A Study Of Leisure In An American Tragedy From The Perspective Of Lefebvre’s Critique Of Everyday Life

Theodore Dreiser is the pioneer of American modern literature in the early twentieth century who takes the lead in depicting American real urban life.An American Tragedy as one of his masterpieces reflects American people’s everyday life in the twentieth century.Through Clyde’s story,Dreiser criticizes the false American Dream as well as presents people’s everyday life especially people’s leisure in the twentieth century.With the help of Lefebvre’s theory of everyday life,this thesis will explore leisure in An American Tragedy from three aspects: the modern leisure machines produced by technology in everyday life,the traditional leisure practices in everyday life and the relationships among leisure,work and family.First,the thesis analyzes modern leisure machines in people’s everyday life.In order to satisfy people’s growing needs for leisure activities,modern technology employs leisure machines such as newspapers and movies to create an ideological basis for modern leisure activities.Relying on different new leisure machines,men obtain satisfaction by imitating the world projected by newspapers;women are immersed in the false world created by movies.Then it focuses on traditional leisure practices in people’s everyday life.It shows gap and alienation of different classes through analysis of their hotels,homes and their dancing parties.It also explains how Clyde experiences the frustration of class transformation through drifting.Last,it analyzes the changes of leisure attitudes held by different generations and the influence of leisure on people’s values.Through studying leisure in people’s everyday life,the thesis intends to analyze how modern leisure machines controlled by capital leads to illusory satisfaction towards desires and how traditional leisure practices reflect the impossibility of class transformation.Therefore,it attempts to reveal how different leisure ideologies influence different generations and causes the fall of the youth.