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1、论献给艾米丽的玫瑰花中的哥特式情结摘 要美国作家威廉.福克纳的作品献给艾米丽的玫瑰花被视为美国南方哥特式小说的杰作。这部小说讲述了爱米丽小姐悲惨的一生，充满悬疑，耐人寻味。这篇论文主要从几个角度讨论了献给艾米丽的玫瑰花的哥特式风格。这篇论文分为四部分，第一部分，对威廉.福克纳和他的短篇小说献给艾米莉的玫瑰花作了简要的介绍，并且指出了这篇论文的目的和意义。第二部分主要介绍了哥特式文学的来源和哥特式特点在文学上的体现。第三部分,也是这篇论文最重要部分，通过分析环境描写，主题，叙述方式还有人物描写来体现献给艾米丽的玫瑰花中的哥特式特点或风格。最后部分对这篇论文作了总结，它所得出的结论是献给艾米丽的玫
2、瑰花很多方面体现了哥特式特点，并且因为它的哥特式特点作者才成功地表达了他所想表达的主题。关键词：哥特情结；环境描写；主题；叙述方式；人物Study on the Gothic Complex in A Rose for EmilyAbstractA Rose for Emily written by American writer William Faulkner is regarded as the representative work of southern gothic fiction of America. The story writes Miss Emilys tragic li
3、fe and its full of suspense and intensely interesting. This paper discusses the Gothic characteristics of A Rose for Emily on several angles, and it is divided into four parts. In the first part, it introduces the William Faulkner and his A Rose for Emily briefly and points out the aim and the signi
4、ficance of the study. In the second part it introduces the gothic characteristics in literature. In the third part which is the most important part, it points out that the author uses gothic characteristics from four aspects of the description of environment, the theme, the narrative way, and the ch
5、aracter. In the last part, it concludes that the author combines gothic characteristics with the realistic content successfully and expresses his complicated feeling precisely because of using gothic characteristics. Key words: gothic complex; environment description; theme; narrative way; character
6、 ContentsAbstracti内 容 摘 要ii1. Introduction11.1 A brief introduction of William Faulkner and his A Rose for Emily11.2 Introduction of the Gothic Characteristics in Literature22.Literature Review.33.The Gothic Characteristics in A Rose for Emily.4 3.1 The gothic characteristics in the description of e
7、nvironment43.2 The gothic characteristics in the theme of A Rose for Emily53.3 The gothic characteristics in the narrative way of A Rose for Emily63.4 The gothic characteristics in the character 84.Conclusion12Bibliography13Study on the Gothic Complex in A Rose for Emily1. Introduction 1.1 A brief i
8、ntroduction of William Faulkner and his A Rose for EmilyWilliam Faulkner is one of the most distinguish writer in American literature. He was born and lived in the South, which influenced him greatly, therefore, most of his works described the people and their lives in the South. As the appearance o
9、f Faulkner, the South appeared the literary glories of “the South Renaissance”, which ever was called “the literary desert.(Yu Jianhua, The Second Prosperous of American Literature, 460).He invented a county and a town in his imagination, and he wrote about the society in the South by inventing fami
10、lies which represented different social forces: the old, decaying upper class; the rising, ambitious, unscrupulous class of “poor whites”; and the Negroes who labored for both of them. His major works included Sartoris, The Unvanquished, The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, The Town and A Rose fo
11、r Emily (Laurence B.Holland, The Norton Anthology of American Literary ,534-537).Published in 1930, A Rose for Emily was one of the best known and the most widely read novel among William Faulkners short stories. The story took place in a mythical town that William Faulkner called Jefferson, Mississ
12、ippi. The story happened at the period of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when the town was learning to live with Souths loss in the Civil War and the consequent dismantling of the slavery-based society that had preceded it. Because of the loss in the Civil War, people in the south
13、 led a poor life. Especially the white people, their life suddenly become poor because most of the slaves went to the north to work for the northern industry，so the white people couldnt get accustomed to the life change in a short time, but they still pretended to be noble and kept their familys dig
14、nity (Howard Clin cotton, American History, 30). The story described a white woman, Emilys tragic life under the Souths loss in the Civil War. Emilys life was strongly dominated by her father, and she had no right to date with males and choose her lover. After her fathers death, she could only date
15、with a northern worker. But to her disappointment, the worker refused to marry her, and the refusal drove her to kill him by using poison, and she let his body company her. After Emilys death, the town people discovered a skeleton in the house, and found out that the poor Emily was a murder, and peo
16、ple were shocked by the discovery. Thematically, this short story is not as simple as it seems. The conflicts in the story can be interpreted on different levels. On the superficial level, it was a murder story with gothic characteristics. It described an eccentric woman who lived in her old decayin
