Confrontation And Fusion Of Two Cultures In The Golden Bowl

As a novelist, dramatist, and literary critic, Henry James (1843-1916) occupies an important position in both American and English literary history. Of all James's literary works, his novels of the "international theme", which deals with the transatlantic conflict between American "innocence" and European "sophistication", are the most conspicuous and widely discussed.This thesis mainly discusses James's last complete novel The Golden Bowl by using Matthew Arnold's cultural terms Hellenism and Hebraism to analyze both American and European cultures through the marriage between Maggie, an American girl, and Amerigo, a European aristocrat.The thesis has five chapters. The first chapter provides a brief survey of James's literary career and literary studies of his novels from critics both at home and abroad, especially studies of "international theme" of The Golden Bowl. Chapter two analyzes the cultural idea of Matthew Arnold, from whom Henry James benefits a lot about the cultural ideal. In this part, the thesis discusses the meanings of "Hellenism" and "Hebraism" and introduces the influence of Matthew Arnold on James's cultural thinking. Chapter three and four analyze respectively the two protagonists in the novel by adopting Arnold's cultural concepts of Hebraism and Hellenism. Maggie actually carries with her the Hebraic traits as an American, which can be seen from her idea of life as eternal becoming, her full participation and self-transcendence, and her self-subjugation and self-sacrifice. Amerigo actually carries with him the Hellenistic traits as a European prince, which can be seen from his idea of life as...