A Dialogic Approach To Townspeople's Living State In Winesburg,Ohio

In Problems of Dostoevskys' s Poetics(1929),Bakhtin constructed monologic novels with dialogue novels,arguing that a novel could never be totally monologic,rather it is inevitably dialogic.Bakhtin's dialogue theory consisted of what he called“microdialogue” and “great dialogue”,which apparently fell within the binary oppositions of Structuralist criticism.Based upon Bakhtin's dialogue theory and yet revised by Deconstructionlist theory,this thesis attempts to introduce the idea of medium dialogue,rendering the two original forms of dialogue into three: small dialogue,medium dialogue and large dialogue.Small dialogue is identical to Bakhtin's microdialogue.Medium dialogue means the dialogic relationships among internal parts of novels.The third refers to the unlimited development possibilities of the text in its extension.There are various dialogic relationships in Winesburg,Ohio,and its character,structure and theme expression have obvious dialogical features.This thesis shall apply the three forms of dialogue respectively to explore the dialogical features from characters,structure and theme of the work.In addition to Introduction and Conclusion,this thesis consists of three chapters.The first chapter mainly discusses the independence of characters from the perspective of small dialogue.With small dialogue,this thesis focuses on the interpretation of the representative characters in Winesburg,Ohio.Under the severe impact of industrialization,a group of people believed in their own “truths” and gradually became isolated,depressed and even twisted.They all fell into different confusions,and suffered from common confusions at the same time.The second chapter probes into the polytonality of the structure from the perspective of medium dialogue.All the parts and components presented a characteristic of dialogism,and the whole work was constructed as a medium dialogue.Its dialogic plot structure created a polyphonic world,in which all the stories were independent witheach other and yet interconnected as a whole because of invisible plotlines.Meanwhile,the imagery construction was another narrative clue concealed in the text.The dialogue between macro background and micro background showed the residents' common pursuit and desire in an isolated state in Winesburg.The third chapter explores the unfinished significance of the theme of Winesburg,Ohio from the perspective of large dialogue.As long as dialogues continue,consciousnesses and thoughts will continue and never be completed.The characters in the work were “grotesques”,but the author neither drew a full stop to their stories nor gave a final definition of “grotesques”.At the same time,there was no ending in their stories,leaving readers infinite imagination.The whole work seemed to be composed of independent stories,but the implicative timeline endowed the work with infinite vitality.A systematic analysis of the multi-level dialogues in Winesburg,Ohio reveals the townspeople's living predicament in Midwestern towns under the background of the industrial revolution.Those townspeople were full of contradictions and confusions in their deep hearts at the turn of old and new times,but they did not give up their pursuit of love,understanding and identity recognition.Such kind of plight was also reflected in townspeople in other social changes.The dialogic approach contributes to a more comprehensive explanation of townspeople's living state,which highlights Anderson's concern about people's survival situations in small towns in different social transitions.