An Interpretation Of Jerusalem The Golden From The Structuralist Perspective

Margaret Drabble(1939-) is one of the most influential contemporary British female writers. She is famous for her feminist novels, and usually uses realistic techniques to depict the living conditions of modern intellectual women and explore their ideal lives. Her most autobiographical novel, Jerusalem the Golden, is regarded as the best one and won a James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1976. As a typical Drabble work, it reflects how women search for identity and realize their values through which Drabble shows the intellectual women's common sights during the 1960 s. Concerned with Drabble's female identity and the writing theme of Jerusalem the Golden, most scholars home and abroad study this novel from feminist and realistic perspectives regardless of its well-designed structure. This thesis will offer a re-reading of Jerusalem the Golden from structuralism point of view.In the introduction part, it gives a general introduction to Margaret Drabble and her literary achievements, makes a literature review on the studies of Jerusalem the Golden, and provides a theoretical survey of structuralism. Structuralism sees itself as a human science whose effort is to understand in a systematic way the fundamental structures that underlie all human experience and behavior. The main body contains three chapters. Chapter One is especially from methodology of binary oppositions taking structuralism as the theoretical framework in the analysis of Jerusalem the Golden. Chapter Two is the application of Vladimir Propp's formula used in identifying the structure of the Russian fairytale into the explanation of Jerusalem the Golden which provides a systematic and scientific foundation for discovering underlying narrative structure. Chapter Three employs the Greimassian semiotic square and narrative grammar to the analysis of Jerusalem the Golden which probes into the deep structure and the surface structure of the text. Conclusion restates the main points of this thesis.By applying structuralism, this thesis explores how Drabble searches ways for intellectual women to get rid of their dilemma in the realistic world, and encourages people to face the difficulties in life bravely, make unceasing efforts to change one's fate, and make one's own choice to surpass one's being. With the assistance of structuralism, we can have a deeper comprehension of Jerusalem the Golden and Drabble's humanitarian spirit. Structuralism functions as an illuminating theory and offers us a fresh perspective in analyzing literary text.