文化剖析：《嘉莉妹妹》中有闲阶级的生活方式

发布时间：2019-01-07 06:55

【摘要】：作为德莱塞的第一部作品,《嘉莉妹妹》是美国文学史上的一一座重要里程碑。尽管最初曾因其“不道德”内容而被出版社拒绝出版,这部作品恰恰还是由于其对十九世纪工业化和城市化的美国社会的现实主义描绘而闻名。德莱塞通过讲述农村少女嘉莉妹妹如何从社会底层跻身纽约城百老汇舞台的经历,成功绘就一幅十九世纪美国社会的时代画卷。本文创新之处在于论文采取文化研究的切入角度,把对小说的分析与特殊的时代背景结合,借助凡勃伦的“炫耀性消费”概念及布迪厄对“文化资本”的分析,对《嘉莉妹妹》中所体现的有闲阶级的生活方式进行文化剖析。在十九世纪晚期美国的工业化社会,嘉莉妹妹的所代表的底层人民与上层有闲阶级在当时社会背景下有着悬殊的社会地位和截然不同的生活方式。从经济角度来看,嘉莉妹妹对物质的追求,本质上是其试图通过炫耀性消费来模仿有闲阶级的生活方式以弥合这种悬殊的阶级差距。然而,嘉莉妹妹对金钱的肤浅认识、文化趣味的低下以及教育的不足体现了其在文化资本上的缺乏,这种缺乏导致出身于下层社会的她终究无法跨越有闲阶级用文化资本建立起来的无形的阶级障碍。本文主要采取文本分析的方式,聚集于有闲阶级特征在《嘉莉妹妹》一书中的具体体现,试图对其经济和文化两方面作一初步的窥探。本论文最终得出的结论是：《嘉莉妹妹》一书作为反映历史现实的文本,充分体现了在十九世纪美国社会,有闲阶级如何凭借经济和文化上的优势所建立的区隔于其它阶级的生活方式,这种区隔正是嘉莉妹妹在小说结尾迷惑和失落的根源。本文的分析有利于我们更好地结合社会历史背景了解小说中主人公们的行为及动机,加深我们对这部小说的理解。
[Abstract]:As Dreiser's first work, Sister Carrie is an important milestone in the history of American literature. Although it was initially rejected by publishers for its "immoral" content, the work is best known for its realistic portrayal of the industrialised and urbanised American society of the nineteenth century. Dreiser succeeded in drawing a 19th-century American era by telling how Sister Carrie, a rural girl, rose from the bottom of society to the Broadway stage in New York City. The innovation of this paper is that the thesis adopts the angle of cultural research, combines the analysis of the novel with the special background of the times, with the help of Veblen's concept of "conspicuous consumption" and Bourdieu's analysis of "cultural capital". A cultural analysis of the life style of the idle class embodied in Sister Carrie. In the industrialized society of America in the late 19th century, the lower class represented by sister Carrie and the upper class had different social status and different way of life in the social background of that time. From the economic point of view, sister Carrie's pursuit of material is essentially an attempt to bridge this gap by imitating the lifestyle of the idle class through conspicuous consumption. However, sister Carrie's superficial understanding of money, her low cultural interest and her lack of education reflected her lack of cultural capital. This lack led her from the lower class to eventually overcome the invisible class barriers built up by the idle class with its cultural capital. This paper mainly adopts the way of text analysis, and concentrates on the concrete embodiment of the characteristics of idle class in Sister Carrie, trying to make a preliminary exploration of its economy and culture. The final conclusion of this thesis is that Sister Carrie, as a text reflecting historical reality, fully reflects American society in the nineteenth century. How the idle class, by virtue of its economic and cultural superiority, distinguishes itself from the way of life of other classes, is the root of sister Carrie's confusion and loss at the end of the novel. The analysis of this paper is helpful for us to better understand the behavior and motivation of the protagonists in the novel, and to deepen our understanding of the novel.
【学位授予单位】：华东师范大学
【学位级别】：硕士
【学位授予年份】：2012
【分类号】：I712.074

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