On The Lack Of Communicative Rationality In The Death Of The Heart

Elizabeth Bowen(1899-1973)is an outstanding Anglo-Irish writer in the 20th century who has created substantial works on different subjects in her whole life.The Death of the Heart,which was published in 1938,has been regarded as Bowen’s most prominent representative work.By depicting the irrational communication among all kinds of characters,the novel truthfully shows the moribund interpersonal relationship in British society during the interwar period.Throughout the researches at home and abroad,scholars have mainly focused on its feminism,alienation theme,writing techniques and so on.There are very few people making an in-depth analysis of this novel from a sociological point of view.The theory of communicative action is proposed by sociologist Jurgen Habermas.In his opinion,communicative action refers to the interaction of at least two subjects who are capable of speech and action.In the process of communication,speech actors must follow the three validity claims of rightness,truth,trustfulness,which are known as "communicative rationality".Once the communication activity is lack of communicative rationality,the interaction would easily end in failure.This thesis takes Mr Quayne(Thomas),Mrs Quayne(Anna),and Portia,Eddie,Brutt and Heccomb children(Dickie and Daphne)in The Death of the Heart as typical characters.With their communicative relations as penetrating point,in the light of communicative action theory,the thesis tries to explore the lack of communicative rationality in The Death of the Heart from the three dimensions of kinship,love and friendship by combining the historical background of British society.First of all,the introduction part gives a literature review of predecessors and a brief account of the communicative action theory.And then three research questions are put forward:What are the specific manifestations of the lack of communicative rationality in The Death of the Heart?What is the relation between the lack of communicative rationality and social reality at that time?What kind of spiritual demands does Bowen intend to convey by portraying different sorts of unreasonable communication phenomena?Chapter one mainly analyzes the communication between the Quaynes(Thomas and Anna)and Portia which concerns the scarcity of family attachment.Thomas and Anna,respectively as brother and sister-in-law of orphaned Portia,are supposed to care and love her,but they fail to realize their relationship-locating.Both of them either take indifferent attitude or give no responses.The couple has intentionally neglected the social norms of equality and mutual understanding in interpersonal communication,which betrays the validity claim to rightuess and causes Portia to become an outsider to the Windsor Terrace House.Chapter two explores the communication between two couples,Thomas and Anna,Portia and Eddie,which regards the deficiency of fidelity.Anna accepts Thomas’s proposal when in black despair,but refuses to open her heart to her husband.Instead,she seeks satisfaction in dubious relationship with male admirers around her after marriage.As for the playboy Eddie,on the one hand,he uses sugar-coated bullets to captivate Portia.On the other hand,however,he is always flirting with other girls.He even argues that it is just a friendly way to bring people closer.Neither Anna nor Eddie has accurately described the objective facts in the process of communication,which breaks the validity claim to truth and buries hidden communicative dangers in their relationships with others.Chapter three probes the communication between the Quaynes and Brutt,the Heccomb children and Portia,which involves the absence of sincerity.The Quaynes’ way of getting along with Brutt,on the surface,is polite and considerate.But in fact,they are insincere.As for Daphne and Dickie,they befriend with Portia just for their interests.The two groups of characters evidently disobey the principle of trustfulness,which leads to the tension of interpersonal relationship.By virtue of the specific analysis of communication among the main characters in the novel,this thesis reveals Bowen’s concern and reflection on the disharmonious interpersonal relationships in British society at that time.Besides,the open ending of the novel also implies Bowen’s expectation or appeal for establishing a new type of rational communication.Then it further points out that the communicative rationality is of great significance in reshaping a closer relationship and building a harmonious society full of love and care.