A New Historicism Study Of The French Lieutenant's Woman

John Fowles is a writer enjoying great honor in the literary world,and he experienced a quite dramatic ups and downs in literary arena.His works didn't get appreciation at first in the UK,but were recognized and accepted in the United States.Until The French Lieutenant's Woman published in 1969,John Fowles won the international pen club silver pen prize and W.H.Smith prize for literature,which established his position in British literary arena eventually.John Fowles' novels are the collection of profound philosophy and artistic techniques of avantgarde and experimentation,loved by readers and gained extensive attention by critics and scholars.Set in the golden age of Victoria,The French Lieutenant's Woman tells a love story full of contingency and uncertainty.There are three uncertain endings in this novel,and the art of plot has post-modernity;The author showed British social and historical style and features in the 19 th century with historical narrative strategy;This novel also provides readers with a space filled with interpretation of diversity and history,which actively created the British society in the 1960 s through the deconstruction of historical society.Guided by the theory of new historicism,this thesis mainly studies the social history and culture,the deconstruction of social history and the historical narrative strategy in The French Lieutenant's Woman respectively from Textuality of History,Historicity of Texts and the historical narrative strategy of this novel.The introduction part mainly reviewed research background,research method of new historicism theory,and research object of John Fowles and his works;The first chapter of the thesis mainly studies the attention to moral myth in the golden age of Victoria and the collisions and intersection of multiple thoughts under the impact of evolutionary thought;The second chapter mainly studies the intersexual relationship of the reconstruction in literary fiction and the construction of ethics in the literary discourse in conception of the British society of the 1960 s,which criticizes the patriarchal tradition and conservative gentleman morality,as well as speaks highly of women's independent spirit and positive thoughts with breaking through the traditional;The third chapter mainly explores the historical narrative strategy of the novel,which shows art innovation of the author for the novel' s form through analyzing the uncertainty of the novel narrative,the spatialization of time and the transformation of reality and fiction.From the perspective of new historicism,The French lieutenant's woman can be found a new look for the connotation of the Victorian society and history and deep understanding of the historical context in the text of interpretation,which realizes dialogue and interaction between text and history.