European And American Picaresque Novel Study

In the view of origin, the American -European novel has a history of more than 2,000 years. With Lazaraillo de Tormes written by an anonymous Spanish novelist in the middle period of 16th century as the beginning, picaresque novel has gone through the evolutionary history of more than 400 years. Picaresqe novel, epistolary novel and autobiographical novel are often considered as three kinds of most important novel styles in American-European countries by western scholars .In the brilliant history of literature, the artistic style of picaresque novel has highly developed, but holoscopically reviewing all the previous works of the same style, the artistic blood vessel of archetypal picaresque novel interweaves the structural frame of unceasing development of later generation novel and influences the thinking way of many novelists for a long time. Based on this, this paper assumes that the picaresque novel has its alive artistic vitality and great artistic influence. And it worths further research.The introduction part briefly outlines the historical and cultural context of picaresque novel, and makes the limitations for the picaresque novel from the perspectives of the study of etymology and narrative. Then it lists the influential texts of picaresque novel in the history of American-European literature,including all those in the narrow sense and wide sense.Finally it reviews the present research situation of picaresque novel in domestic and foreign academic circles, and points out the basic research category and research aim of picaresque novel.Chapter 1 ---- the theory of literature origin, starting from the origin of narrative art in American–European countries, elaborates emphatically the artistic enlightenment of Homer's Epic on the picaresque novel, the direct influence of Metamorphoses on the picaresque novel, and the artistic blood vessel of picaresque novel in the European middle ages literature. It can be said that the image of the characters, the subject of tramping, the structural form, and artistic aim have close relation to them.Chapter 2 ----the theory of artistic characteristics, intending to focus on the typical text of picaresque novel, mainly discusses and analyzes the basic characteristics of picaresque novel, points out the inside viewpoint as narrative mode of picaresque novel, the paragraph decoration as structural model of picaresque novel, compound model as the skill of character portrayal, allegory as linguistic expressive morphology. These vivid common characteristics are the important symbols to distinguish picaresque novel from novels of other types.Chapter 3 ---- the theory of characters, exclusively discusses about the two types of characters in the picaresque novel in the narrow sense and in the wide sense ---the character of men tramps and women tramps. The men and women tramps in different times, from different countries, in different fields provide us with colorful character drawing corridor and reflect the artistic development and social life capacity from different perspectives. Chapter 4 ----the theory of literature influence, exclusively discusses about the influence picaresque novel has on the European literature in 17th and 18th century, and the influence picaresque novel has on the American-European literature in 19th and 20th century. Thus it can be known that the influential range of picaresque novel is extended gradually and its artistic vitality never weakens with the appearance of so many literature styles.The conclusion part points out that picaresque novel is a narrative and artistic writing style with the development of era through the tendency of its evolution and development. Although this kind of narrative and artistic writing style needs to be improved further, its inherent creation queue, artistic value, influential range and inherited function establish the important position of picaresque novel in the history of American-European literature.