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Decoding John Fowles’ S The French Lieutenant’s Woman In Light Of New Historicism

Posted on:2016-01-19Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:L ChengFull Text:PDF
GTID:2285330461450172Subject:English Language and Literature
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John Fowls is one of the most prominent contemporary British writers who is also known as a prolific writer. Many famous long novels and short stories were created by him during his writing career, among which, The French Lieutenant’s Woman is an important as well as a well-known work. It is widely accepted as the perfect combination of his writing skills and his insight into human nature. The thick description about the Victorian background in the 19 th century transferred a lot of historical and social information to the readers. It was bestowed with endless honor and significance for its incisive literature themes and multiple narrative forms.With the theory of new historicism, following the “the historicity of texts” and “the textuality of history”,this thesis analyses The French Lieutenant’s Woman in a much broader social historical context. It gives thick description about the particular historical background, makes a detailed description about the British cultural and historical conditions around 1860 s. Besides, it explores the influence of history to the text.The thesis is composed of five parts. The first part is the introduction which gives an overall view of the work and the theory. The next three body chapters focus on the detailed and organized analysis on the basis of the new historicism. Specific speaking, chapter one devotes to the deconstruction of sublime model from two ways-parody and irony. When comes to the two representatively women, the writer makes irony unhesitately. While for the traditional Victorian novels and some historical figures, he makes parody to deconstruct the sublime model. Chapter two moves forward to the deconstruction of the traditional grand narrative strategy from narrative perspective and unreliable narration in The French Lieutenant’s Woman. Unreliable narration and historiographic metafictional narrative strategies are analyzed in this chapter, which denies the possibility to represent the objective history. Chapter three furthers the study, it makes a detailed study on the impacts of the New Historism on the Construction of the History. The conflict yet mutual relationship between culture and social context are pointed out. All the three main body chapters are devoted to show how Fowles deconstruct and reconstruct the history through his writing. The last chapter is the conclusion. In this way, the thesis is trying to reach a new insight into the understanding of this marvelous work, both widely and deeply.
Keywords/Search Tags:John Fowles, New Historicism, Deconstruction, Reconstruction
PDF Full Text Request
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