On The Construction Of Jack London’s Identity From The New Historicist Perspective

Jack London is acknowledged as an established writer in the literary history of the United States. The Call of the Wild displays sufficiently the essential features of Jack London’s complicated and conflictive identity. It hence becomes a great concern of readers and literary critics.This thesis aims to analyze Jack London’s identity construction from the New Historicist perspective which argues that one’s identity construction should be subject to the influence of the social network. It probes into London’s life experience, literary creation, his masterpiece The Call of the Wild and the social system of his time as well. The thesis studies the process and cultural significance of London’s identity construction.As the analyzing and exploring proceeds, readers will see that Jack London’s identity is multi-dimensional and even contradictory. He was both an individualist and a socialist; a dreamer maker at first and a victim of his American dream in the end; an advocator of wild force and a protector of human civilization. In addition, readers will also find that the construction of Jack London’s identity is fulfilled through the negotiation between the subject and the social system; that the construction of London’s identity should be understood as a dynamic changeable process rather than a static unchangeable one.Since few efforts have been made to interpret the construction of Jack London’s identity from the New Historicist perspective, this thesis is supposed to enrich London readers with an effective, dynamic perspective, help readers to see a multi-faceted Jack London, and introduce to readers the negotiation between one’s subjectivity and the social system.