Monologue And Dialogue: The Study Of Wish You Were Here In Light Of Martin Buber's Philosophy Of Dialogue

Graham Swift is one of the most conspicuous novelists in contemporary English literary world.Published in his sixty-two,Swift's ninth novel Wish You Were Here,on one hand,maintains his consistent writing style and displays his mature literary talents as a seasoned serious writer.On the other hand,with it Swift also applies himself to new angle and ways of expressions to convey his understanding of human life in the contemporary times.By confronting it with Martin Buber's philosophy of dialogue,this thesis probes into the prominent issue of relation and communication in the novel.With the analysis,the thesis argues that the predicament of communication is both the symptom of the monological I-It relation claimed by Buber and also the immediate cause of those tragedies in the novel.Moreover,hope generates through crisis.Only by entering into the dialogical I-Thou relation with one another can man find the way for survival and also the meaning of existence.This thesis consists of five parts: the introduction,three main chapters and the conclusion.The introductory part introduces Graham Swift and the novel Wish You Were Here.Then critical reviews on the novel are made both abroad and at home.At the same time,the theoretical basis,namely Martin Buber's philosophy of dialogue is also surveyed in this part.Chapter One is devoted to dig into the roots of the “relation crisis” against the specific historical background in the novel.From the three realms,technological realm,economic realm and political realm,the author examines those distresses and failures that human beings suffer from the past up to the present time.It is these distresses and failures that make an individual person more and more powerless to maintain the genuine relations with the world he lives in,especially with other people who coexist with him.Chapter Two makes a deep study of the monological I-It relations in families in the novel.In the outside world,people feel the blandness of interpersonal relations.Even within families,the most imitate human relations also undergo dreadful changes.The relations between parents and children,between siblings,between husbands and wives,are embodied either in the form of smothering silences or in the form of disguised conversations to be monologues in essence.With the absence of genuine dialogues with Thou,one can't assert his own existence,even stepping towards self-immolation.Chapter Three is intended to cast light on the vital factors to establish dialogical I-Thou relation between man and man.By examining the active attempts from the characters to enter into relations,the significance of the three vital factors,“directness”,“mutuality” and “love”,mentioned in Buber's dialogical principle,is made clear,hoping to provide references to interhuman communication in real life.The conclusion points out that the severity of interhuman relation crisis in contemporary world is unprecedented.Under such circumstance,only by vigorously turning to genuine dialogues and entering into I-Thou relations with one another can an individual person confirm his own meaningful existence,thus existing and living better in real world.