| Olive Kitteridge is the representative work by Elizabeth Strout(1956-),a contemporary American writer with great literary talent,so this novel is rich both in content and feeling.Since its publication in 2008,Olive Kitteridge has been full of praise and in 2009 it won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction,which is worthy of its name.The novel takes the virtual coastal town of Crosby as the background,uses the mathematics teacher Olive Kitteridge as the protagonist in the whole story with novel and unique writing techniques,plain and introverted narrative strokes.Strout connects 13 seemingly independent but interlinked short stories into a full-length novel through smooth expression,and has created a female image of Olive who was once fettered by the trauma of her family of origin,and deeply trapped in the mire of discord with husband and estrangement of son,and then failed to cast off the haze of bereavement and suicide,however,she can still persist in herself and has a deep affection for the world like a newborn after experiencing these sufferings.As for this novel,the previous studies at home and abroad are mostly devoted to the feminist features of the work or the writing techniques of the author,and rarely from the perspective of psychological literary criticism.In the field of psychology,the concept which is very similar to “self-adhere” is called “differentiation of self”,and individuals can make rational response to various emotional pressures with this ability of consideration and reflection.Therefore,this thesis uses the method of close reading of text and combines with Bowen’s family system theory,which is widely accepted in the field of psychology,to analyze the differentiation of self of Olive,and to make a thorough inquiry of the fusion and differentiation in her interaction with her original and nuclear family,so as to probe into the psychological process and the reason of Olive from a woman with a low-level differentiation of self to an individual with a high-level differentiation of self,and to reveal the deep-seated influence of family on character formation and individual growth.The introduction of family systems literary criticism into the study of this literary text can endow it with certain social service value,and it is also consistent with the universal theme of the psychological state and the way of existence of layfolk under the stress of life,which is always concerned by the author Strout,thus providing a new perspective for the study of the characters in Strout’s family novels.Starting in the 1950 s,family systems theory(also known as Bowen theory),which was perfected at the end of the last century as the “fourth wave” of psychological development,is a theory that studies human behavior by treating the family as an emotional unit.Family systems theory holds that family is an organic emotional whole,family members are closely related in emotion and interact with each other in behavior.Hence,the analysis of individual behavior can only be more thoroughly understood in the context of family,and differentiation of self,as the cornerstone of family systems theory,is also the ultimate requirement of this theory for individual psychological development.The main body of this thesis is divided into three parts,the first two parts focus on the reasons and manifestations of Olive’s poorly-differentiated self in the early stage of her life,and the last part is the excavation involves diving deeper into the approaches that Olive has taken to improve her ability to differentiate.The author of this thesis believes that the psychological trauma and emotional projection experienced by Olive in her original family are the root causes of her low-level differentiation of self,whereas the emotional triangle and chronic anxiety that have been in the nuclear family she has formed since her marriage also make her fall into the pattern of poor differentiation.However,as the mind matures and experiences accumulate,Olive tries hard to practice the subject of differentiation of self in her original family,marital relationship and parent-child relationship by cutting off emotional fusion and detriangling,thus she achieves a balance between fusion and differentiation,self and family,and finally becomes a person with a well-differentiated self.As a new way of ponder over human interaction,family systems theory can endeavour to the best in improving interpersonal relationship and maintaining family stability,and it also points out a way to improve relationship quality and life essence for us.Differentiation of self is a lifelong pursuit of every individual,while it is not a simple matter to resist our habitual emotional reaction,so it is not a very easy way of life.Therefore,this thesis aims to provide some referential experiences for individuals to understand family relationships and the root causes of family problems,so as to handle self-emotion,the marital relationship and parent-child relationship better by studying Olive’s successful process of differentiation. |
