A Study On Post-war British And American Academic Novels In The 20th Century

Since the end of the Second World War in the twentieth Century, a large number of academic fictions written by the professor writers have been occupying a place in the British and American literary circles. In the culture atmosphere, more attention has been paid to the individual life in the postwar literature. Without any exception, in academic fictions, professors and writers have been chosen as the protagonists, their living environment as the background, and their life has been the narration center. Through the narration of the intellectuals' life, professor writers reflect their own group from personal and social aspects, and criticize the decline of humanistic spirit as well. In terms of the reflections and the criticisms, professor writers further manifest the unique characteristics of intellectuals which distinguish them from other groups. In this way, professor writers emphasize the value of humanities and the irreplaceable role of humanistic intellectuals in the development of the society.In academic fictions, while facing the conflicts of their own identities between ordinary and intellectual, desire and intellect, personal freedom and social commitment, individuals demonstrates their intellectual traits like rationality, criticism spirit, compatibility, as well as some frailties in human nature, which are against the intellectuals' rationality. When their personal freedom collides with the social commitment, intellectuals take their own responsibilities as the guides of the mass, and engage into the life of individuals and society through their own moral and action choices.The 20th postwar academic fictions written by British and American professors are the object of this research. The identity, desire, freedom and commitment in these fictions have been investigated so as to probe into the living conditions of contemporary intellectuals. Besides it, by analyzing the unique narrative features and future trends of academic fictions, the dissertation reveals the value and significance of humanities and humanistic intellectuals.The dissertation consists of six chapters.Introduction part mainly states the aim and significance of the research, research methods and the literature review as well as the unique viewpoints of the dissertation and the main idea of each chapter.Chapter One expounds the history of academic fiction in the UK and the USA. It also analyzes the external and the internal causes which stimulate the prosperity of academic fiction after WWII.Chapter Two mainly discusses the identity problems in the academic fictions from the prospective of the relationship between intellectuals and themselves, intellectuals and the other. Different academic fictions respectively display the ethic problems in the fictions written by writers from different ethics, variable nationality, or gender problems. Through interpretation of such identity problems as identity consciousness and gender discrimination, intellectuals, under the pressure of their own multi-identities, demonstrate their humanity spirit which surpasses ordinary people's narrow and limited concepts about ethics, nationality and gender.Chapter Three reveals the protagonist's double life as an ordinary and an intellectual. On the one hand, the intellectuals'desire in the academic fiction has been investigated. When the intellectuals face the temptations like money, power or sex, they try every effort to grab them. Ironically during the process, they have deliberately planned to fulfill their desires and their ration has been served as their desire booster. On the other hand, passionate body experience has been regarded by them as a means to delay the aging and eliminate the dread of death. However, aging is irresistible, and death may come unexpectedly, which push them into deeper grief than ever. By presenting the incapability of the intellectuals when they confront with everyday matters as birth, aging, illness and death, professor writers meditate on the individual existence from a broader level.Chapter Four analyzes how writers engage into the life through "engaged writing", and discusses how the intellectuals engage into the life of individuals and society through analyzing the conflicts between personal freedom and commitment in the intellectuals'mind. The way to engage into the individual life is to express their understandings of freedom. By describing the free-but-not-free living condition of individuals, professor writers intend to hint that for the individuals, the way to get rid of spirit shackles lies in pursuing moral life, committing their responsibilities to society and others, and tolerating or forgiving others. Through engaged writing, they express their thoughts of anti-war, anti-totalitarianism, and anti-race-discrimination in the fictions. In the academic fictions, trauma narration reveals the evil of wars, which expresses the anti-war thought and humanistic concern of intellectuals; the depiction of strange phenomenon happened in the academic world shows their anti-totalitarianism thought indirectly; and the way to eliminate race-discrimination is to build up race self-confidence.Chapter Five summarizes the characteristics of the academic fictions. Not only are the academic fictions fictional, but also the direct illustration of literary theories as well as science books. The features of intellectuals also lie in the intellectuals spirit of criticism and open-mindedness in the fictions. Besides these, it is also the unique features as intertextuality, metafiction features like self-consciousness writing and indeterminacy, and body irony which is used to reveal intellectuals'life that distinguish academic fictions from other novels.The last part further emphasizes the value of academic fictions in engaging into the life, succeeding and spreading literary canons, and creating innovative genres from the perspectives of the development of society and literature. And it also affirms the value and significance of humanities and humanists according to the function of literature and the development of academic development.