Multiple-memories And Literary Worlds

As a great writer and the first woman Academician in the Académie Franaise, Yourcenar enjoys an international reputation with her remarkable artistic talents in creating a varied and colorful literary world. We can say that each of her works includes abundant and complicated contents and topics, considering the complexity of the Writer herself as well as the diversity in her literary works. This thesis starts its analysis from the overview of "memory" theories and analyzes Yourcenar and her works from a pair of contradiction ("memory"and"counter-memory"), two dimensions (philosophy and psychology) and three aspects (personal memory, household memory, cultural memory).This thesis is composed of the following four chapters.After a general overview about the important theories of"memory"from philosophical and psychological dimensions, the first chapter makes a detailed analysis of Yourcenar's memory ideas in this academic circumstance. In her works, memory plays an important and metaphysical role, that is to say, the Writer regards memory as the process of uncovering and a means to find out the truth and to pursue eternity as former philosophers did."Memory"is used to present the Kingdom of Heaven in this mortal world and to lift when in degradation. Meanwhile, Yourcenar is trying to shake off the yoke of traditional attitudes of memory, so"memory"and"counter-memory"coexist in Yourcenar's works. She strives to unfold the true appearance of past. As for different aspect of memory, Yourcenar creates different kinds of characters accordingly. Although the characters are very different from each other, they all transcend theirs personal experience with the quality of typification.The second chapter is about Yourcenar's personal memory which means Yourcenar is the leading role in this kind of memory. Barlter's schemato memory theory holds that the personal memory has the quality of inaccuracy. Thus Yourcenar usually avoid displaying...