The Semiotic Interpretation Of The Speaking Subject In Winesburg Ohio

Sherwood Anderson has a very special position in American literature. He is considered to be "the writers'writer" by Malcolm Cowley and "the father of my generation of American writers" by William Faulkner. His masterpiece, Winesburg, Ohio, is considered the Bible to quest "American consciousness" in American literature and the first work that expresses the theme of "Wasteland" in American literature after World War I. Winesburg, Ohio describes a group of grotesques who have lost their ability to express, communicate and love but still try hard to hold tight to their truths.With this understanding, the present thesis aims to offer the semiotic interpretation of the Speaking Subject in Winesburg, Ohio from its division, incursion and integration so as to probe into the loneliness, depression and alienation of human beings and the reprieve of their pain.The thesis takes as the perspective Julia Kristeva's two creative concepts:the Symbolic and the Semiotic in her Revolution in Poetic Language, which are the two major aspects for the thesis. Chapter 1 of the present thesis intends to illuminate the division of the Speaking Subject in the Symbolic in Winesburg, Ohio. The cultural background is displayed in the first place to disclose that the Speaking Subject is divided in the paternal society, where the grotesques can not express their thoughts and ideas. And in the signifying process, they are often misunderstood by others since the secular symbolic world is rigid and fixed with the Speaking Subject being split both in spirit and physiology.Chapter 2 focuses the incursion of the Speaking Subject of the Semiotic in Winesburg, Ohio. The grotesques express themselves by the means of the Semiotic, with their laughs, weeps, shouts and prayers as the incursive modes of semiotic voices. Rhythm and actions are also important in the Semiotic. The tempo Wing's hands beats, the caress of Louise to her kid and some other semiotic ways are described in details in the thesis to expose how the grotesques let out their unutterable pain and rebel against the paternal Symbolic.Chapter 3 explores the integration of the Speaking Subject in poetic language in Winesburg, Ohio. The four love stories in it reveal that love, as the instinctive drive in the body and mind of the Speaking Subject, is a best miraculous cure for these lonely, desperate grotesques. Every grotesque is a poet, pursuing the true, the good and the beautiful. The truth the poet holds and lives by is poetic and beautiful, hence keeping him young in soul and innocent as in mother's matrix. Learning to be mature is a process of understanding love, death and the meaning of life. As a key figure, George, especially his maturing provides a possible solution for the grotesques suffering from inarticulateness.With few referential materials discussing from the perspective of the Semiotic, the present study hopes to deepen Anderson's intention, motif and profundity of Winesburg, Ohio by taking a relatively original approach.