Subversion And Containment Of American Traditional Culture

John Updike is undoubtedly one of the greatest contemporary American writers.He has won almost all of the major American prizes, including two National BookAwards, two Pulitzers, the National Medal of Arts, and the Howells Medal. A lot ofresearch work has been done on him and his work. In China, Updike has been listedamong the Top Ten Contemporary American writers to be studied. His reputationclimaxed at the Rabbit quartet. A large amount of significant literary disquisitions havebeen produced on his Rabbit quartet. Rabbit, Run is the first novel of the quartet,published in1960. Rabbit, Run has drawn a lot of attention since its publication. A lot ofcritics have explained it detailedly from various perspectives. Inspired by these criticalreferences, the author of the present dissertation attempts to analyze Rabbit, Run fromperspective of New Historicism. According to New Historicism, texts are influenced bysocial and historical circumstance. And Texts also have the function of shaping history.This dissertation is an attempt to demonstrate the history which is reflected in thenovel and the influence that the history bears on characters. The dissertation consists offour chapters besides the introduction and the conclusion. Introduction is concerned withUpdike’s literary achievements, the main plot of the novel and the Literature Review ofthe novel. Chapter two introduces briefly New Historicism and its main concepts, suchas subversion and containment, textuality of history and historicity of text. Chapter threeintroduces American traditional culture from religion, family, sex and American dream.Chapter four analyzes containment of American traditional culture and the historyreflected in the novel. Chapter five analyzes subversion of American traditional cultureand the history reflected in the novel.This dissertation creatively studies Rabbit, Run from perspective of NewHistoricism coupled with American traditional culture. Based on the analysis, thedissertation finally draws a conclusion that Rabbit, Run reveals aspects of contemporaryAmerican cultures in1950s: Rabbit’s run is a manifestation of resistance to the society. In1950s, America is in the turning period of moral concepts. A lot of people refuse toaccept traditional culture, and they also are confused what kind of regulations theyshould follow. Spiritual crisis exists in the young generation which is represented byHarry Angstrom. American religion has become more and more secular, traditionalreligion belief has lost its power. Rabbit’s family tragedy embodies middle-class familylife in modern America. People of Rabbit’s generation overturn traditional culture, sosex becomes their spiritual provision. The power and influence of the American dreamgot lost. The whole America became a wasteland in spirit in1950s.The author of this dissertation hopes this study will have some elicitation to theexpansion of the research on Rabbit, Run meanwhile make readers have a betterunderstand about American contemporary traditional culture.