis.– The second part is the main body which contains four chapters: The first chapter is the theoretical perspective of alienation theory. It mainly concerns on the origin and development of alienation theory. Among the whole analysis of alienation theory, the thesis concentrates on Marx’s alienation of labor and Erich Fromm’s alienation in psychology. Then, the thesis also has a concluded view on alienation theme in modern literature works and >The Man of the Crowd<.– The second chapter is the alienation theme in >The Man of the Crowd<, which holds the significant position in the whole thesis. Combined with specific figures in the short story, the thesis illustrates the alienation relationship between the old man and the crowd people, the man and the nature, the society, and his self-alienation.– The third chapter concentrates on the causes of alienation in >The Man of the Crowd<, which consists the influences of social environment, Poe’s life experience, loss of love, loss of society belonging and sense of security and loss of self-identity.– The fourth chapter mainly deals with the consequences of alienation which present both in the short story and in modern society. The alienation can not be eliminated, but people can find ways to restrain its harm. After illustrating the causes and the consequences of alienation in the short story and on modern society, the thesis then analyzes some means to restrain this social phenomenon.– The final part is the conclusion, which concludes the previous contents as a summary of analyzing the short story and gets the gist and the realistic meaning of the thesis. With the generalization of alienation phenomenon, a better understanding of alienation theme both in literature works and in real society provides ways for people to struggle against its harm. The author hopes the thesis can offer a reference to most literature lovers who are devoted to their research on Edgar Allan Poe, as well as providing some advice to relieve the harm of alienation on modern society. That will contribute a lot to find way out the living predicament brought by alienation. [Author’s translation]

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Metadaten
Author:Yue Liu
Document Type:Dissertations
Language:Chinese
Year of first Publication:2017
Release Date:2019/03/04
Format:no download and copy possible
IdNo:Liu_Yue_2017
Writings about Erich Fromm (Secondary Literature):Dissertations / Dissertationen
Erich Fromm's Library and Erich Fromm Archive:Dissertations / Dissertationen
Licence (German):
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