| The History Man (1975) is the masterpiece of Malcolm Bradbury (1932-2000), thefamous British contemporary writer of the academic novel. This novel has been widelyacknowledged since its publication. In the novel, Bradbury tells about the story of a radicaland selfish sociological professor, through which the degenerated life state of post-warcampus intellectuals is presented and his social critical sense to it is conveyed to the reader. Inthis way, The History Man actually undertakes to uncover the true color of the campusintellectuals whose mask of “mystery” is taken off to reveal their world of a waste land. Themoral crisis and the fadedness of mystery on the part of the campus intellectuals go alongwith their lack of energy in pursuing the intellectual spirit endowed to them ever since thebirth of this social class in the world history. The author’s anxiety towards the academic fieldin which he himself is a member is still there.Previous researches on the theories of spiritual ecology and that of intellectuals are foundin the works such as those by Lu Shuyuan, Julian Benda etc. There are also studies made onThe History Man, though more to be followed in the future, just as what this thesis intends todo. Based on these studies and enlightened by the theory of spiritual ecology supported bythat of intellectuals, this thesis takes The History Man as the object of study, trying to analyzethe spiritual and moral crisis of the contemporary campus intellectuals in this novel from theaspects of alienation in academia, morality and intellectuals’ spirit.In terms of alienation in academia, Bradbury characterizes Howard Kirk as theprotagonist in The History Man who caters to the public’s secular taste, makes his academicwork commercialized, and takes academic studies as strictly utilitarian as the tool to makecommercial success. He abandons the free and independent spirit as a true intellectual. In thesame way, Flora Beniform makes academic work life-stylized and takes it as part of herpersonal life. She makes use of academic work to satisfy her own desire to success. Academiais nothing to be taken seriously in her eyes. However, in contrast to the above two people,Henry Beamish is serious in his academic pursuit and takes academic work as something to bring enlightenment upon humankind. But as his value on academia is contrastively degradedby the social conventions of his time and he is thus marginalized and becomes unacceptableby the public. In fact, what is marginalized is not Henry Beamish as an individual, but theacademic spirit that should have been characteristic of true intellectuals. The deterioration oftrue intellectual spirit marks the lack of ecology on university campus.As far as moral crisis is concerned, Howard Kirk in The History Man can be said to be adictator who likes to put others under his controls, both physically and spiritually. Hisemotional world is a wasteland. He is very corrupt in personal life, characterized bysensualism. He has no love or caring for his friends and students. Flora takes a utilitarianattitude toward life and her value is based on what she wants. However, Henry Beamishalways gets hurt for his pure morality. He becomes the victim of others and is set in contrastto the above two people who choose to remain under the power of their personal desires andbecome alienated in morality.The intellectuals’ alienation in academia and morality lead to their alienation in spirit. InThe History Man, the intellectuals cater to the social conventions, losing their free andindependent spirit. At the same time they lose their critical spirit. The lack of intellectuals’spirit leads to the decline of the university spirit.By analyzing the intellectual’s alienation in academia, morality and spirit in The HistoryMan, this thesis demonstrates the degeneration, hollowness and absurdity of the intellectualsin Bradbury’s time. |
PDF Full Text Request