Binary Oppositions And Their Reconciliations In Tim Winton’s Novels

Australian writer Tim Winton(1960-)won the top literary award in Australia “Miles Franklin Award” four times and was nominated twice for “The Man Booker Prize”.Cloudstreet(1991)is one of his masterpieces.It chronicles two ordinary Australian families managed to rebuild their lives and gradually reconciled as one after numerous twists and turns.Delving from textual interpretation,this thesis attempts to apply the principle of the binary opposition to explore binary opposition and its reconciliation reflected in Tim Winton?s novel ─ Cloudstreet,thus,with a expectation to interpret the typical features of Winton? s novels from a new perspective.This thesis contains six chapters: Chapter One is the introduction of Tim Winton?s works and the main contents of Cloudstreet,as well as the domestic and foreign experts and scholars? interpretation of Cloudstreet from different perspectives and the layout of this thesis.The second chapter concisely introduces the principle of binary opposition in structuralism as a powerful tool for explaining the basic thoughts,culture and language of human beings.And the analytical use of principle of binary opposition in literary criticism represented by Roland Barthes is the basic theoretical framework of this thesis.The third,fourth and fifth chapters are the main body of the dissertation.The principle of binary opposition is used as an analytical method to contrastively analyze the binary oppositional elements between man and man,society,and nature reflected in Tim Winton?s work Cloudstreet,thereby,the general oppositional elements in Winton?s novels and how to eliminate these opposing “divergences” or “contradictions” and achieve the theme of “reconciliation” symbiosis will be induced.Finally,for the conclusion and enlightenment,using the binary opposition analytical method to interpret Cloudstreet can make scholars more comprehensively understand the expectation of harmony that is deeply and realistically guided in Winton?s novels.As a literature analysis method originated from structural linguistics,the application of the principle of binary opposition has drawn more and more attention from foreign scholars.On the basis of the research works of the predecessors,this thesis uses the principle of binary opposition to analyze Cloudstreet,intending to reveal that the principle of binary opposition is a feasible and desirable method in literature appreciation,thus enriching the theoretical achievements.Meanwhile,the analysis of binary opposition and its reconciliation also provides a different perspective for studying themes of Tim Winton?s works.That is,the thesis can enrich the domestic research on Tim Winton?s works,especially striving to make breakthroughs in studying the form of Winton?s works as keeping the trend of most foreign researchers do.And it reflects more thoroughly in the pursuit of self-worth and life meaning by comparing different binary oppositions.