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Carnivalization In A Maggot

Posted on:2013-06-08Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:J ZhuFull Text:PDF
GTID:2255330395490946Subject:English Language and Literature
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John Fowles is not only a productive writer but also an extraordinarily successful one. A Maggot is his latest and last novel. Mahmoud Salami once said that this novel displayed the most serious questions and indeed the most explicitly ideological issues of all Fowles’s fiction. Fowles made it so dazing to its readers from its theme to narrative technique. So many scholars have tried to define it but failed to reach an agreement. This thesis tries to ignore the specific disputes about the genre and theme of A Maggot, and interpret it with Bakhtin’s theory of carnivalization. A humble prostitute though the heroine Rebecca is. she dares to challenge the patriarchy and the mainstream social values and makes the gorgeous "prostitute-saintess" conversion of her identity. Rebecca embodies the spirit of subversion which is the core of carnivalization perfectly. Fowles also portrays a series of marginal carnival figures like the fool and the rogue in this novel, they ridicule the established social norms and conventions and expose the hypocrisy and darkness of the upper middle class. Because of them, the facts and truths become complicated and confusing. All the things which seemed absolute now turn into relative, Fowles rubes different genres (like like legal record, epistle, newsletters, false documents and real historical documents, etc.) and various languages (such as English. Welsh. Latin, archaic language, dialect, and so on) into the novel. This kind writing form is a carnival feast of texts and languages and another embodiment of carnival spirit. Through the elaborate analyses of the carnival elements of the heroin, the minor carnival characters and the writing technique, this thesis concludes A Maggot as a carnivalesque novel safely and naturely.This thesis is composed of five parts, namely introduction, body, which consists of chapter one. two and three, and conclusion. The introduction first briefly presents John Fowles and the main plots of A Maggot then makes a critical review of A Maggot and introduces the key terms in carnivaliztion theory, and finally depicts the arrangement of chapters in this thesis.Chapter One explores the carnival spirit embodied in Rebecca, the heroine of this novel. She chooses the a marginalized religion The Shaker as her faith, betrays her patriarchal family and challenges the authority and values of upper middle class. Her behavior is obviously a contempt and betrayal of the mainstream social culture and fully displays the spirit of subversion. Because of this tremendous subversion power. Rebecca elevates from a prostitute in the traditional sense to a respectable woman. All established rules and conventions become relative and have the possibility of developing and transforming oppositely in the constant subversion. The title of this novel "A Maggoi" reminds us that all concrete ugliness may turn into abstract beauty.Chapter Two focuses on the minor carnival characters in this novel. Fowles vividly portrays a series of marginalized figures like the fool and the rogue, they compose the carnival collective in A Maggot. Though humble in terms of social status, these people are not insignificant actually. They deviate from the established social norms and conventions, ridicule all that is conventional, authorial, and sacred in their own ways. A special kind of characters show themselves as "paired images" in this novel, they render the character of diametrical opposition but absolute inseparability in many aspects. These characters show their inherent carnival qualities in the contrast and conflict and reveal the truth from different perspectives.Chapter Three studies the method of highlighting and strengthening the carnival qualities of the characters from the aspect of writing techniques. Fowles rubes different genres into the narration of the novel.such like legal record, epistle, newsletters, false documents and real historical documents, etc. They imply the carnival spirits of diversity and inclusiveness in the text level. Besides the originality of the genres, A Maggot is also distinctive in the language. English. Welsh. Latin, archaic language, dialect, and so on, languages of different regions and registers mix together, which is not only a carnival feast of languages but also corresponds with the carnival spirit of the characters. The hybridity of different genres and languages reveals the serio-comical spirit of Menippea and remits the gloom of this novel.These chapters are followed by a conclusion which sums up the distinctive features of characterization and writing technique in A Maggot in the light of Bakhtin’s theory of carnivalization. The world created by John Fowles in A Maggot is in accordance with the carnivalistic world defined by Bakhtin. Therefore, A Maggot can be generalized as a carnivalized novel.
Keywords/Search Tags:John Fowles, A Maggot, Carnivalization
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