An Interpretation Of Anxiety In Wonderland From The Perspective Of Horneyan Neo-Psychoanalysis

Joyce Carol Oates is one of the representative writers of psychological realism in world literature.To deeply explore and depict the inner world of the characters,and vividly delineate the living circumstances of people from all ranks of the contemporary American society,she subtly combines with various writing techniques of modernism and postmodernism on the basis of inheriting the traditional literary thoughts of realism.Wonderland(1971)is the fifth novel in Oates' writing career,and is one of her most well-known representative works.Its publication forms the watershed between Oates'literary creation in the early 1960s and in the middle of 1970s,and also marks that Oates begins to describe characters' complex inner world and spiritual emptiness with more diversified techniques.Up to now,the studies of Wonderland has gotten certain achievements at home and abroad,the scholars discuss mainly around the narrative techniques,psychological analysis,survival predicament,alienation and identity construction,but the study about neurotic personality in the specific social and cultural environment has not been thorough and systematic.Following Jesse's bumpy life story,Wonderland shows people's survival dilemma and mental state of neurosis that social and cultural changes bring about from the Great Depression of the 1930s to the early 1970s,which agrees with Homey's research about neurotic personality from the perspective of social and cultural environment.Homey holds that social and cultural environment exerts important influence upon the formation of neurosis.She finds that anxiety has a decisive role in the formation of neurosis after deeply studying the psychodynamic system that produces neurosis,and puts forward an unconscious mechanism of repressing hostility and conflict under anxiety.In the novel,Jesse lives in an era of drastic turbulence,struggling in anxiety from the tragic childhood under the shadow of the economic crisis to his middle age,the conflict between the outside and his inner world gradually escalates through repression.Based on the theory of anxiety of the psychoanalyst of sociocultural school Karen Horney,this thesis first discusses the causes of Jesse's neurotic personality,namely the deterioration of basic anxiety in the individual environments and the universal dilemma of anxiety in the social and cultural environments in which he lives.The lack of basic affection in the family plunges Jesse into unconscious depression of hostility,forming a personality attitude of basic anxiety,and increasing loneliness and helplessness.Jesse's personal growth environment full of frustrations is the portrayal of the social cultural changes of that time,the economic crisis,World War II and the political and cultural turn demonstrate the broken cultural values,at this time personal unified cultural values are threatened,so that the universal spiritual crisis arises.Secondly,this thesis analyzes the specific manifestations of Jesse's neurotic anxiety.He lingers in the contradiction of moving away from people and moving towards people driven by self-abasement and distrust.In order to take precedence over others,he compulsively self-idealizes,meanwhile,his self-repression of weakness can only be externalized.And to gain a sense of belonging and control,he works on establishing a morbid connection with people and pursuing affection in sex,kinship,and work.Hence,the final interpretation of this thesis is the results of unsolved neurosis.The escalation of anxiety makes Jesse increasingly afraid of losing inner balance,while the coercion brings about the detachment from the real self,so that he finally loses personal unity,and is immersed into despair.The development of Jesse's neurotic personality reflects the conflict between the individual and society and the personal adjustment to the changes of society,which helps to profoundly reflect on the root and essence of modern people's anxiety,and guides the direction of spiritual freedom and healthy development for neurotic personality.Therefore,the interpretation of anxiety has a certain social practical significance.