On Inheritance And Subversion Of Gothic Pattern In Twilight Saga

Stephanie Meyer is a renowned modern American female writer, who is acclaimed as the inheritor of J.K. Rowling. Since the publication of her novels of Twilight Saga in 2005, the works have enjoyed wide readership across the globe and won the attention of the critic circle. Up to the present, many critics at both home and abroad have all considered Twilight Saga fall into the category of Gothic novel. This thesis conducts a detailed textual analysis of Twilight Saga from the new perspective of deconstruction, considering that it belongs to neo-Gothic novel, which transcends the form of Gothic novel. This thesis explores the inheritance and subversion of Gothic pattern in Twilight Saga, focusing on its theme, characterization and narrative.Apart from the introduction and conclusion, this thesis is divided into three chapters. The first chapter analyzes the inheritance and subversion of the traditional Gothic themes in Twilight Saga. The novels inherit the Gothic theme of horror and the theme of conflict between good and evil. Twilight Saga inherits the theme of horror through the combination and contrast of reality and illusion, horrific events concerning vampires and depiction of natural environment. And the novels inherit the theme of conflict between good and evil through quotations from the Bible and description of the timeless conflict between good and evil in the vampire circle. Twilight Saga also infuses modern content and vehement emotions in Gothic themes. It subverts the themes of romance and conflict between good and evil. The theme of romance in Twilight Saga is not so"dark"any more, but becomes increasingly romantic. And it not merely commits itself to the construction of the theme of conflict between good and evil, but more about the theme of choice. The heroine Bella's choice and the hero Edward's choice both exhibit the new theme of choice.The second chapter further reveals the inheritance and subversion of Gothic characterization in Twilight Saga through an analysis of the vampire characterization in the novels. Twilight Saga inherits the vampire image and power in traditional Gothic novels. Like vampires in traditional Gothic novels, the vampires in Twilight Saga all have pale complexion, ice-cold hands and feet, extraordinary power and splitting speed, who have experienced becoming vampires and being jealous of human. Each of them has his unique supernatural power, and they are adept at transferring instantaneously, mind-reading, foreseeing future, altering the atmosphere, afflicting tortuous illusion separately. The novels also subvert the vampire image and behavior. Unlike the traditional vampires'behavior, Edward and his family choose a unique lifestyle. They are"vegetarians", who dwell at a brand-new living environment. The vampires have fewer taboos. Besides, Meyer creates vampires with humanized features. As homosexuality has been a hot topic in Gothic novels, Meyer constructs the absolute heterosexual vampire image in her novels.Chapter Three continues to deal with the inheritance and subversion of Gothic narrative in Twilight Saga. It possesses a common display form with traditional Gothic novels in the aspect of narrative. There are similar choice and usage of the subjective narrative point of view, the treatment of narration time in them. The authors of traditional Gothic novels have utilized"anachrony"frequently, and Meyer uses flashback in her novels. Twilight Saga also subverts the traditional narrative point of view and narrative technique. The omniscient point of view which has often been adopted by the authors of Gothic novels is subverted in Twilight Saga via Meyer's creative usage of the first-person limited point of view. Compared with the frantic narration in traditional Gothic novels, Meyer uniquely integrates passion with order, telling the story in a kindly and informal fashion.This thesis is an analysis of the inheritance and subversion of Gothic pattern in the four novels of Twilight Saga, which provides us with a new and more profound knowledge of this series of novels. More importantly, let us reflect on traditional values in non-Christian world through the cultural root exploration.