Henry Miller’s Language Violence And Humane Pursuit

Henry Miller, born in Brooklyn, New York, married five times in his life. Heworked in many occupations and once spent his life mingling with manyimpoverished expatriates and uninhibited Parisians for a decade. Encouraged by hissecond wife, Joan Mansfield, Miller started writing. As an important writer of the20thcentury in America, Miller is a freak elitist in American literature and one of the fewmost controversial writers in the world literature. Miller who has broad interests isdeeply influenced by many writers such as Dostoevsky, Whitman, Lawrence, etc, andby various thoughts and schools such as Dadaism and Surrealism and so on. Hiscreative methods are also diversified. Multiple writing techniques including automaticwriting, reverie and stream-of-consciousness are interweaved in his works. Besides,he strived to break the bond of tradition in language, subject and other aspects,forming his unique writing style. However, there are constant controversies to hisworks, so both praise and scoff are received, which puts him always under thespotlight of literature criticism.This thesis analyzes Miller’s works from the following five parts.The first part is introduction, in which the author first introduces the researchsituations of Miller both at home and abroad, then feminists’ research on Miller isbriefly explained and the research value and significance are summarized.The second part interprets Miller’s language violence based on his biographicaltrilogy, and discusses it from three aspects that are the use of fragments writing, thepresentation of language violence and the interpretation of language violence. Itfocuses on his inclination for ugliness and the undisguised description of sex whichare particularly reflected in his biographical trilogy—Tropic of Cancer, Tropic ofCapricorn and Black Spring to make the interpretation of his language violence.Influenced by Surrealism, Miller’s works have the catachrestic of fragments writing. Then the author probes into the directionality of his unique writing style and his writing purpose of expressing his pursuit of "real self" through extreme statements.In the third part, the humane pursuit showed in Miller’s works is analyzed to show that Miller tried to tear up the disguise covered by the sexual relationships in the civilized society and then to realize a high free state through sex adventure and rebellious writing. In essence, his pursuit is a kind of rebellion against civilization, morality and order. This chapter studies Miller’s humane pursuit from three aspects-the enlightenment meaning of sex, the criticism of modern western civilization and the humanitarian concern. His works show that Miller abandoned morality, law, civilization and order, thoroughly realizing the humanistic relaxation which is centered on sex, and then represent Miller’s revolt against society and his concern on individual.The fourth part is about the paradox of humane pursuit in Miller’s works. According to the attack on Miller made by Millett who is a feminist, the author finds out that the contempt, taunt, even violence for woman showed in sexual relations actually is the power phenomenon in male dominated society. However, Miller’s spiritual construction and self-emancipation all inflict sexual disaster on women, which consequently consolidates the model and order of male dominated society. Whether Miller or feminists attempt to subvert tradition and build a new order, expressing their humane pursuit. However, Miller’s construction is made from the perspective of traditional male supremacy, which hurt woman’s dignity and interest, forming the paradox of Miller’s humane pursuit.The fifth part is conclusion, in which the relationship between the violent elements in Miller’s works and his thoughts is summarized first. In addition, the author again points out the paradox of Miller’s humane pursuit and hopes to further discuss the rationality of Miller’s construction mode.