A Dialogical Study Of Anderson's Winesburg,Ohio

Winesburg,Ohio is the most important representative work of Sherwood Anderson,its birth is a great sensation in the American literary field and helps Anderson to earn a place in literature world.This novel consists of twenty five short stories,these stories are mutually independent but also connects with each other,which ties them together.This thesis uses Bakhtin?s polyphonic novel theory,systematically analyzes the dialogicality in Winesburg,Ohio,starts with characters? micro-dialogues in Winesburg,Ohio and carefully analyzes the spiritual features of series characters.Through dialogues among different elements in the structure of Winesburg,Ohio,the topic of the study analyzes the balance construction of contradictory relations between series characters themselves and their groups in depth,and explore the living state of grotesques in depressing small town space and surface-kind time levels.And then,I scan the social anxiety led by the strong imprison of grotesques spiritual inner speech caused by the powerful force of outer speech in social consciousness under economic institutional reform.Apart from this,I also research the attempt of grotesques to find salvation ways.Chapter One detailedly interprets the seven representatives under Winsburg,Ohio based on Bakhtin?s theory of “micro-dialogue” and from the perspectives of dialogue between figures? inner speech and outer speech,dialogue of figures? self-awareness,and potential dialogue hidden in figures? utterance.These figures not only have unique personalities,but they also have common characteristics.Winesburg,Ohio emphasizes the fight of characters against mainstream discourse in external environment.However,the mainstream discourse deeply roots in people?s inner world and rules their lives.As the result,weak residents in small town have to descend to victims of the reform of era.The inner speech of characters in novels is usually remain an aphasiac and silent state,because their inner desires and ambitions are forbidden by the outer speech of ideology like puritanism,materialism and etc.And once “speechless” situation appears,it seems to become a “symptom”,the "symptom" contains the of the spiritual features of "grotesques",and there is always a dialogue between the "untold" inner speech and the outer speech of mainstream consciousness.Chapter Two aims to demonstrate the dialogue in the plot structure of Winesburg,Ohio.In Winesburg,Ohio,the short story sequence presents a potential dialogue relations from the macroscopic angle with obvious “macro-dialogue” characteristic.This the short story sequence not simply put all separated stories together but transform different stories into an entirety according to ideological relations between themes and characters.The oppositions raising from different consciousness and opinions are like the polyphony in music.Different tones hum for the same subject,thus,the polychrome and complete Winesburg society is formed.At the same time,the juxtapose among stories in this collection is concomitant and paratactic in the structure of plot,and also reveals features of dialogue.Chapter Three mainly explores survival state of “grotesques” under the cross section of time based on view of space-time under Bakhtin?s polyphony novel.Apart from this,the descriptive sequence of events in Winesburg,Ohio presents up-to-date property of section.No matter for a single story or the whole novel,the continuity of time is short and weak,because polyphony theory of fiction pays more attention to simultaneous coexistence and interaction in space-time aspect.However.This short synchronicity doesn?t affect the characterization,the characters in stories are connected and gathered by same regional settings.Winesburg,Ohio doesn?t follow traditional time sequence to develop,instead,description develops with the changes in emotions and consciousness on the basis of changes in psychological time.Anderson uses fractured time periods as thread to distinctly express the distorted and cracked psychological states of characters.In addition,the regional space in Winesburg also restricts the survival and development of characters.Ostensibly,there is a uniformity in regional settings,however,there is an implied meaning deep-seated in small town.Winesburg influenced by the wave of industrialization is actually a trap and a cage which residents inside cannot escape from.Chapter Four analyzes conflict between outer speech of official ideology and inner speech of people living in the town,and their tries to break through the fence.Human nature is badly destroyed by people?s intense pursuit towards capital and strict management mechanism brought by mainstream social consciousness in industrialization reform.The power of outer speech is unstoppable and fully restricts people?s spiritual inner speech.Besides,the inflexible working mode totally ignores people?s emotional needs.Due to the crises and anxieties resulted by the revolution of social system,the language expression of grotesques cannot satisfy the needs of communication between each other and oral language seems to be weak and powerless.Hence,they attempt to find an exit to out pour their emotions,desiring to convey feelings via physical contact between each other and try sentimental touch.Grotesques use physical contact to communicate,meaning body language is much more powerful when compared with oral expression,because the communicating mode of sentimental touch contains unspeakable rich feelings and undoable truths in language.Conclusion of the paper points out the characteristics of dialogues under Winesburg,Ohio written by Anderson,that is dialogue of the work on space-time,ructure,and figures? dialogues,and modern artistic forms such as “loosen” narrative,“sentimental touch”,which opens new situation for short stories in America,and has profound literary significance.