A New Critical Study On Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections

Jonathan Franzen is a famous American novelist and essayist. His debut novel, The Twenty-seventh City (1988) made him the winner of the Whiting Writer’s Award. The publication of his third novel The Corrections (2001) brought him an eminent status in the contemporary American literary arena and marked the turning point of his career. The novel is praised by critics as a great American novel that hasn’t been seen for a long time. It is also widely considered as the most successful novel he has written, winning a National Book Award in2001and the Best Novel Award on the website Amazon in2001and James Tait Black Memorial Prize in2002. Time comments Franzen as "a great novelist" and the American literary arena also puts hope on Franzen to win the Nobel Prize for literature.The Corrections uses the life experience of Lambert family’s five members as a microcosm of modern American people to present the real condition of marriage, family, work ethics and consumer culture in the modern American society, which reveals social and individual problems in America and expresses Franzen’s anxiety about the American society and concern about individual’s growth. It is instructive and significant for readers to learn more about the American society.The greatness of The Corrections lies in its skillful writing techniques, contents and profound theme. It has drawn critical attentions at home and abroad as a best seller and winner of critical awards. The literature review of the novel calls for a deep exploration of it from the perspective of New Criticism as typical New Critical elements are presented in the text. Approached from the perspective of New Criticism, through close reading, the recognized New Critical method, this thesis is to elaborate the writing techniques, contents and theme of this novel.This thesis consists of five parts. Introduction presents Franzen’s status in the American literary arena, his literary achievements and literature reviews on The Corrections as well as the significance of this thesis. Chapters One, Two and Three try to illustrate respectively how New Critical features such as irony, ambiguity and tension are reflected in this novel and how they contribute to the presentation of writing techniques, contents and theme of it. In the conclusion, it is argued The Corrections is a novel with meaningful New Critical features. It highlights the excellent writing techniques, enriches the content and enhances the theme of the novel. Studying The Corrections from the perspective of New Criticism is a worthwhile effort. It is hoped that this thesis can enlarge the scope of criticism on The Corrections and strengthen the critical attention of scholars and readers to Franzen and The Corrections.