"Otherness," The Temptation: On Maugham In Primitivism

Primitivism, as one dimension of literary anthropology criticism, originated from "primitive complex "of western culture-root seeking trend in the20th century. It is mainly reflected in cultural anthropologists’ understanding and holistic researches on primitive personalities, living conditions, relations between qualities of life and ecological environment, as well as sharp reflections and criticism on social evils of civilization. As a literary model, the distinct features of primitivism give expression to conflicts between primitive and civilization, opposition between nature and industry, collision between instinct and rationality, and it advocates a return to nature, true state of human nature, so as to achieve the harmonious co-existence between the human body and mind, man and nature, man and society, and ultimately self-rescue, setting human on the road of revival.Among the modern literature works, Maugham’s works are full of "self" cultural reflections and explorations for "other" cultures---primitive culture and oriental culture. In his series of works, Maugham eulogized primitive nature though "other" cultures, advocating a return to the true state of human nature. This paper will choose Maugham’s three most representative works---Of Human Bondage, The Moon and Sixpence, The Razor’s Edge to analyze the primitivism by combining primitive culture with oriental culture, and explore its specific expression of primitivism, the formation of primitive thinking and the value and significance of primitivism and other issues.This paper focuses on the primitive tendencies in Maugham’s works, elaborating mainly from the following aspects:the first chapter explores the origins of primitivism in Maugham’s novels, including its historical background, religious background, and literature background. The second chapter analyzes the background of Maugham’s novels and introduces research status of Maugham’s novels in China. The third chapter mainly sets Maugham’s primitive culture creation as the main line, which can be divided into three stages:initial stage, developing stage and finishing stage, and this paper will analyze Maugham’s primitivism tendency though interpreting his corresponding three novels Of Human Bondage, The Moon and Sixpence, The Razor s Edge, and then it will take the primitive tribal culture and oriental culture as "others" to discover the primitive glory of the primitive tribal culture and oriental culture, and step by step show how Maugham completed the journey of primitive cultural creation. The last chapter summarizes the whole thesis. It mainly reflects on primitivism though elaborating cultural conflict and cultural integration in Maugham novels. After analyzing cultural conflicts and cultural integration between the West and the non-West and reflecting on the primitivism in Maugham novels, this chapter makes a conclusion that no culture is in closure, and cultures between the West and the non-West should have more communications and dialogues in order to achieve the goal of complementation.