Interpretation Of Hemingway's Androgynous Consciousness In His Works From Love Perspective

This thesis focuses on the progressive development of Ernest Hemingway's androgynous consciousness throughout his literary career.As one of the most significant writers in America, Ernest Hemingway enjoys a prestigious status in the 20th century literature, whose "code hero" and distinctive "journalistic writing" is highly appreciated in the critical field. Yet, in spite of multifaceted views upon his works, there still exists certain miscomprehension about his creations, especially the interpretation of female characters under his pen, as is the common claim that he is a writer with strong misogyny. However, in recent years, a new critical view upon this great writer has been taking currency with the heat of Feminist movement, which holds that Hemingway is an intelligent artist equipped with androgynous consciousness and deeply concerned with gender issue.Accordingly, this paper is designed under the theoretical framework of psychological feminism, which sets its focus on the exploration of Hemingway's androgynous consciousness by tracing the love theme in his three major masterpieces, The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, and For Whom the Bell Tolls, so as to highlight the progress of his concerns on bisexual relationship as well as to work up the general framework of his androgynous consideration.As for the theoretical foundation, the thesis draws quite a few inspirations from the following two theses:"Hemingway and Gender History" wrote by an American scholar, Rena Sanderson, and "Hemingway as a writer with the bisexual consciousness" by a Chinese professor Dai Guiyu.Under the enlightenment of above two theses, this paper unfolds its structure as follows:First of all, Chapter 1 reviews the development of Hemingway's critical reputation over the years since his departure, and it displays a literary interpretation of the term, "androgyny" as well. Then, an in-depth decoding of Hemingway's androgynous consciousness is conducted successively in the following three chapters, which set the theoretical discussion around his four works including the 1920s'short stories collection, In Our Times, two novels in the same period, The Sun Also Rises, and A Farewell to Arms, as well as his greatest masterpiece at the end of 1940s, For Whom the Bell Tolls. To be specific, Chapter 2 mainly focuses on two stories in the collection, Up in Michigan and Cat in the Rain, which exposes the misery and inferiority of females under Patriarchal culture, reflecting Hemingway's deep concerns for the females oppressed under patriarchal powers. Followingly, in Chapter 3, a detailed discussion is presented around the romantic plot in two well-known works, The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms, which highlight New women's brave pursuit for self-image and independence as well as their superiority and brilliance in love and life. At last, Chapter 4 shows the final formation of Hemingway's androgynous consciousness by interpreting the love tragedy embodied in his masterpiece, For Whom the Bell Tolls, which exhibits the nobility of true love and its influence on personal fulfillment, echoed with Hemingway's pursuit for a harmonious bisexual relationship.As a whole, the consistent development of Hemingway's androgynous consciousness gets demonstrated as follows, which is firstly sprouted in the collection, In Our Times, then gets polished in his two main novels of the 1920s, and finally fixed in his masterpiece of the 1940s, For Whom the Bell Tolls.Thus, from the perspective of Psychological Feminism, this paper establishes the general framework of Hemingway's androgynous consciousness, which not only clarifies the miscomprehension on the characterization of Hemingway's female characters, but also contributes certain innovations to the interpretation of his brilliance. Yet, due to the limitation of resources and time, the discussion in the thesis is definitely not complete, which requires further researches and exploration.