17、g mysterious house that other people had not visited for decades, and, of course, a dead body in the house finally was discovered after so many years. On another level, the story can be read as a conflict between the South and the North with Emily representing the declining South and Homer Barron re
18、presenting the North. On a deeper level, the story explores the inner world of a human being, or the inner struggle in the human heart.1.2 Introduction of the Gothic Characteristics in LiteratureThe word “Goth” came from the name of a Germanic tribe. The gothic people were famous for their brutal an
19、d uncivilized features. They ever lived in north Europe, then invaded in Rome Empire from the third AD century to the fifth AD century, and set many kingdoms in Italy, Spain, south part of France and North Africa. A thousand years later, after the Rome Empire died out, Italian Vasari (1511-1574) use
20、d the Goth for the first time to refer to an architectural style in middle age, which was tall sharp pointed, vaulted roof or tower ,narrow windows, colorful glass, darkness houses, gloomy ladders.(Xiao Minghan, Criticism of Foreign Literature, 9) The gothic architecture was originated in France in
21、11th century, and it was popular in Europe from 13th century to 15th century. This kind of architecture style mostly is seen in the church, and also in common architecture. The gothic architecture has a high status in the history of architecture because of its excellent skill and its achievement in
22、the field of art. The gothic characteristics not only appear in architecture, but also appear in many fields such as literature, movie, music and clothing.The so-called “Gothic Revival appeared in aspects of architecture and literature during eighteenth century to nineteenth century, which was the g
23、loomy and depressed tone in middle age. Meanwhile, some literary works enjoyed the same tone with Gothic fiction in the time. Take Horace Walpole for example, his The Castle of Otranto set an example for early classic gothic fiction. The birth of Gothic fiction” was not only related with the Gothic
24、feeling of the cemetery poetry of England, but related with the Gothic characteristics，the aesthetic standard of Edmund Burke (1729-1797) as well.The gothic characteristics in literature are that the story mostly takes place in a distant ages and desolate places, the characters are locked or impriso
25、ned in narrow spaces or in a mysterious gothic building and suspense often mingles with love. There are some usual ways of suspense, such as mysterious inheritance, secret antecedents, lost will, the secret of family, ancestral curse and so on. And at the end of the story, the mystery or the suspens
26、e is solved, the evildoer is discovered and the impediment of the love between the hero and the heroine is brushed aside. Compared with romantic fiction, the gothic fiction mostly describes adventurous story and the impediment of love mostly is caused by the evildoer, while the romantic fiction most
27、ly describes the familys triviality, and the impediment of the love in the romantic fiction between characters is caused by them. The theme of the gothic story mostly reveals through death, murder, violence and horrible scene. In a short, the novels with the gothic characteristics reveal a mysteriou
28、s, horrible, depressed and gloomy atmosphere. Since the 18th century, the gothic characteristics had been used in the literary works popularly, and there are many famous novels with the gothic characteristics, such as Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights，Notre Dame de Paris, A Rose for Emily and so on. A Ro
29、se for Emily is especially the most representative work of gothic fiction. 2.Literature ReviewAfter I look up in CNKI, China Journal Net, VIP information and other journals I have found two academic journals that are consistent with my thesis.I foundthree similar papers ,they are Zhang Qi, Zhangxuez
30、hu. A Rose for Emily on the Gothic Features 【M】. Leshan Teachers College, 2003,11, Huang Fu Yan, 2011, rose ashes, love into a poem - on the Gothic features of Emily Rose, weand Yuhuan Huan, 2009.8 William Faulkner dedicated to Amy Gothic Rose Li in the complex Jiannan Literature ,and their main vie
31、w is that A Rose for Emilyis an outstanding 20th century American novelist William Faulkners short stories. A striking feature of this novel is the use of Gothic Marxism.This article will focus on the Gothic complex inA Rose for Emily in orderto help readers better understand this masterpiece.In A R
32、ose for Emily, Faulkner uses the gothic literary artistic expression,making their characterization, description of environment, atmosphere, setting and plot are all rendered with rich Gothic colors, through the description of Ai Millies life tragedy to expose the dark side of Southern society, accus
33、ed the South Puritan tradition and patriarchal society the persecution of women.3. The Gothic Characteristics in A Rose for EmilySavoy Eric(1970) mentioned: “its very contradictory that a kind of literature, which is twined by the immortal history and attracted by queer grief, came into being in the
