The Tremor Of Western Civilization

The English Patient is the most successful work written by Michael Ondaatje,the Canadian Booker Prize winner,with multiple themes and complex structures.In recent years,articles on this novel is on the rise from different perspectives such as the analysis of plots,themes,writing structures and techniques based on different theories.However,there is few articles concerning the theory of Foucault's discourse power.Michel Foucault,one of the most influential French philosophers and greatest thinkers of the 20th century,has a profound influence on the fields of philosophy,literature,psychology and among which discourse power is an important issue in his study.Based on Foucault's theory of discourse power,this paper makes an in-depth analysis of The English Patient.This thesis is divided into four main chapters and the first three chapters reveal the ways in which the western countries have acquired their status and the defects of their civilization from three aspects respectively.The first chapter analyzes the control of history and politics through discourse power:hegemony countries write the history directly through waging wars,drawing maps of the pre-colonial areas and they rewrite and beautify history at their wills,brainwash the colonized people through education and preach the white supremacy values.The second chapter explores the control of national consciousness through discourse power:the colonial people deny the culture of their own nations,worship and obey the western culture blindly,and eventually cause the lack of discourse and the ability to resist.The third chapter reveals the backward ideas existing in the western hegemonic countries,such as the patriarchal ideology,which still affects people's lives from inside to outside,which exemplified through the behaviors of men surrounding the two heroines.According to Foucault's point of view,"where there is power,there will be resistance".Therefore,the fourth chapter mainly focuses on the people's awakening from the western colonial rule,the resistance of women to patriarchy,and finally the tremor of the western civilization.Western countries own more discourse power because of their advanced economy and technology,influence and even control the history and politics,national consciousness and life style of colonial people to get their today's positions,but eventually the colonized will be awakened to realize the cruelty,hypocrisy and the deficiencies of western culture.Nowadays,many people in our country,especially the young people,tends to blindly worship western civilization,ignore or even disrespect the traditional cultures of our own.This article aims to make readers have a clear and rational understanding of western civilization through the analysis and people can take the essence and discard the dross.