亨利.詹姆斯《梅西所知道的》现代主义特征之研究

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摘要

亨利·詹姆斯 (Henry James 1843～ 1916) 被称为西方现代主义文学的开拓

者之一。一般认为，詹姆斯后期作品代表了詹姆斯现代主义风格的确立，而其中

期作品现代主义倾向往往被人忽略。因此，本文将运用现代主义小说的叙事理

论，以其中期代表作《梅西所知道的》为研究对象，结合文本细读法来分析这部

小说的现代主义风格。通过研究发现，该小说已经具有了明显的现代主义特征，

具体体现在小说戏剧化的叙事手法和小说的不确定性两个方面。小说的戏剧化是

通过作者的引退而实现小说客观化的叙事。在小说《梅西所知道的》中，小说的

戏剧化叙事是通过场景和梅西的有限视角这两个引退技巧来实现的。通过戏剧化

的场景，小说实现了情节的戏剧化展现；通过人物意识活动场景化，小说实现了

人物意识的戏剧化展现。同时通过精心挑选的主人公梅西的有限视角，作者成功

地将小说以一个从懵懂无知到渐渐成熟的女孩的视角戏剧化地呈现在读者面前。

小说的不确定性主要表现在开放性的结尾和不确定的主题两个方面。这部小说没

有了传统现实主义小说的一个大团圆的结尾，而是充满了歧义的开放性结尾。同

时,由于读者对梅西人物的不同理解，从而造成了小说主题的不确定性，这也是

同传统小说的不同之处。总之，戏剧化的叙事手法和不确定的结尾和主题使《梅

西所知道的》这部小说具有了现代主义特征。通过本文对该小说现代主义特征的

研究，旨在证明詹姆斯中期小说就已经具有了现代主义的倾向。同时，本文对小

说戏剧化的叙事手法的分析，向读者展现了作者如何利用场景和第三人称有限视

角等现代叙事技巧来实现小说的情节和人物形象的客观生动的戏剧化呈现。而通

过对小说不确定的结尾和主题的分析，向读者展现了作品含混的写作风格和詹姆

斯的现代意识：现实生活充满了不确定性，反映现实的小说同样充满了不确定

性。最后，希望本文的研究能为丰富国内文学界对詹姆斯中期阶段作品的现代主

义研究尽一点微薄之力。

本文包括五个章节，第一章简要介绍作家作品，并总结了国内外对这部小说

的研究现状。第二章介绍了现代主义，现代主义的发展背景和定义，现代主义小

说和现实主义小说叙事特点的比较以及詹姆斯小说的现代主义风格。第三章从场

景和有限视角两个方面来具体分析了小说叙事的戏剧化特征，并探讨了詹姆斯小

说戏剧化的背景。第四章从开放性的结尾和不确定的主题两个方面分析了小说的

不确定的特征，并探讨了小说呈现不确定性的实质和原因。第五章为结论部分。

关键词：亨利·詹姆斯戏剧化不确定性现代主义

ABSTRACT

Henry James has been regarded as one of the pioneer of Modernism，the most

influential role in English literature in the first half of the 20th century. It is generally

thought his later works are the representatives of modernistic works, so the

modernistic features of his middle works are often neglected by the domestic scholars.

This thesis will focus on one of his middle works What Maisie Knew in order to make

a analysis of its modernistic traits from the aspects of the novel’s dramatization and

its uncertainty, taking guidance from the modern narrative theory as well as the

approach of closing reading. From the analysis, I find that the novel What Maisie

Knew takes on distinct modernistic traits. These traits lie in the dramatization of the

novel’s narrative method and novel’s uncertainty. The novel’s dramatization is in

nature narrative objectification, which is a very common narrative method employed

in modern works and it is realized by means of the author’s withdraw from the novel.

In the novel, through the scenes and Maisie’s limited point of view, the author

successfully withdraws from the novel, thus made the novel’s dramatization possible.

Meanwhile, the uncertainty of the novel mainly displays in the two aspects: its

opening end and its theme. The end of What Maisie Knew only raised many questions

without giving the answers to them. The theme has more than one implication, and it

is no absolute true or false for these implications, for each implication indicates an

understanding of the theme, an understanding of the character Maisie. The

representation of uncertainty in the novel actually is a reflection of Henry James’s

expression of uncertainty of multi-reality. All in all, the novel’s dramatization and its

uncertainty make the novel what Maisie Knew a distinguished work with modernistic

traits. By studying the modernistic traits of What Maisie Knew, the paper aims to

prove that the style of Henry James’s middle works has a tendency to be modernistic.

