Consumer Culture And Literary Production:On O.Henry's Literary Practice From The Perspective Of Sociology Of Literature

At the end of the nineteenth century and the dawn of the twentieth century,the rise of consumer culture was one of the most conspicuous changes in American society and caused the significant shift of the literary context.In the context,O.Henry's short stories and literary production were undoubtedly full of traits of consumer culture.Therefore,what did O.Henry do to respond to the consumer culture in his literary creation? How did O.Henry demonstrate consumer culture in his literary works? What attitude did O.Henry hold towards the prevailing consumer culture?Applying Escarpit's sociology of literature and Baudrillard's theories of consumer culture,this thesis studies O.Henry and his literary practice within the social cultural context----consumer culture.Thus,not only is the social relevance of the form of O.Henry's works studied outside the text,but also the social connotations and the mutual confirmation between O.Henry's short stories and the social facts are explored from the text.To be specific,this thesis probes into O.Henry's literary practice at the intersection of literariness and sociality.This thesis consists of five chapters.Chapter One illustrates the focus of this study,literature review,the purpose and significance of the study and the structure of the thesis.After making clear the theories such as Escarpit's sociology of literature and Baudrillard's theories of consumer culture,Chapter Two investigates the social context of O.Henry's times----the prevailing of the consumer culture and the changes of the cultural market in such cultural context.Chapter Three mainly studies the literary climate in the cultural market at the time and its influences on O.Henry's writing strategies,aiming at revealing the ambiguous relationship between O.Henry and the cultural market and the wide connection between literary production and consumer market.Just choosing the clothing consumption as a case,Chapter Four makes a research on the demonstrations of the consumer culture in O.Henry's short stories and explores the characters' paradoxical attitudes towards clothing consumption.Chapter Five ends up with answering the three research questions and making a reassessment of O.Henry's identity as a writer.The thesis shows that O.Henry not only employs different writing strategies in his literary creation to cater to the market,but also presents a detailed demonstration of every aspect of consumer culture.What's more,since he contributes to the development of the magazine fiction and the modern narrative,O.Henry should be given some space in the history of American literature.This research can help to deepen the understanding of O.Henry and his literary practice and provide a new perspective for the interpretation of O.Henry's works.