Dissertations / Dissertationen
Refine
Language
- Chinese (31) (remove)
Document Type
- Dissertations (31)
Has Fulltext
- no (31)
Year of publication
- 2021 (31) (remove)
Western capitalist societies in the 1940s and 1950s had a significant improvement in the level of productivity development, but during this period there were problems with the overall mental status of social members. Fromm believes that society as a whole will be in a morbid state just like individuals. At this time, criticism of society should be used to replace the rejection of individuals who do not adapt to society. In order to carry out social critical work, Fromm mainly absorbed the ideas of Freud and Marx, combined psychoanalysis with the social and historical research method as the prototype of historical materialism, and changed the validity of Freud’s theory from the personal or family scope extends to the social scope, and social character is formed from this.– This article systematically introduces and explores the theory of social character. On the one hand, the introduction reveals the research background and significance of this article, on the other hand, it also introduces the status quo of the research on Fromm’s thought at home and abroad, especially his theory of social character.– The first chapter introduces the two major theoretical sources of social character: Freud’s theory and Marxist philosophy, including Freud’s psychoanalysis, subconscious theory and individual character dynamics and society as a prototype of historical materialism. The specific content of historical research method and historical materialism.– The second chapter restores its complete theoretical form from the three aspects of the formation process, main content and function of social character, laying a foundation for exploring the theoretical and practical significance of social character.– Chapter Three discusses the theoretical significance of social character in depth, mainly from the position of the theory in Fromm’s thought and its significance to historical materialism. Specifically, social character is an important theoretical weapon for Fromm to criticize Western capitalist society. Fromm also uses the ideal social character-productive character to try to restore the historical subject; in addition, social character not only supplements and developed the relationship between social existence and social consciousness, economic foundation and superstructure, and also explored the relationship between subject and object in historical materialism, and restored the subjective dimension of historical materialism on this basis.– Finally, the fourth chapter of the article reveals the practical significance of social personality for thinking and resolving the main contradictions in our society. [Translation: www.cnki.net, 7/2023]
[Chinese abstract not available.] William Golding is regarded as an outstanding British poet religious novelist, modern fabulist and humanist of the 20thcentury. His masterpiece, >Lord of the Flies<, enjoys great popularity in the history of the English literature, which was once the bestseller of the campuses in American universities. In 1983, Golding won the throne of the Nobel Prize in literature because of his brilliant writing style as well as his penetrating thinking of humans’ living conditions in his works. >Pincher Martin< is the third novel written by Golding, which was published in 1956. Although the influence of this novel is inferior to that of his renowned masterpiece >Lord of the Flies<, Golding tried to find a new way to compose. He created a man’s spirit after death as the hero of the story, portraying the brutal instinct hidden in the human nature with a unique perspective. As a result, the publication of this work won a huge success. The novel tells a story of a military officer named Christopher Hadley Martin who had encountered a marine peril and drifted to an isolated island on which he struggled against death to survive. Most readers tend to be touched by Martin’s iron man’s spirit when they read this novel for the first time. However, when Golding was portraying Martin’s struggle against death to the utmost extent, he also revealed that Martin was actually a selfish egoist, a real villain in his real life by inserting Martin’s memory in the text at the same time. Martin had even planned to murder his best friend just out of his jealousy. The motivation that made him struggle bitterly on the rock actually came from his human nature which was both fierce and greedy. In the end, the consciousness of Martin turned into a pair of pincers of a lobster. And at the same time, the writer told his readers in the final chapter that the body of Martin had already been killed soon after he was thrown into the sea, and his experience on the rock was nothing but the process of an evil spirit struggling in his own purgatory. This thesis is based on the basic theory of human nature posed by Erich Fromm, the well-known American humanistic philosopher and psychoanalytic psychologist. The purpose of it is to analyze Martin’s nature and behaviors, exploring the novel’s theme of human nature. Apart from the introduction and the conclusion, the thesis is composed of four chapters. The introduction mainly tells some basic information of Golding’s life experiences and his novel >Pincher Martin<. On the basis, it summaries the literature review of Pincher Martin both at home and abroad. It also shows the innovations of the thesis, and presents the main argument and the structure of the thesis.