Meanwhile, through the analysis of the dramatization of its narrative method, the

thesis shows the readers how the author dramatically presents the plot and the

character’s consciousness with the withdrawing techniques such as scenes and limited

point of view. Moreover, through the analysis of the uncertainty of the novel’s

opening end and the theme, the thesis shows the readers Henry James’s modern

consciousness: reality is uncertain, so are novels which reflect the reality. Meanwhile,

I hope that my thesis can be helpful to enrich the current study of Henry James’s

works of his middle period.

The thesis consists of five chapters. The First Chapter involves the brief

introduction and the literature review of Henry James and this novel. The Second

Chapter of the thesis involves the introduction of modernism, which includes the

background and the definition of modernism, the difference between modernism and

realism, and Henry James’s connection with modernism. The Third Chapter involves

dramatization of the novel，including the two techniques to dramatize the novel and

the background of the experiment of novel’s dramatization. In the Fourth Chapter, the

uncertainty of the novel will be discussed. The uncertain expression is exhibited in

two aspects the opening end of the novel, and the uncertainty of the theme of the

novel. And it also explores the reasons for uncertainty reflected in the novel and its

nature. The last Chapter is a chapter of conclusion.

Key Word: Henry James，Dramatization，Uncertainty, Modernism

Contents

中文摘要

Abstract

Chapter1 Introduction................................................................................................... 1

§1.1 Introduction to Henry James and What Maisie Knew.........................................1

§1.2 Literature Review............................................................................................... 3

§1.3 The Structure and the Purpose of the Thesis...................................................... 5

Chapter 2 Modernism.................................................................................................... 7

§2.1 The Background of the Rise of Modernism........................................................7

§2.2 The Definition of Modernism............................................................................. 8

§2.3 Modernism and Realism................................................................................... 10

§2.4 Henry James’s Connection with Modernism.................................................... 12

Chapter 3 The Manifestation of Modernism in What Maisie Knew:

Dramatization.................................................................................................14

§3.1 The Reasons for Making the Experiment of Novels’ Dramatization................15

§3.2 The Novel’s Dramatization through Scenes..................................................... 18

§3.2.1 The Dramatic Presentation of the Plot through Scenes................................. 18

§3.2.2 The Dramatic Presentation of Maisie’s Consciousness through Scenes........23

§3.3 The Novel’s Dramatization through Limited Point of View.............................27

§3.3.1 The Definition of Limited Point of View.......................................................27

§3.3.2 The Dramatic Presentation of the Novel through Maisie’s Limited

Point of View................................................................................................ 28

§3.4 The Value of the novel’s Dramatization............................................................31

Chapter 4 The Manifestation of Modernism in What Maisie Knew:

Uncertainty................................................................................................... 33

§4.1The Opening End............................................................................................... 33

§4.2 The Uncertain Theme....................................................................................... 36

§4.3 The value of the Uncertainty Reflected in What Maisie Knew.........................39

Chapter 5 Conclusion..................................................................................................43

Bibliography...................................................................................错误！未定义书签。

在读期间公开发表的论文和承担科研项目及取得成果............................................. 49

Acknowledgements........................................................................................................ 50

Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter1 Introduction

§1.1 Introduction to Henry James and What Maisie Knew

Henry James is an American –born critic, novelist and playwright. He has been

considered as one of the great novelists in the history of Western literature. His

inventions of theories of the novel and his experiments of novels with various techniques

have made him a very influential figure in English novels in the first half of the 20th

century.

From the very beginning, he made a lot of contribution to the art of fiction: he

defined the nature of fiction in his “The Art of fiction” (1884), made use of the dramatic

elements in his novel creation, and developed some narrative techniques as limited point

of view and center of consciousness in his novel experiments. His psychological realistic

novels have exerted great influence on the later Modernistic writers such as James Joyce

and Virginia Woolf, who developed the stream of consciousness, the important modern

narrative technique. “His immense contribution to literary criticism is that he developed

gradually from early evaluation in terms of stiff moral standards to inductive inquiry,

flexibility, and a subtle perception of aesthetic nuances.”(Zuo Jinmei 153) So we can

see that he is such an important figure in American literature that many critics have

given much attention to his contribution to American literature.

