A Study Of Main Street From The Perspective Of New Historicism

In1930Sinclair Lewis was awarded Noble Prize for Literature and he was the first American writers got this honor. Main Street, published in1920, was Sinclair Lewis’s first great success in novel writing, In this novel, Sinclair has subverted the myth of American Middle-Western small town. Soon after the publication Main Street became the center of a national debate whether Sinclair Lewis has deliberately libeled the small town or he just reveals the real image about. In either case, readers bought the novel. Within six months more than180,000copies had been sold and the publication of Main Street was "the most sensational event in the twentieth-century American publishing history".The novel has brought a great impact on the American public and its title "Main Street" quickly became part of the language.Main Street absorbs such a large number of readers partly because Lewis had chosen to write about a novel dealing with small-town life at a propitious historical moment. By the end of the First World War, village’s significant role in the capitalist economy comes to an end, which also causes its moral and social attitudes being seen as outdated. Sinclair has taken advantage of the general mood of self-reflection in the postwar United States. Sinclair, who also was born in the small town, knows that most Americans especially those who once lived or still live in that place have aware the conventionality of small-town life. And they also tend to believe that somehow behind the day-to-day exterior showing to the public there should be some secret rebellion spirits. Just like Carol, Miles and Fern, they are much more unconventional and rebellious than the self that the public may see. These people are longing to indulge the rebellious sides of their personalities. The thesis will make a study of Main Street from the aspect of New Historicism, mainly applying the core concepts of Textuality of History and Historicity of Text to analyze the relationship between this novel and its historical context. And the analysis will focus on two aspects in Main Street:the main characters and the setting small town.Through the analysis of the mutual relationship between the text and its historical context, the real image of American small towns is presented in front of the public, and the myth of American small towns is subverted. Besides through the study of Carol’s disillusioned dream we can have a view of life for women’s struggle against the very oppressive and the very stubborn obstacles in American society. And Main Street is the historical document which has showed us the struggle of women in our past to solve some of the very same problems that may still exist and confuse us in our society.