The Characteristics Of Voss By White

In 1973, the Swedish Academy declared to award the year's Nobel Prize for Literature to Patrick White because of "his epic and narrative art that has introduced a new continent into the world". Winning such a great honor did spread his fame in foreign regions and stimulated the native critics to attach due attention on the writer who had always been censured and criticized as one who only achieved in structuring obscure themes out of obscure sentences. Beyond doubt, it is sure that there still exists a gang of critics and many a reader cling to the obsolete view over White the man and the novels. However, the overwhelming majority of critics and readers eulogize him an author with characteristics. Among them, the best eminent and influential ones are the English critic William Walsh and the Australian critic A.M.McCulloch. They both have written numerous articles in order to penetrate and cover the characteristics imbedded in the works, taking various approaches. Besides, the Chinese scholars Hu Wenzhong and Huang Yuanshen have ever introduced the loaded characteristics in several of the novels, too. As for comment on the following masterpiece Voss, Wash in his Patrick White: Voss ever argued its characteristics as presentation of the author's rich imagination and assurance, and the exploration of a quite exotic theme. Confirming such an argument, Professor Hu Wenzhong supplemented it soundly by proving the disregard for plot as one distinguishing feature. Doubtless,the two researchers both have made reasonable and forcible illustration. However, after countless close readings, the author in the present thesis also has discovered other hidden characteristics that are the characteristics of background, the characteristics of characterization, and the characteristics of artistic techniques. Moreover, even in the thematic aspect, there is also a characteristic that differs from that determined by Wash. However, the detailed analysis of the characteristics does not mean this paper's ultimate goal. It is attempted to indicate and confirm White's creativity and his contribution to the development of Australian literature or even the world literature.This paper is organized into six parts: Introduction, Characteristics of the background, Characteristics of the theme, Characteristics of artistic techniques, and Conclusion.In the part of introduction, the illustrations of the characteristics of Voss made by William Wash and Hu Wenzhong is introduced and their incompleteness is marked out, aiming to kindle the other three distinguishing features-characterictics of backgroud, charateristics of theme, charateristics of characterization and that of the artistic techniques-proposed by thesis.The characteristics of background: Since the 1950s, the Australian literary circle has been dominated by Lawsonian realism, which preaches mateship in face of human struggle against nature. It should be confirmedthat the traditional realists have made everlasting contribution to the development of Australian literature through mirroring the streching local colors. However, it can not be denied that by the turn of twentieth century, the whole nation had witnessed great changes in economical, political, and ideological respects; while, the realists ignored these changes and still indulged in the obsolete modes of reflecting society, inevitably to have been trapped by provincialsm and dullness. In the meantime, Patrick White, travesing back and forth in many countries, had accumulated profuse experience and trained out a strong personality that enabled him to feel the pervasive literary dullness and monotony. Then the exposed void minds in seeking possessions discomforted him and strengthened the determination of creating out works that could reflect human spiritual pursuit. Voss was then produced as one of such samples. In this novel, White abstracted the historical happening-Leichhardt, the German's expeditions in 1940s-as his fictional material, aiming at convey the higher pursuit, while without any intention of compiling histori...