The Reconstruction Of The Holocaust: A New Historicist Study Of Sophie's Choice

William Styron is known for his interweaving individual's experience with major historical events in his works.In Sophie's Choice,he has demonstrated the power as a novelist to inquire into history by reconstructing historical events.The novel has long been hailed as a masterpiece of describing the atrocity of the concentration camp,but its value in the reconstruction of the history of the Holocaust has not attracted sufficient attention in its research.The thesis mainly employs Louis Montrose's new historicist theory of history and text and Michel Foucault's power relation theory to explore how the reconstruction of the historical events in Sophie's Choice critiques the authority of historical narratives.Sophie's Choice demonstrates Styron's deep concern with the relationship between history and text.By fusing historical events and literary fiction,Styron creates a new version of the history of the Holocaust,which shows the difficulty to approach historical truth and the necessity to reinterpret historical narratives.In the novel,the notorious death camp is not a simple demonstration of cause and effect,but an effect of a mixture of complex factors like genocide,economic motivation and the operation of power.Styron shows his historical skepticism in reexamining historical phenomena.