| John Updike (1932 ~) is a contemporary American novelist, poet, essayist and literary critic. Up to 2007, he has published 22 novels, 15 short story collections, 10 volumes of essays and literary monographs, 13 anthologies of poems, a drama, and numerous book reviews, speeches, interviews, etc., for which he has received nearly all types of the major national rewards. His achievement is so great that he is regarded as one of the best living writers in English in the world, a great writer who has exceeded any other contemporary American author, and a man of letters ranking alongside with such masters as Hawthorne and Nabokov.In fiction writing, Updike is thought to be on a par with many great American writers before him: like Whitman, he sounds the praises of the human body and its desires; like Hawthorne, he explores domesticity, heterosexual love and the relationship between matter and spirit; like Cooper and Dos Passos, he writes about the American nation; like Fitzgerald, he strives to capture the voices, fashions, textures, and pulse of his time, and is thus well-known as the leading chronicler of post-war American mores and morals. Therefore, the study of Updike and his works is not only aesthetically significant, but also culturally worthwhile.This dissertation is a systematic study of the intertextuality of Updike's three novels related to Hawthorne's classic, The Scarlet Letter(1850), namely, A Month of Sundays (1975), Roger's Version (1986) and S.(1988), the task of which is to find out a) facts existing in the three hypertexts that are intertextually related to the hypotext; b) devices of the Updikian intertextual narration and their features; c) Updike's world-outlook as being reflected in his intertextual efforts; d) traces of the mainstream American culture, etc.Under the guidance of the theory of intertextuality put forward by Kristeva and other post-structural linguists, intertextual facts between Updike's three palimpsests and Hawthorne's classic are investigated in three directions: the imitative, the derivative, and the subversive. In the category of imitative intertextuality, we find that the most prominent feature of Updike's imitation is his adoption of Hawthorne's use of archetypal elements in the myth of Eden as prototypes for many literary elements in The Scarlet Letter, such as the star-crossed lovers (Adam for Hawthorne's Dimmesdale and for Updike's Marshfield, Dale, and the Arhat; Eve for Hawthorne's Hester and Updike's Sarah and others; and Satan for Hawthorne's Chillingworth and Updike's Roger Lambert and others). We find similarity also in themes such as original sin (sex, adultery), the quest for redemption and symbols such as tree, river, forest, rose, etc. Updike has also taken over from Hawthorne the topic of women's liberation and some other methods of symbolism. In the category of derivative intertexuality, we find that Updike has revealed some detailed scenes or voices that are only covertly expressed in The Scarlet Letter, such as that of sexuality between the adulterous partners. Besides, he has let Hawthorne's hidden characters out to the front stage and added prequels or sequels to some events or scenarios to supply cause/effect information and strengthen intertextuality. In the category of subversive intertextuality, Updike is seen to have subverted Hawthorne's understandings of adultery, redemption and women's liberation. Through his protagonists, Updike has subverted Hawthorne's traditional Christian notions by allowing his sinful characters to be spiritually resurrected through negating God and the church, and sanctifying adultery. In his depiction of women's liberation, it seems that Updike does not quite agree with Hawthorne about his radical plan to free women from the patriarchal domination.Based on close examination of the found facts of intertextualality, it is easy to observe that the Updikian intertextual narration features a mixed attitude of devotion and aggression toward his predecessor, with the devotion lies in his imitative efforts and the aggression in his subversive reinterpretation of the main thematic topics. However, the uniqueness of the Updikian intertextual devices lies in the experimental form of narration that bears the features of postmodernist parody, such as first-person point-of-view, self-reflexive narration, disordered narrative sequence, and multi-layered discourses, and in his adherence to taking the traditional, realistic social problems as thematic topics. In other words, the features of Updike's intertextual narration include a) three intertextual directions (the imitative, the derivative and the subversive), b) experimental form, and c) realistic themes.The study has also found that Updike's subversive efforts have truthfully reflected his world outlook, such as his tolerant Lutheran attitude toward human nature and their sins, his resentment toward organized religion, his assumption that Christianity is giving way to sex, and his golden-mean standpoint toward social changes. It seems that Updike does not support the traditional Christian belief of redemption, nor does he agree with radical feminism.The dissertation has concluded that through studying Updike's intertextual works we can learn not only about the art of his intertextual narration, but also something about the mainstream of the post-war American culture. We know not only what it was like in the past and what it is like today, but also what has been inherited and what has been changed: we know that though Updike's modern Hesters, Dimmesdales, and Chillingworths enjoy one of the most religiously open and sexually permissive societies, modern Americans continue to feel imprisoned, alienated, anxious, and entangled in the same mid-nineteenth-century conflicts such as marital tensions, sexual escapades, personal betrayals, professional disappointments, and spiritual crises, and, patriarchal oppression is still a problem for the womankind.
|
PDF Full Text Request