– Chapter one is the theoretical foundation of the thesis, which sets forth part of Fromm’s theory of human nature. It mainly explains the intension and the extension of human nature, the escape from the evil human nature and the redemption of human nature.– Chapter two analyzes the evil human nature of Martin. This part not only points out that Martin has a complex dual personality, but also points out the specific embodiment of Martin’s evil desire in the novel.– Chapter three expounds Martin’s escape from his evil human nature. This chapter points out that the way Martin escapes from his evil human nature is through death, and then makes a detailed analysis of his living in illusion.– Chapter four is about Martin’s redemption of his evil human nature, which points out that human nature can be redeemed by kindness and love.– The conclusion of the thesis points out that Golding relentlessly criticizes the evil essence hidden in human nature through the portrayal of Martin. Through Martin’s experience, Golding illustrates the following lessons: First of all, evil is inherent for people, which can give people infinite potential. Hence, the evil human nature can also make a man brave, fearless, and indomitable. Secondly, through the story of >Pincher Martin<, the writer aimed to tell the truth that human nature is evil and to persuade people to believe in kindness and love. Otherwise, people will be controlled by the evil desire hidden in their hearts. Only kindness and love can redeem people’s evil human nature. In all, through the revelation of Martin’s evil nature and the exploration of ways of redemption, Golding shows his concern for the problem of human nature in modern society. His prose is to arouse readers’ thinking about this social problem. The argument about human nature in >Pincher Martin< provides a new perspective in analyzing Golding’s works. [English translation www.cnki.net, 8/2021]
This thesis conducts a comparative study between >The Summer before the Dark< by the British writer Doris Lessing and >The Edible Woman< by the Canadian writer Margaret Atwood from the perspective of Fromm’s humanistic psychoanalysis. >The Summer before the Dark< and >The Edible Woman< share a significant common theme, that is, the dilemma of contemporary women. Alienation is a prevalent phenomenon in modern society and as members of that society, females cannot escape from this problem. >The Summer before the Dark< describes the story of a middle-aged housewife, Kate, who pursues her true self after temporarily escaping from her family, and >The Edible Woman< depicts working class Marian’s process of searching for mental independence and escaping from an alienating spiritual predicament. By examining the view of human nature, alienation and road to sanity proposed Erich Fromm, this thesis thoroughly analyzes and compares the similarities between the two protagonists’ behavior when confronted with alienation, their process of awakening self-awareness and differences in their routes to mental sanity. Through systematic comparison and analysis, it can be concluded that Kate’s maternal love for children and Marian’s erotic love for Peter provide the respective sources of their alienation. Obsession with others gives them a false sense of identity which enables them to cast off their deeply-rooted feelings of separation. In such symbiotic relationships with others, both Kate and Marian lose their self-awareness as an individual being and they cannot realize their spiritual dilemma. Mental independence and self-awareness are the key to getting rid of plight and the way to mental health for them. Through intensive study, the thesis suggests a solution for those trapped in a spiritual dilemma: productive love. Productive love can meet man’s need for union with others and provide a sense of identity with the prerequisite of the development of integrity. It is the final answer to conditions of individual living plight and the only way to achieve personal equilibrium. [English: www.cnki.net, 4/2022]
As socialism with Chinese characteristics enters a new era, people’s leisure needs are growing, and the problem of leisure and human development has become increasingly prominent. On the basis of criticizing the antagonism of capitalist leisure, Marx put forward the communist ideal which takes human’s overall and free development as the basic principle, which has important enlightenment to reflect on contemporary leisure. Understanding leisure, learning leisure, as well as practicing leisure are the only ways to realize the all-round development of people and a better life for people. The former leisure thought can deepen our understanding of Marx’s leisure thought, and can be used as a tool to reflect on the leisure problem. Hegel’s philosophy of master and slave initially revealed the antagonism of leisure and its way out, and Feuerbach’s criticism of alienation provided a model for reflection on leisure alienation. He regarded god as the highest leisure person and love as the essence of human, which meant that the way to overcome leisure alienation lies in the integration of leisure and human development. French utopianism socialism proposed the combination of leisure and work. Veblen criticized the conspicuous consumption of the leisure class. Fromm criticized the