Sherwood Anderson's Expressionist Art In Winesburg, Ohio

Sherwood Anderson (1876-1941) is a great writer in modern American literary history. With the publication of his Winesburg, Ohio in 1919, he did cause a great stir in the world, and this work is also called the historical landmark of American modernist fiction. The famous modernist Faulkner declared his stature as the father of his generation of American writers and the tradition of American writing which the successors will carry on. Actually, Anderson does have great influence upon other modernist writers like Faulkner, Hemingway, Steinbeck, etc.In Winesburg, Ohio, instead of idealizing the image of the American small town as most writers do, Anderson depicts the Winesburg town as a cold, dark and lonely place. With his delicate and incisive social perception, he probes intuitively and compassionately the twisted souls of the small town people at the country's transition from an agrarian society to an industrial one. Unable to adjust themselves to the changing world, the townspeople under Anderson's pen are rather frustrated, agonizingly lonely and unexplainably inarticulate. Consequently, it is considered as the first modern American expression of the wasteland theme by many critics. In this way, Anderson gives a new impetus and direction to the future development of the American short story.There are many ways to interpret his text. Since the publication of Winesburg, Ohio in 1919, Anderson has been labeled as a realist, naturalist, impressionist or romanticist, by critics both at home and abroad. Based on the studies done before, this thesis is intended to make a systematic analysis of the expressionist art in Winesburg stories from the following aspects:expressionist art in form, expressionist art in characterization, expressionist art in narrative techniques.Apart from the Introduction and the Conclusion, the main body of the thesis is composed of four chapters. Chapter one gives a view of the roots of Anderson's expressionist atr. This chapter is made up of three sections. The first section gives a brief introduction of expressionism, while the second one presents the two elements that introduced Anderson to the expressionist art, and the third one introduces the expressionist artistic goal in Winesburg, Ohio.Chapter Two mainly discusses the plotless structure and moment of insight that Anderson employs in his work, which shows the expressionist art in his writing.Chapter Three is focused on the character creation in Winesburg, Ohio to show that the grotesques Anderson created in his work are the result of the stylized techniques of expressionist art.Chapter Four is focused on the three commonly used writing devices-particular language style, repetition of images and symbolism in Winesburg, Ohio to show the expressionist narrative techniques in the writing of this book.In a word, this thesis aims to give a detailed analysis of the expressionist art in Winesburg, Ohio, through which Anderson succeeds in presenting us a typical Midwestern town permeating with frustration and loneliness at the transitional age of the society. The analysis and criticism of the expressionist art in Winesburg, Ohio is just a tentative study. The fact that there still exists much room for further research indicates in turn the research values of this thesis. The author is convinced that the study of Winesburg, Ohio from an expressionist perspective will contribute to verifying and solidifying the significant standing of this great work in the history of world literature.