Experiencing Self-existence:Research On Body Phenomenology In The Falls

Joyce Carol Oates(1938—),a prolific talented female writer in contemporary American literature,has been nominated for Nobel Prize several times and she has won several awards for her works.When was published in 2004,The Falls has become the concern of many scholars.It won the Prix Femina Etranger in 2005 and was praised as Oates's best work by Kirkus Reviews.Previous researches were mainly on the relationship between human and nature from ecological perspective while this thesis tries to combine the new perspective with the analysis to find the element ignored in the text:body."Body" is the center of phenomenology of Maurice Merleau-Ponty(1908—61),the French philosopher in the twentieth century.In his phenomenology,Merleau-Ponty points out that with experience of body,subjectivity is found in people who can rediscover themselves.In The Falls,body and self-existence have a close relationship,in which body's perceptions experienced by the subject are revealing different stages of self-existence.Protagonists are experiencing from the denial of self-existence to the discovery of themselves.In this process,body is changing from materialized body to"my" own body and meaning is revealed from the ambiguous process,that is,existence is the experience of body,the experience of the relationship among selves,others and the world and the experience of subjectivity.Based on Merleau-Ponty's body phenomenology,this thesis regards protagonists'bodies as study objects,exploring the experiencing process of their self-existence to reveal the discovery of their subjectivity.Protagonists experience three stages of self-existence,which are the denial of body unity,the experience of body perceptions and the reflection of the body in the natural world.In the first stage,protagonists lose their personal experience in the materialization in which the virtual body and the mirror body are presented.In the second stage,protagonists try to experience body perceptions and self-existence in the temporality and sexuality.However,the body experience is not definite and the subjectivity is ambiguous.Ariah sets herself against others and regards others as obstacles to her freedom.In the third stage,protagonists have the reflection of the body in the natural world in which the body both experiences nature and is touched by nature.In the touching and being touched,characters change from the estrangement to the intimacy,from the fear to the respect.After the research of three stages,it is revealed that the body is being and self-existence is the body experience among selves,others and the world.