An Analysis Of Alienation In Sister Carrie From The Perspective Of Spatial Criticism

Theodore Dreiser is a genius writer in the history of American literature. Dreiser always sets the modern American urban cities as the background and probes into the urban problems in his literary writings. In his novels, urban city landscapes and the life of city dwellers are depicted vividly and faithfully.Sister Carrie is one of Dreiser’s well-known novels which chooses the American urban cities at the end of19th century as the writing background. At that time, the American economy developed rapidly and was transforming into a consumption society. The novel faithfully and vividly depicts the life in representative American urban cities, such as Chicago and New York. The novel’s urban city subject matters, the urban experiences of the major characters and the various landscapes of urban cities all make this novel typical of that time. Dreiser involves his own urban life experiences and thoughts on urban cities in the writing. On the one hand, he describes these modern landscapes of urban cities, such as the wide shopping streets, the upscale restaurants, the department stores with details. The location, historical changes, and the decorative furnishing of those urban landscapes all present the material abundance of urban life. On the other hand, as a sensible spectator of urban cities, Dreiser emphasizes that those alienated landscapes of urban cities have exerted influence on the characters’recognition of the urban city and their value system.Spatial criticism formed its theory system in the1980s. It is the deconstruction and sublation to the traditional spatial concept, In spatial criticism, space is not subsidiary to time or a static passive container; instead, it is a strong power formed on.the basis of certain culture, In literature, space is often simply equated with the landscape of a novel; it is the container and background of the characters and plot, In spatial criticism, landscape has multiple properties in terms of social, cultural and historical attributes. French philosopher Henri Lefebvre is one of the well-known pioneers of western contemporary spatial theory, In the Production of Space (1974), he points out that,"(social) space is (social) product", In the case of the urban space, it is the product of capitalist product, also is the way of individual’s survival. The modern urban city is filled with alienated characters of the industrialization and urbanization. Besides, the individuals living in it are also alienated by the urban space.This thesis tries to study the alienated urban space and survival conditions of characters in Sister Carrie from the perspective of spatial criticism and explore the phenomena and reasons of the alienation in the novel.This thesis is made up of five parts:The introduction draws a sketch of Dreiser and Sister Carrie, provides a literature review on his literary creation from home and abroad, and states the significance of the thesis.Chapter One consists of three sections:the introduction to spatial criticism, the connotation of alienation, and the relationship between space and literature under the influence of Henri Lefebvre’s spatial criticism.Chapter Two explores the alienated American urban city space appearing in Sister Carrie. According to the different functions and characters, the urban city space in the novel can be divided into three parts:the landscape, the work space and the family life space. This part analyzes the alienated phenomena of respective urban space of the novel and tries to find out the social reasons which cause the alienation.Chapter Three mainly analyzes the alienated individuals in American urban city space. According to the connotation of alienation, individual alienation includes three aspects:the alienation of individual’s thoughts, the alienation of individual’ demands and alienated interpersonal relationship. From the perspective of spatial theory, this thesis holds that the alienation of individuals in Sister Carrie are influenced and controlled by the product of capitalist social space.The conclusion summarizes the comprehensive alienation of capitalist urban city appearing in Sister Carrie. This thesis explores the alienation of the novel through the interpretation of the various alienated urban city space and the alienated individuals living in it. According to the spatial theory, this thesis holds that, the urban space in the novel is not only the background of development of the plots, but also is the alienated social space. The modern urban city space in Sister Carrie is a comprehensive alienated space. The individuals living in it can hardly escape the influence and control of force of alienation.