emphasis on possession over survival. These theories revealed that leisure and human development can be unified. The leisure discussed by Marx is divided into three levels, including the leisure of rest and relaxation, the leisure of consumption and entertainment and the leisure of human development. Marx’s leisure thought is deeply embedded in consumption theory, free time theory and labor theory. Specifically, human development is the fundamental purpose of leisure, which is the path to human development; Consumption is an important carrier of leisure, and real leisure consumption can promote human development; Free time is the essence of leisure and expands the space for human development; Labor is the foundation of leisure, labor and leisure unity can expand leisure space, make leisure more realistic; The four aspects are interrelated and all reflect the practical logic of communism which takes human development as the center. Marx’s leisure thought has important enlightenment for understanding contemporary leisure theory, leisure status, leisure problems and countermeasures: to build a new leisure value system, to coordinate the relationship between human and nature, society and self; to build a new connotation of leisure consumption and overcome consumer materialization, pay attention to humanistic meaning; to build a new connotations of free time, and realize the comprehensive and free development of human being; to build a new type of labor-leisure relationship, achieve the unity of the two, and to realize the highest human value. [Translation: www.cnki.net, 1/2023]
E. M. Forster’s works mostly reflect the social realities of his time. At the beginning of the 20th century England was in a significant historical period of social transformation. Although material wealth was abundant people’s spiritual state and moral level were constantly retrogressive. >Where Angels Fear to Tread< was set in this background. The moral values expressed in the Mrs. Herritons the family relationships between members and the mental state of each person all reflected the social status quo of their time. This thesis analyzes the phenomenon of alienation in >Where Angels Fear to Tread< through Fromm’s theory of alienation. Alienation has become a common social phenomenon people are in a state of controlling and being controlled so they lost their own independent personality productivity and creativity. In addition money and interests dominate social relations which makes people feel less care for each other thus the social relationship is becoming more and more indifferent. This phenomenon of alienation was not only reflected in British society at the beginning of the twentieth century but also was evident in contemporary times. This thesis studies the novel with the theory of alienation. Through analyzing the manifestations of alienation in characters exploring the causes of alienation and finally achieving the ultimate goal of curing the alienation of characters this thesis not only reflects the novelist’s desire to reveal the alienation of the British middle class but also provides methods and ideas to solve the spiritual alienation of modern people through the study of alienation resistance. This thesis is mainly divided into three parts-introduction main body and conclusion. The introduction gives a brief presentation to the novelist and his works followed by a comprehensive overview of the current state of domestic and international research on >Where Angels Fear to Tread<. Finally the purpose and significance of the text are explained. The introductory part is a prelude to the rest of the study. The main part is divided into three chapters.– The first chapter starts with the embodiment of alienation which explores the embodiment of alienation between individuals and society between individuals and other people and between individuals and themselves. From these three aspects the thesis makes a specific study on the embodiment of alienation and characters’ behavior under alienation.– The second chapter mainly explores the causes of alienation. There are many reasons for characters’ alienation. On the one hand characters’ personality defects lead to their self-loss. On the other hand the influence of long-term family environment is on a person as well as the influence of social environment on them.– The third chapter studies the resistance to alienation. The resistance to alienation also starts from three aspects. The first is the individual’s efforts to get rid of his own alienation. Secondly from the perspective of love it explains the importance of creative love to improve people’s alienation. Thirdly from the social perspective it expounds the positive role of a good social environment for people to get rid of alienation. The conclusion summarizes the content of the above chapters. It can be seen that Foster has a sober understanding of the society he lives in. He expresses the concern of people’s alienation and shows his hope for overcoming alienation. With the rapid development of productive forces the great wealth of material materials and the increasing consumer demand the seemingly sound society hides a profound spiritual crisis which also coincides with Fromm’s alienation theory. Through the analysis it can be seen that studying human alienation is necessary and feasible. [English: www.cnki.net, 4/2022]
