Interpretation Of Dubliners From The Perspective Of New Historicism

Dubliners, one of the most influential collections in the twenties century, vividlydepicts the life of the middle class people in Dublin in the early twentieth century. Itconsists of fifteen short stories and can be divided into four parts, including the storiesof children, the stories of adolescents, the stories of adults and the stories of public life.All of the stories are set in a kind of dark and dim atmosphere, and all the charactersare spiritually paralyzed. This thesis tries to analyze the theme of “paralysis” inDubliners by using “the historicity of texts and textuality of history” of the newhistoricism. According to the theory of “historicity of texts and the textuality ofhistory”, a text must be produced in and influenced by a certain context, in return, atext is the part of history. There is an intertextual relation between the text and socialcontext. As for Dubliners, this thesis thinks that the context was the influence ofBritish colonialism, the Roman Catholic and the Irish Literary Revival at that time.And in return, the collection as Joyce himself called it “the nicely polishedlooking-glass” was the epitome of the paralyzed situation of Dublin, even Ireland.Besides the introduction and the conclusion, there are four chapters in this thesis.The second chapter is about the theory of new historicism with focuses on the“historicity of texts” and “textuality of history”. The third chapter echoes the“historicity of texts”, made up of the influence of English colonialism culture, theinfluence of Roman Catholic culture and the Irish Literary Revival, because thesethree are the important elements that affect the paralysis of Ireland, the theme ofDubliners. Chapter four which echoes the “textuality of history”, tries to analyze theparalysis of Dublin in longitudinal and horizontal way, including the paralysis of theman and the paralysis of public life. The paralysis of man is shown as a gradualprocess from childhood to adulthood with the focus on illustrating how and why thoseDubliners fall into the abyss of paralysis inch by inch. And for the paralysis of publiclife, the thesis analyzes the paralysis of religion, the paralysis of politics and the paralysis of society in Dublin. So the analysis of chapter four tries to show thecomprehensive paralysis of Dublin. And also it tries to prove that such paralysis notonly happens in the collection, it also does in the whole Ireland.Through analysis of Dubliners by combining it with certain historical context,the thesis believes that Dubliners is not only a fictional collection but also a part ofIrish history. The British colonialism, the corrupt Roman Catholic and thecompensatory fantasy made by the Irish Literary Revival work together and producethe paralysis in Dubliners. And Dubliners as a part of the Irish history also records thetrue presence of Dublin in the early twentieth century, that is,—everything is inparalysis—people from childhood to adulthood with total spiritual paralysisirreversible, stuck in this or that kind of predicaments, living like walking dead; thewhole nation comprehensively paralyzed with the Catholic guiding the corrupt people,the politic life hollow and meaningless and the whole society under a deadatmosphere. This thesis thinks that Dubliners, with its historicity of text and textualityof history, brings the Irish to face the truth, trying to provide them with a way tostruggle out of the difficult situation, which brings out the social value of literature.