An Analysis Of Confession Consciousness And Self-redemption Ways In Jack Kerouac's Novels

Jack Kerouac, a representative of "the Beat Generation" Literature Movement in the 1950s and 1960s, occupied an important position in the American literary circles even in the world literary world. Based on text interpretation and with three currently-translated novels including on the Road, the Dharma Bums, Desolation Angels being the research object, this paper will do a research into the profound thoughts of the works of Jack Kerouac. Foucault confession disclosure and psychoanalytic theories will be used to interpret the theme of repentance of the novels of Jack Kerouac,to give a detailed analysis of confession consciousness and redemption that are conveyed implicitly in the novels and dig into the rich contents of the works.The thesis consists of three parts:introduction, body and conclusion.The introduction deals briefly with the relationship between Jack Kerouac and "the Beat Generation", the major literary works of Jack Kerouac and the research situation of his works at home and abroad, then illustrates the significance of the topic of the thesis and defines the "Confession Consciousness".The body part is divided into three chapters. In chapter one, it analyzes the confession consciousness from the individual and social dimensions implied in his works. From the individual aspect, characters in Jack Kerouac'works underwent self-reflection and implicit confession about several major life predicaments such as personal dream,emotion,life and death. From the social aspect, the characters in his works exposed and criticized the social, political and economic order, culture.In chapter two, it explores the individual and cultural factors that brought about the confession consciousness in Jack Kerouac's works and summarizes the characteristics of Jack kerouac's confession consciousness by combing four repentance modes(ie, Augustine-type confession mode, Rousseau-type confession mode, Leo Tolstoy-style confession mode, Tuo Dostoevsky-style confession mode) and the transformation of his confession mode and the style of his works and himself.In chapter three, it deals with the choices of the characters'self-redemption after confession and the reason of why they couldn't be redeemed. Who can save them. There was no god but themselves.The moment they started to confess was the beginning of their self-redemption. They hung around on the road.They looked into the mystery of the ancient Oriental Zen.They got close to nature, experiencing the true nature of life in flowers and trees. However, every attempt of self-redemption did not work out. This chapter points out the reason why they couldn't be saved.The conclusion gives an overall summary, points out the influences of Jack Kerouac's novels and calls people don't one-sided understanding the Beat Generation Literature.