The theory of social character is a creative theory that Fromm combines Marx’s social thought and consciousness view on the basis of Freud’s theory of character. Fromm regards Marx as a person of world historical significance. Although Freud sees personal psychological factors, he neglects the influence of social environment on human personality, which limits his vision. Marx thinks far more deeply and more than Freud. He examines human behavior from the social and economic structure, but the irrational factors were ignored, so Fromm tried to >melt the two into one furnace<. Meanwhile, the misreading and Misreading of Marx thought by >pseudo Marxism< made Fromm spend a lot of energy on studying and thinking about Marxism, not only criticizing it, but also expounding his understanding of Marxism. The author proposes the theory of social character to make up for the deficiency of Marx in the micro psychological level and the concrete transformation mechanism between economic foundation and superstructure. The concept of >social character< clearly reflects the traces of Marxist thought. Under the influence of Marx’s thought, Fromm examined the character in the relationship between man and the world, insisted that >the main thing of human is social existence<, and modified Freud with Marx ’social tendency, and explained the decisive effect of social economic structure on social character from the root and change of social character.– At the same time, we also noticed the role of >bond< and >explosive mortar< of social character, so as to explain the relative independence of social character. Not only that, Fromm also explored the foundation and premise of social character, namely, social unconsciousness. He put unconsciousness in the concrete world of reality for understanding, insisted that >consciousness is the product of society< and modified Freud’s >libido< with Marx’s >historical power<. He not only expounded the decisive role of social existence on social unconsciousness, but also saw the negative effect of social unconsciousness on social existence, and tried to make people realize the repression of facts, and seek the way of social change to break this repression.– Fromm’s theory of social character is influenced by Marx’s thought. Although he always bases on the people in the real society and examines the human character in social history, he still regards Marx thought as spiritual existentialism in essence, and the theoretical focus is on the role of social character on human behavior and thinking, and does not really understand Marxism, not only does the understanding of human nature stay in the abstract theory of human nature, but also does not touch the fundamental contradiction of capitalist society, and it is not realistic with a strong utopian color. [Translation: www.cnki.net, 4/2023]
Anne Tyler is deemed as one of the most outstanding writers and literary critics in contemporary America. Over her long career, distinguished by her vivid description of the conflicts in family life, Tyler has continually published over twenty novels, as well as over fifty short stories and numerous book reviews. Among them, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant (1982) and >The Accidental Tourist< (1985) are two typical examples. The two novels share a common theme: alienation and loneliness, and the author uses the narrative model of internal focalization in both novels. The difference is that in >Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant<, Tyler flexibly adopts three models of internal focalization: fixed internal focalization, variable internal focalization and multiple internal focalization. While in >The Accidental Tourist<, fixed internal focalization is employed throughout the story. These two novels do not have the tortuous and bizarre storyline, but only revolve around trivial matters that have occurred in family, including the contradiction and estrangement between family members and so on. Judging from the existing literature at home and abroad, there is still great potential for in-depth research on Anne Tyler and her two novels. Based on Gérard Genette’s Narrative Theories, this thesis is devoted to a comparative study of alienation in Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant and >The Accidental Tourist< by means of close reading and theoretical analysis, so as to help readers gain a deep understanding of Tyler’s writing style and alienation theme, and also render a new perspective for further interpretation of Tyler’s family novels. This thesis consists of six parts. Chapter One first gives a brief introduction to the writer Anne Tyler and her works. Then, the definition of alienation is presented, especially Fromm’s views on alienation. In the end of this chapter, the significance and structure of the thesis are pointed out.– Chapter Two is Literature Review. In this part, the study on Anne Tyler and her two representative novels at home and abroad are shown.– Chapter Three is the theoretical framework of the thesis, in which Genette’s narratology theory is explained in detail, especially the narrative focalization: zero focalization, internal focalization, external focalization.