Reconstruction Of Identity And Disillusion

John Updike is well known as the great novelist, dramatist, poet and critics in modern America, who has published various genres literary works, including the"Rabbit Tetralogy","Baker Trilogy"and some short stories, poetry and symposiums. Rabbit is Rich and Rabbit at Rest, as the most famous novels of Updike, have helped him win the Pulitzer Prize twice."Sex, Religion and Art"is Updike's lifetime goal for writing, while"American, Christian, Town and Bourgeois"is the creational theme that Updike was proficient at, no surprising that, he is defined as the master of describing the soul of bourgeois.Based on the post-colonial theories, this thesis presents an analysis of the protagonists in Brazil, and the social background. Apart from introduction and conclusion, the paper is divided into three body chapters. Chapter one devotes to analyze Brazil with the support of Said's theory of Orientalism and Other. Through the description of the"other"images of Tristao and the black community, Updike reveals to us the black other who are marginalized by the west society. Begin with the famous question posed by Spivak:"Can the subaltern speak?"chapter two discusses the issue of subaltern. Based on Spivak's theories of subaltern and voice, this thesis makes a close interpretation of gender subaltern and ethnic subaltern respectively, and intents to reveal the different resistances to the white male dominance. Chapter three designates Homi Bhabha's theory of hybridity and mimicry and strategies which can be employed in fighting against colonialism are embraced and discussed. Updike intends to explore the racial and sexual problem through portraying the post-colonial identities, which endowed the novel with unique artistic characteristics and profound themes.