34、 country which believes in freedom and pursues the happiness of individual.” He said ironically the existence of gothic characteristics in American literature. Although the society advocated pursuing happiness and freedom, the unfairness and ugliness still existed and then the gothic literature appe
35、ared. Faulkner, the author of this novel lived in a special environment which was full of depressing and gloomy atmosphere due to the Souths loss in the Civil War. “Therefore, his habit, thinking way and life attitude closely related with this unfortunate field.” (Jay Parinier, The Norton Anthology
36、of American Literary, 633). He had complicated feeling for his hometowns loss in the Civil War. On one hand, he complained about the poor or miserable life caused by the war, and had a little hatred for the North. On the other hand, he praised the improvement of human being caused by the war, becaus
37、e the war opened the door of eliminating slavery system, so he only could express his complicated feeling for the Souths loss precisely by using gothic characteristics in his literature. In A Rose for Emily, he used gothic characteristic in many aspect such as scene or the description of Emilys hous
38、e, theme, narrative way, character. 3.1 The gothic characteristics in the description of environmentThe gothic story usually takes place in isolated places where people seldom visit, such as a hidden castle in the jungle, a farmstead, and old dilapidated house and so on. The author attached much imp
39、ortance to the description of the scene and playing up the mysterious and horrible atmosphere. Baron Armond(1972)said:“ the word “mystery” connects with the gothic characteristics naturally.” Emilys house embodies gothic characteristics.Emilys house was a special style building made of wood. When he
40、r parents were alive, the house was noble style, which had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the Seventies.(William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily). As the time passed, however, the house still kept its outdated style and lifting
41、its stubborn and coquettish decay.(William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily).We could feel an incompatible atmosphere with the age. And the description of the house also revealed Emilys character that she rejected the modernized or changed world stubbornly.Several years later, the deputation had a chance
42、to go into Emilys house for the first time. They went into “a dim hall from which a stairway mounted into still more shadow. (William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily). Moreover, there was a dust and disuse-a close, dank smell(William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily). in the air. The parlor was furnished in he
43、avy, leather-covered furniture. (William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily). Faulkner described a dim and mysterious picture for us. And this mysterious picture made readers curious about her life in the house.It was really shocking that the town people saw in Emilys base room. “A thin, acrid pall as of th
44、e tomb seemed to lie everywhere upon this room decked and furnished as a bridal. (William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily). Homers skeleton had apparently once lain in the attitude of an embrace. (William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily) . The second pillow which was in the same bed was the indentation of a h
45、ead. It is clearly that it was Emilys long strand of iron-gray hair. Homer had been missed for forty years, and Emily had been slept with his skeleton for forty years. Sepulchral atmosphere spread the air. It is shocking and absolutely terrible. But it is not Faulkner who originally adds the terror
46、element in fiction; it is the traditional style of “gothic characteristics. Faulkner not only uses these characteristics in A Rose for Emily, but exaggerates several details such as murder, violence, etc. So the description of Emilys house created the mysterious and horrible atmosphere successfully
47、and connected the mystery with gothic characteristics naturally.3.2 The gothic characteristics in the theme of A Rose for Emily Mostly, the characteristics of the theme in gothic literature are that the author reveals the evil of human being and attacks the dark side of the society, such as the unfa
48、irness and crime through death, murder, violence and revenge.Gross, Louis.S(1979) pointed out: “the difference between American gothic literature and European gothic literature is that the European gothic literature is mostly regarded as escapism and rejected by people, while American gothic literat
49、ure speaks out peoples voice, especially people who are special such as females, homosexual, colored races and so on, although American gothic literature is still fictitious.” Due to people are not allowed to express their depressed feeling caused by the insecure society or the dark side of society, they can o