– Chapter Four and Chapter Five are the main body of the thesis. Chapter Four aims to compare and analyze the manifestation of alienation in the two novels from different internal focalization types. This chapter can be divided into two parts. The first part will analyze the self-alienation in the two novels. The second part will explore the alienation of interpersonal relationship in the two novels, including two types: the alienation among family members and the alienation with non-family members. And the environmental alienation will be taken into consideration in this part, which accelerates the alienation of characters in the two novels.– Chapter Five is expected to elaborate the external and internal reasons of the alienation in the two novels, and explore the countermeasures to overcome alienation. External reasons, such as the social and historical background, the writer’s experience, the influence of American Southern literature and the family background are analyzed. In view of the internal reasons, this thesis puts an emphasis on personal attitude and choice. In terms of countermeasures, the strength of family ties weakens the alienation in >Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant<. While in >The Accidental Tourist<, the greatness of affection helps the protagonist Macon overcome alienation partially.– Chapter Six – conclusion part, the author summaries the previous viewpoints and puts forward the suggestion for further study. [www.cnki.net, 1/2023]
[No Chinese abstract available.] Joyce Carol Oates is a famous contemporary American writer who has been nominated for the Nobel Prize in literature for many times. She pays attention to the living state and spiritual world of American people and her works are famous for exposing the violent acts and evil phenomena in American society. >The Gravedigger’s Daughter< is a masterpiece which shows the turning of her creative direction to the Jewish theme. It tells the story of Jewish descendants who flee to the United States to avoid the Holocaust. As a representative of Frankfurt School, Fromm puts forward humanism on the basis of criticizing and inheriting Marxism and Freud’s theory, reveals and analyzes the common alienation in the capitalist society, proposing the way to build the sane personality and society, which expresses his concern and thinking about the plight of human. Based on Fromm’s humanism, this paper makes an in-depth analysis of the alienated phenomena, causes and solutions in >The Gravedigger’s Daughter<. It points out that the sound development of human beings in the capitalist society is facing great pressure and challenges and hopes to arouse people’s attention to the survival of modern people. This thesis consists of five chapters. The first chapter is the introduction. Firstly, it mainly introduces Joyce Carol Oates and >The Gravedigger’s Daughter<. Secondly, it makes a literature review of the relevant researches at home and abroad. Finally, it briefly introduces the main core concepts of Fromm’s humanism. The second to the fourth chapters are the main body of the thesis, which respectively interpret the work from three aspects: phenomena, reasons and solutions of alienation.– The second chapter reveals the alienated phenomena in the works from the alienated characters of the main characters and the alienated living styles of the Schwarts.– The third chapter discusses the personal and social reasons of alienation. It expounds that the Schwarts finally break down because they can not meet the special needs rooted in human existence and bear the oppression of racial discrimination and morbid civilization.– Based on Fromm’s theory of >love< and >being<, the fourth chapter expounds that the protagonist achieves self-value due to self-love and maternal love, and realizes self-redemption by active living, so as to explore the methods of resisting alienation.– The fifth chapter is the conclusion, pointing out that modern westerners and society generally face the problem of alienation, and Fromm’s relevant theory provides a good idea to solve this problem. Only meeting the special needs rooted in human existence and cultivating a loving, proactive and creative way of life can save the spiritual crisis of modern man. [Translation: www.cnki. net, 9/2021]
The film literary drama >No Escape< is a crime genre drama with the theme of >revenge<. It mainly tells that Fang Tonghang, a spiritless novelist in a small town, discovered that his uncle suddenly became a suspect in a murder case. In order to clear his uncle’s suspicion, Fang Tonghang had to find the real murderer within three days. During the process of finding the real murderer, Fang Tonghang uncover a twenty-year past by visiting and researching different witnesses and exhibits. The plot finally focuses on a broken father-daughter relationship, discussing the alienation of people under money worship. The main storyline of the film literary drama >No Escape< is that the small town novelist Fang Tonghang received a contract intention from Honghui Publishing center after repeated setbacks in his work. The victim was Zou Tezhu, vice president of Honghui Group, who went to Li town for a holiday in a low-key manner. By mistake, the former assistant policeman Zhiwei, who chased the traffickers because of suspicion, became the >true murderer< witnessed by the inn attendant Xiao Mao. To restore his uncle Fang Zhiwei’s innocence, Fang Tonghang had to be ordered by Wei Tingjun, vice president of the Honghui Group, capture the real murderer within three days. Through interviews with waiter Xiaomao, uncle Wu who sells cigarettes, cleaning staff aunt Wu, and Wei Tingjun, the party concerned, the possibility of the murderer was found. In the end, real murderer Jing Lan was identified by the return trafficker Lao San in the secondary plot.