Self-Fashioning In The Sense Of An Ending-from The Perspective Of New Historicism

Memories and history are two major themes in British writer Julian Barnes’ s(1946-)works.Barnes often employs historical background to reveal the conflicts between characters and the environment.To him,history is not only a medium of narrative,but also a tool for his elaborate conception and artful interpretation.The Sense of an Ending is one of Barnes’ s works that won him the Man Booker Prize.It describes the protagonist Tony’s life course in the constant change of his memories,showing Tony’s reflections and growth.So far,the study of this novel is quite limited and it is still of some value to study this novel from the perspective of New Historicism.New Historicism,arose in the 1980 s,is one of the important schools of contemporary Western literary theories.As one of the representatives of New Historicism,Louis Montrose puts forward vital concepts of “Textuality of History” and “Historicity of Text”,which challenges our traditional understanding of history and its truthfulness.Stephen Greenblatt,who named New Historicism,also brings forward important concepts such as “anecdotes”,“self-fashioning,” “subversion” and “containment”.This thesis mainly analyzes Julian Barnes’ s The Sense of an Ending with the reference to the definition of self-fashioning from the perspective of New Historicism.It aims at revealing how the external forces represented by marginal anecdotes of letters and diaries subvert the power discourse of Tony,how the subversion is contained and finally how the protagonist’s understanding of himself is deepened through the internal forces like refreshed memory and morality.This thesis consists of six parts: the introduction,four chapters and the conclusion.Introduction mainly introduces the author Julian Barnes and The Sense of an Ending,briefly reviews the study of Barnes at home and abroad,and the significance of this study is also included.The first chapter gives an introduction to the origin,development,and some key concepts of New Historicism,such as Self-fashioning,Anecdotes,Subversion and Containment.The second chapter illustrates the protagonist Tony’s construction of himself in the power discourse and the differences between Tony’s narration and the reality,which functions as blank space waiting for the readers to fill in.The third chapter analyzes the subversion and containment brought by anecdotes.It deals with the anecdotes of Sarah’s letter,Adrian’s diary and Tony’s letter,which work as anecdotes revealing the hidden histories step by step,contributing to the subversion to Tony’s narration.While Tony’s leading discourse contained the subversion at the same time.The fourth chapter focuses on internal forces—memory reappeared in Tony’s mind and the moral shock brought by meetings and suicides.As deconstructive forces,these events reveal Tony’s hypocrisy and the incredibility of his narrative,which in turn force Tony to face his real self.Conclusion is the last part of the thesis.Although small histories,such as anecdotes can reveal to us the truth to some extent,the real history is difficult to find,so is the lifelong construction of one’s identity.