A New Historicist Approach To Jack London And His Martin Eden

Jack London was one of the most popular American writers in the early 20th century. As a prolific writer, he wrote 500 nonfiction pieces, 200 short stories, and 19 novels in less than 20 years. Martin Eden, a semi-autobiography of the author himself, has been regarded as his masterpiece, but at the same time the novel has given rise to much controversy mainly over its theme, the tragic ending, and the contradictory philosophical theories embedded in the book, since it was published.Why did Martin Eden arouse different feelings and opinions in readers and critics? Apart from the author's special experience and complex thoughts, the historical background– America's transition from the old to the new which brought about tremendous changes in people's life and world outlook–could answer the question. This paper attempts to analyze the novel from the angle of New Historicism, which was inaugurated by Stephen Greenblatt. The theory advocates situating the text in the historical context, and focuses on the role that history plays in producing the text. Rather than regard history as an independent and pre-textual subject, New Historicism emphasizes the bilateral relationship between history and the text by using the expression of"the historicity of texts and the textuality of history". In addition, New Historicists adopt Foucault's idea that power is ubiquitous and that power produces and co-opts subversion as an effect of its own operation.Besides the introduction and conclusion, this paper is divided into five chapters.The introduction mainly includes a brief introduction to Jack London, his times and his Martin Eden, and a literature review.Then Chapter One is about New Historicism. It traces the rise of New Historicism and presents its main ideas.Chapter Two discusses the historicity of texts, analyzing the complex contradictions and conflicts in economy, culture, philosophical thoughts and class polarization of that time reflected in the novel. The first section is commercialization ?and the artist. In the context of industrialization, a writer would either become a real artist who pursued his muse in response to some sort of inner calling or become a professional writer who wrote literary works for money. Such conflict is reflected in Jack London's Martin Eden. The second section mainly expounds different tendencies and characteristics of romaticism, realism and naturalism in literary field of that time and their influences on Jack London and his Martin Eden. Then the third section deals with various kinds of philosophical theories of that time such as evolutionism, the superman theory, individualism and socialism. Influenced by these theories, Jack London consciously or unconsciously gave expression to the contradiction in his thought in his semi-autobiography Martin Eden. The last section is about the broad gap between the classes of American society reflected in Martin Eden.Chapter Three is centered on the textuality of history by analyzing the distinctive histories which readers of different times and different countries construct respectively on the basis of Jack London and his Martin Eden. Jack London and his work went through an undulating and changeable process in America. Firstly it was a favorite of American readers, then it became an object of assault and was gradually neglected, and lastly it obtained readers'assurance again. Unlike the checkered and tortuous experiences in America, a great deal of value had been attached to Jack London's Martin Eden, which was considered a revolutionary novel in China and the Soviet Union. The different attitudes toward and understandings of the same author and the same work indicate the subjectivity no critics can be detached from. Another important reason for the divergence is Jack London's strategy of integrating himself with the protagonist Martin Eden.Chapter Four goes on to explore the power discourse of Martin Eden, that is, how Martin Eden is subversive to bourgeois society and how it is instrumental to the bourgeois ideology. In this novel, the subversive function is obviously revealed, for the author exposes the falseness of the American Dream, the collapse of individualism and the hypocrisy of the bourgeoisie. As a writer molded by the social and cultural environment in which he lived, his work was unavoidably restricted by the mainstream ideology and formed in the discussion with the social powerful discourse. Therefore, echoing the mainstream ideology, he and his work unwittingly helped to promote the publicity of American capitalism.On the whole, this paper tries to do a research on Jack London and his Martin Eden from the perspective of New Historicism in order to acquire a better understanding of the bilateral relationship between history and the text, and the negotiation between Jack London and the bourgeois ideology.