– Creation interpretation uses five parts: summary of the work, character setting, narrative structure, mirror language style and creative reflection to sort out and think about the drama creation. The main part of the work overview is based on the origin of the topic selection, around the drama structure, combined with the aesthetic tendency of the genre film and the moral and ethical themes, it tells the origin of the creation and a brief plot analysis. The character setting part mainly focuses on the three main characters of Fang Tonghang, Jing Lan, and Wei Tingjun, explaining the significance of their creation, using Maslow’s demand theory and Marx’s theory of human alienation proposed by Fromm to explain the projections on Jing Lan and Wei Tingjun. In the narrative structure, use the book-in-book structure similar to the movie >Atonement<, and focus on the >introduction of events< and >critical events< proposed by Syd Field, which will introduce the construction before the event and the internal operation rules of the key event Describe. Mirror language style part analyzes the basic aesthetic structure of this drama, taking the Korean crime genre film >Cry<as an example, expounds the stylized pursuit of the genre film under the decadent aesthetics of the small town. The creative reflection part summarizes the shortcomings in the creative experience, and reflects on the shortcomings in the script creation from the perspective of characterization and plot structure. [Translation: www.cnki.net, 6/2023]
The prominent modernist writer Katherine Mansfield exhibits her innovative modernity, mixture of complex sentiments and rational interior exploration most conspicuously in her short stories. Yet despite the modernity of her thought, spontaneity and extroversion, of her expression and her other pivotal contributions to modernist literature, she is marginalized in literary arena with some of her themes, such as escape, being neglected by her readership and scholarship. However, escape as a complex and action has actually been one of the most essential themes recurring in Mansfield’s short stories and her life when she has kept struggling between idealism and realism. And escape as a shared choice of her characters trapped in predicaments or psychological dilemmas is often formulated in the contradiction between the escapists and society as well as their own intrapsychic conflict. Therefore, the thesis will engage Erich Fromm’s theories of human nature and escape to offer a socio-psychological reading of Mansfield’s escape theme accordingly. The thesis discusses the escape theme of Mansfield’s 16 short stories in three aspects of manifestations, causes and final destinations of escape. Chapter one focuses on the two major patterns of escape in terms of its manifestation: retreat and camouflage, which are respectively defined by escapists’ receptive orientation or marketing orientation. Receptive oriented Rosabel and the old lady and marketing oriented Gregory and Duquette are among the train of escapists examined here.– Chapter two unrolls the causes of the escape. The external determinants include three kinds of social forces restraining various human needs and two kinds of alienated family relations caused by authority or immature love. Miss Brill’s escape posed by social ostracism, Linda’s escape stemming from social convention and Ma Parker’s escape due to social hierarchy demonstrate how these three social forces determine their escapes. Moreover, escapes of Kezia and Matilda as results of their alienated relations with parents and the escapists including Monica and Mr. Salesby formulated in their alienated relations with spouses highlight the causality between the alienated family relations and escape. And the internal determinant refers to the identity dilemma that stems from one’s doubt over either his real self or social self. Both Bertha’s escape from her real self and Millie’s from her social self are made in a common backdrop of their identity dilemma.– As for the two opposite destinations including the positive and the negative ones, chapter three elucidates them as respectively the results of positive freedom or negative freedom procured by escapists represented by Miss Moss. Briefly, either through retreat or camouflage, most escapists perpetuate or exacerbate their predicaments after transient alleviation brought by their escapes. Only a few productive oriented ones could escape from predicaments ultimately for their escapes underpinned by their productiveness are quintessentially spontaneous negotiations with the world rather than self-deluding compromises or evasions. Hence they could realize their inherent potentiality, remain self-consciousness and external connection in the midst of escape and extricate themselves from their predicaments afterwards.– Besides, the theme of escape illustrated in the thesis is actually imbued with Mansfield’s own life experience and philosophy. Through offering a socio-psychological interpretation of Mansfield’s escape theme, the thesis hence hopefully aims to enrich the understanding of Mansfield and her characters, draw more attention to Mansfield and invoke, in particular, more reflections on the escape of her short stories, especially in the contemporary context of human existence. [English: www.cnki.net, 4/2022]