Identification,empathy And Symbolic Action: A Study Of The Protest Strategies In Norman Mailer's The Armies Of The Night

Norman Mailer(1923-2007),one of the most remarkable contemporary American writers,is highly praised for his concern and profound thinking on social and political issues of the postwar America.Categorizing his nonfiction novel The Armies of The Night(1968)into the canon of protest novel,this thesis focuses on the three protest strategies based on Kenneth Burke's rhetorical theory and the thoughts of American scholar John Stauffer(who puts forward the thoughts of Protest Literature in the foreword of American Protest Literature in 2006).The thesis analyzes how Mailer uses the strategies of “identification,” “empathy” and “symbolic action” to protest against the deep-rooted totalitarianism in American society.With protest strategies,Mailer inspires the reader to align with his protest thoughts.The first chapter,based on the “identification” protest strategy of Burke's rhetoric theory,discusses how Mailer identifies readers with his diverse images.Mailer highlights his own “instinctive hipster” image and “stylish existentialist” image.The double images correct the absolutely negative image presented by the mass media and expresses his protest against the either/or thinking and dehumanized nature of totalitarianism.The second chapter,based on the protest strategy of “empathy” that Stauffer refers to,analyzes how Mailer employs the techniques of “dual perspectives in third-person narration”(Mailer's omniscient perspective and “Mailer's” limited perspective),“narrated monologue” and “quoted monologue” from the “Narrative Empathy”.By empathizing readers with the complexity of his protest thoughts,he asks the reader to protest against the dehumanized and hypocritical nature of totalitarianism and to develop independent thinking.In the last chapter,based on the protest strategy of “symbolic action” that Stauffer refers to,this thesis discusses the indeterminacy of meanings and the controversies among critics caused by the metaphors and ambiguity in Armies,in which an exploration of the indeterminate meanings of “army”,“night” and the four kinds of “enemy” is carried out.The metaphors in Armies inspire readers to guess and think deeper.Then this chapter proceeds to discuss how Mailer characterizes the fictional protagonist “Mailer” in three symbolic stages,which reflects that Mailer goes out of his way to present the protagonist “Mailer” as a multidimensional dynamic round character instead of a rigid flat one.Mailer's writing action itself is a deliberate dynamic protest against the totalitarianism with the feature of either/or thinking.By analyzing the three protest strategies,this thesis highlights how Mailer effectively encourages the public to summon the courage to protest against the totalitarian ideology with the rational and irrational individual action such as their individual expressions(writing or thinking)in order to take back the power held by small groups of people.This thesis also proves that Mailer has effectively conveyed his protest thoughts,thereby changing the social thinking through the protest strategies in this protest novel.Drawing on the rhetorical theory and cutting-edge thoughts on protest novel,this thesis makes a detailed and precise analysis of the protest strategies in the Armies,aiming at developing a paradigm for the research of the protest strategies in American Protest Literature,which is of certain pioneering significance.