An Interpretation Of American Pastoral From The Perspective Of Spatial Criticism

Philip Roth,a world renowned Jewish-American writer at contemporary age,is honored as “evergreen tree” in American literary world.He has kept on composing for more than half a century and created many great works which have received multiple awards,such as the National Book Award,the Pulitzer Prize,and the Faulkner Prize.American Pastoral is one of Roth's winning entries.It is about a tragedy of a Jewish family.The story revolves around the Swede and his family's life in America.As a third-generation Jewish immigrant,the Swede strives to be a real American and make his American dream come true.He is a successful businessman,and he marries Miss New Jersey,and then he lives a seemingly idyllic life in the white area;however,his perfect Americanized life is destroyed by his rebellious daughter and unfaithful wife.As for this novel,the concerned study conducted by scholars at home and abroad mainly focuses on the theme of American dream and alienation,Jewish identity and narrative strategy,but a systematic study on the spatial dimension is inadequate.On the basis of spatial criticism,this thesis analyzes the protagonists' plights and struggle from three aspects: physical space,psychological space and social space,exploring their influence,unfolding the root of the tragedy and profound social and cultural connotations of the novel,and further revealing the role of space in the enhancement of the tragic theme.This paper is divided into five parts.The introduction part includes a brief introduction of Philip Roth and American Pastoral,the literature review about this work at home and abroad,and an introduction of spatial criticism.The first chapter is to explore the physical space of the novel.This chapter analyzes the metaphorical meanings of geographical space and scene space respectively represented by Newark city and protagonists' houses,and explores the relationship between space shifting and characters' fate,then draws a conclusion that the two are closely related.The second chapter is to explore the psychological space.Through the analysis of the process of the mental development of Swede and Mary from the identity and self perspective,it can be drawn that the Swede is a spiritual vagrant in the disciplinary society and Merry is a spiritual orphan in the wilderness of identity.The loss of self and identity lead them into mental crisis.The third chapter analyzes the cultural factor,political factor and power relations in social space by mainly using Michel Foucault's points of power and space,explores the root of characters' mental crisis and tragic life and concludes that character's resistance is in vain and their tragic fate is unavoidable because they are bound by the power relations.The last part is the conclusion.Through analysis,the paper draws a conclusion that physical space represents character's identity and ideology.Psychological space reveals theirmental crisis.All the power relations in the social space are the fundamental cause of their tragic fate.Thus it can be seen that space connects with characters closely and plays a vital role in enhancing the tragic theme of novel.An interpretation of American Pastoral from the perspective of spacial criticism not only can help readers gain a deeper understanding of the novel,but also can explore the profound cultural and social connotations by which Roth's humanistic concern is represented.