Analysis Of Death Theme In Bob Dylan's Works From The Perspective Of New Historicism

Bob Dylan(born May 24,1941,Robert Allen Zimmerman)is an American singersongwriter,writer,and painter with more than 50 years of influence in pop music and cultural circles.Beginning in the 1960 s,he became a representative of the civil rights movement and the anti-war movement with songs such as Blowin' in the Wind and The Times They Are a-Changin'.And then he became one of the best-selling musical artists in history and received numerous awards,including eleven Grammy Awards,a Golden Globe Award,and an Oscar.On October 13,2016,he won the Nobel Prize for Literature.This is the first time for the Nobel Prize for Literature to award prizes to music poets.New Historicism had widespread and profound influence in British and American literary criticism and literary theory in the late 1970 s and early 1990 s.In the view of the New Historians,the essences of the form of history are all forms of text or discourses which inevitably carries the narrator's subjective fiction and imagination.The scholars of New Historicism believe that the interpretation of texts can't go beyond specific historical contexts,and they contain all the content of social materiality and historical culture.Literature participates in the historical process and involves in the shaping of reality as well.This article is divided into six parts.It aims to use the theory of New Historicism to study the death theme in Bob Dylan's works.The first part of the thesis points out the motives and research objects of the thesis,combing the domestic and foreign research results related to this topic,and clarifying the basic goals and research paths of this thesis.The second part of the thesis introduces the theory of New Historicism.First it introduce the concept and origin of the New Historicism,and then it briefly described the difference between Historicism and New Historicism.Lastly,it described the core concepts used in this paper: “the historicity of the text and the textuality of history” and “subversion and containment”.The third part of the thesis applies “Textuality of History” to analyze the writing as well as the shaping of history in Bob Dylan's death theme works.For example,the depiction of the Vietnam War,Cuban missiles,and racial conflicts in Bob Dylan' works express his pessimistic attitudes towards history.The fourth part of the thesis uses “Historicity of Text” to study Bob Dylan's death theme works and analyze the historical background behind his works.For example,the study of Bob Dylan's real experiences and the description of them reflects his desperate outlook on life.The fifth part of the thesis uses the concepts of “subversion and containment” to analyze the counterculture movements described in Dylan's works,such as hippie culture,anti-war movements,civil rights movements,racial discrimination,etc.These works show his own dissatisfaction about the society,and these works further spread Bob Dylan's feelings of death.The conclusion part summarizes the thesis.Bob Dylan,through the perspectives of New Historicism,has endowed his death theme works with more intuitive emotions by using a lot of death images.This is beneficial for realizing interactions between text and history,which reminds people to remember history.Besides,he also calls on everyone to stay away from war,to cherish peace,which have a great impact on music and literature.