A Comparative Study Of Narcissism On The Works By Lin Huiyin And Duras

According to the narcissism theories by Freud, Jung and other psychologists, we can tell the great influences of family environment on the psychological growths of Lin Huiyin and Marguerite Duras. On the one hand, the loss of paternal love and the strong power of maternal love caused psychological trauma to these two writers; on the other hand, the legendary love from their sweethearts greatly consoled their emotional world, which significantly inspired their writings. These two reasons led to their narcissistic tendencies gradually during their growth from teenagers to adults.This thesis comprehensively examined the narcissism issue of these two great female writers:Lin Huiyin and Marguerite Duras. It includes four parts. The Introduction part examines the current researches on this topic and elaborates its meaning. Chapter One analyzes the psychological cause of narcissism and points that narcissism is a ubiquitous issue among our human beings. All of us are narcissists. However, not every narcissist could become a great writer. Chapter Two traces the reasons which cause their narcissism. On the one hand, the lack of paternal love and the mighty power of maternal love planted the seeds of narcissism in their heart when they were still children. On the other hand, both Lin and Duras experienced an impressive love during their adolescence, which greatly consoled their hearts and encouraged them. Their beauties and talents soon made them become the new stars in society. Their self-awareness gained quick development during this process. They paid great attention to themselves and then began to appreciate their talents. Chapter Three analyzes their specific characteristics on narcissism issue as well as the similarities and differences. Lin was born in old China. The traditional Chinese culture greatly influenced her values. Though she shared the experience of overseas life, we could still find enough traditional Chinese cultures among her works. From this perspective, Duras was quite different with her. Duras was born in France, a country which valued individual freedom. This background provided her narcissism with some certain racism. After examination of their works and life experiences, we could find that both Lin and Duras mixed their life experience into their writings. They combined the real and the fictional to create their literary world. This is the similarity of these two female writers’ narcissism:the autobiographical writing. Both writings include the fear of ageing, the pursuit of win and the idealization of narcissism.