An Interpretation Of The Grapes Of Wrath From The View Of The Power Discourse

John Steinbeck was considered to be one of the most celebrated American writers in the 20th century literary world. The Grapes of Wrath, as John Steinbeck's masterpiece, timely reflected the social conditions in 1930s'America during the Great Depression. As soon as the novel was published in 1939, it soared to the top of the bestseller lists. However, this novel aroused the panic of the ruling classes in the American states so that it was forbidden to be issued in many states.Criticism on Steinbeck and his works have been marked with great controversy all the time. It is because Steinbeck study is a complex and fascinating area. Though The Grapes of Wrath is quite controversial, the overwhelming majority of readers and scholars have given high apprasal to the novel. The research on The Grapes of Wrath both abroad and at home is mostly rested on its theme, biblical archetype, ecological criticism, artistry, structure and so on.The consciousness of power and discourse that John Steinbeck permeates in The Grapes of Wrath happens to coincide with Michel Foucault's power discourse theory in some ways. Through taking Michel Foucault's power discourse theory as the theoretical framework with two keywords, namely power and discourse, this thesis tries to make a tentative interpretation of The Grapes of Wrath, starting from the side ignored by previous people and reading out the novelty of literary text in the hope of finding a balance between fiction and reality and having a new understanding of the relationship between culture and literature.This thesis is divided into 5 parts. The first part introduces John Steinbeck, the novel The Grapes of Wrath and its historical background, and studies on The Grapes of Wrath both abroad and at home. The second part deals with the theoretical framework of this thesis, namely Foucault's power theory and discourse theory. The third part and the fourth part are the body of this thesis. The third part is an interpretation of power relations in The Grapes of Wrath. In this part, this thesis interprets the novel from the following three aspects that power is the power of discourse, and that power is the relationship between two individuals and also power's productivity. The fourth part is an interpretation of discourse in The Grapes of Wrath. Discourse means discursive practice. This thesis mainly analyzes the following three aspects: discursive practice of Ma Joad, discursive practice of"Hooverville"and discursive practice of the priest Jim Casy, the cutting angle of which is that discourse is controlled, selected, organized and redistributed according to the power relations. The fifth part is conclusion, summing up the main research achievements and academic value of this thesis. The conclusion points out that through an interpretation of The Grapes of Wrath from Foucault's point of view of power discourse theory, this thesis broadens the understanding of power from Foucault's micropower to the combination of micro-and-macropower. And a balance between fiction and reality and a new understanding between culture and literature is achieved as well.