The Cultural Connotation Of "Green's Original"

Graham Greene is regarded as one of the established British writers succeeding the climax of modernism."Greeneland",with its rich cultural representation,is a word coined to describe the multi-dimensional world of metaphor that Greene has created in his novels.A cultural perspective from Greene's standpoint as an intellectual attributes to a profound understanding of the cultural connotations of his works,manifesting the uniqueness and significance of his works in the diversification of post-war British literature.The "Greeneland" constructed in Greene's cross-regional writing has been endowed with an abundance of cultural representations.Greene traveled constantly to many places of the world,in his early years with the purpose of escaping the cultural center of Europe,and in the later half of his life with the goal of conducting an immediate and convenient observation and understanding of modern geopolitics."Greeneland" involves not only cultural-geographical landscape but mental landscape and socio-political landscape.Therefore,in order to decode cultural connotations of Greene's novels,it is especially significant to explore the geographical,mental and political dimensions.The geographical space constructed in Greene's novels involves modern cities and rural areas,native and foreign cultures.Greene's early novels,mostly set in British cities,delineate a picture of modern urban wasteland where violence and evil breed.The city of ruins also takes the shape of a narrow and enclosed space.Suburbs,as the expansion of cities,help boost the mass culture and consequently deepen the alienation between intellectuals and the mass people,which indicates that Greene,in his constructing of "Greeneland",has combined human values and their living circumstances and thus lent distinctive cultural significance to his novels.Greene's later works are mainly based on such exotic areas as Sierra Leone,Congo in Africa,Mexico in America and war-time Vietnam,which actually serve in the novels as the extension of European urban wasteland.Africa is no longer a place where modern people's trauma can be cured or Western civilization can be revived;the social mentality in Mexico is castrated as a symbol of lost humanity;the mysterious oriental charm of Vietnam can not finally hide a gloomy and horrible picture of war and turmoil.The spiritual space constructed in Greene's novels has even richer connotation."Greeneland" is not only a geographical space but also an internal landscape,a metaphorical space of man's psychology which involves the inner projection of modern people's faith and ethics,alienation and loneliness.Greene constructs a dimension of faith and makes an analysis of it within the system of mass culture.His characters,always on the way of escaping or chasing or remote exile,find themselves trapped in isolation by the external force and thus end up with claustrophobia.Constant spatial movements deprive people of the sense of home and belonging.Living in urban Britain,modern people can no longer find the ideal home;the way back home has been shut down before the nostalgic exiles;the attempt to reconstruct homes in foreign areas has ended up in vain;finally,home takes the alienated form in the novels,highlighting the loss of spiritual home for modern people.The political space of Greene's novels also conveys the writer's profound and serious meditation.Greene attaches importance to political space and its complex metaphorical logic of culture,history,ideology and power.Taking a perspective into the dimension of social class,Greene makes keen observation and depiction of the interaction and relationship between marginalized characters and the dominating social power so that his delineation permeates with his own values and judgments.The juxtaposition of "the scene of private life" and "the scene of political life" maps out a complicated relationship among characters and produces a political metaphor of hetero-space which mirrors the anxieties and moral conflicts of modern people living in certain political contexts.Greene also projects in his novels his serious reflection on politics and humanity,loyalty and betrayal,individualism and nationalism.Therefore,it is from the perspective of western intellectuals that Greene arrives at an understanding and representation of the conflict of humanity and politics,where Greene's earnest concern for humanism can be conveyed to his readers.Graham Greene has constructed in his novels a unique "Greeneland",a multi-layered and multi-dimensional world which involves cultural-geographical landscape,mental landscape and socio-political landscape.Therefore,"Greeneland"serves as a magnificent landscape of politics and culture,reflecting Greene's care for the living condition of modern people and his deep concern for the western civilization.