According to the Chinese scholar Hou Weirui’s study, Henry James’s writing

career can be divided into three periods.(Hou weirui 40-53) In the first Period (from

l875 to 1886) ，James established himself as the originator of the international novel

and a masterful portrayer of the American character. Daisy Miller (1878) and The

Portrait of a Lady (1881) are the represented works in this period. In the second period

(from 1886 to 1901), he made literary experiments on the themes and forms of the

novels. Also, he made a lot of attempts on the writing skills, such as limited point of

view and center consciousness. Moreover, the works of this period tended to focus on

the inner world of the characters, which is different from realistic novels reflecting the

reality by the development of plot and character nature. What Maisie Knew(1897) and

the Turn of the Screw (1898) are the most notable works in this period. In the third

period (from 1902 to 1916), Henry James’s literary style got more close to the style of

A study of Modernistic Traits of Henry James’ Novel What Maisie Knew

modernistic writings. The Wing of the Dove (1902), The Ambassadors (1903), and The

golden Bowl (1904) are the most famous work in this period.

It is generally thought that Henry James confirmed his modernistic style by the

novels in his third period. However, in my opinion, Henry James can not transit from a

realist to a modernist in overnight. There must be a transition. The second period of

James’s literary career is just his writing style transition from Realism to Modernism.

The formation of early modernistic features of his writing style can be traced back to

his second period, because we can find some modernistic traits in the works of his

second period. The novel What Maisie Knew is just one of such works, which I will

make a thorough analysis in the thesis.

The British literary critic F. R. Levis stressed the novel in his book The Great

Tradition (1955) and said that “it is a great novel that cannot be neglected in James’

middle writing period.”（Levis 53）And the novel had been praised for its delicacy

of the structure and the author’s great talent and subtlety in depicting a child’s

consciousness by many critics. It can be said that this novel has enjoyed popularity

ever since its appearance and attracted critic’s attention as well.

The novel is about a startling story of Maisie, a sensitive girl of divorced and

irresponsible parents, surviving in the corrupted adult world with her intelligence. The

setting is England in the 1890s. The novel opens with a battle for custody of Maisie.

The divorced parents, Ida and Beal Farange, shuttle Maisie back and forth and use

Maisie as a tool to hurt each other. Soon both of them get remarried, and Maisie gets a

new governess, Mrs. Wix. Later Maisie’s step-parents Sir Claude and Mrs. Beale begin

an affair, and they also make use of Maisie to cover their adultery. Meanwhile,

Maisie’s parents soon get tired of their spouse, so they find their new lovers and

abandon Maisie. Maisie keeps silent and observes what happens around her, and gets

more and more knowledge. In the end of the story, the teenaged Maisie maturely

decides to leave her new "parents" and stay with Mrs. Wix，her new governess.

The theme of the novel is the influence of evil on an innocent girl. In Maisie’s

growing process, she was exposed with marriage affair, sex, and deceit, which gives a

bad influence on her moral standard. However, as for the question whether Maisie had

been ruined by the environment of evil or kept her innocence against the evil, the

author did not give very clear guidance on that. On this point, the theme is uncertain

and ambiguous for the readers, which will be discussed at the fourth part in the paper.

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摘要：

摘要亨利·詹姆斯(HenryJames1843～1916)被称为西方现代主义文学的开拓者之一。一般认为，詹姆斯后期作品代表了詹姆斯现代主义风格的确立，而其中期作品现代主义倾向往往被人忽略。因此，本文将运用现代主义小说的叙事理论，以其中期代表作《梅西所知道的》为研究对象，结合文本细读法来分析这部小说的现代主义风格。通过研究发现，该小说已经具有了明显的现代主义特征，具体体现在小说戏剧化的叙事手法和小说的不确定性两个方面。小说的戏剧化是通过作者的引退而实现小说客观化的叙事。在小说《梅西所知道的》中，小说的戏剧化叙事是通过场景和梅西的有限视角这两个引退技巧来实现的。通过戏剧化的场景，小说实现了情节的戏...

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