| British scholars have long discussed Englishness.Since the Second World War,England has declined in an all-round way.Under this condition,English people who are in confusion have to reconsider their national identity and national characteristics.This thesis believes that Englishness not only refers to the English national characteristics,national identity,national culture,national traditions,but also implies the nostalgia for the past England.That is to say,Englishness means the nostalgia for"the imperial England" "the pastoral England" and "the cultural England".Graham Swift,a Booker Prize winner,published his third novel Waterland in 1983,which had won four domestic and foreign awards and been warmly read and reviewed by critics both at home and abroad.Currently,researches mainly concentrate on the historical writing,the narrative skills,the ecological ethics and the protagonists in Waterland.Although some scholars have noticed the decline of the English empire in Waterland and studied the characters of English people by comparison with other works,it is quite necessary to explore further.Based on Jan Assman’s memory theory,this thesis discusses how communicative memory and cultural memory reconstruct Englishness in Waterland.Except introduction and conclusion,the body of this thesis covers three parts.The first part analyzes the construction of the imperial England.The imperial England is closely connected with national identity.Drastic changes in English society plunge English people into psychological trauma,therefore,to construct the imperial England in collective memory is to reshape national identity and regain national confidence.First,construct Englishness through intergenerational memory.The father and the son,Tom Crick and Henry Crick,share the memory of world war.Their generational memory constructs the imperial England.Then,construct Englishness through festivals,rituals and national library.The display of national King’s coronation and the rise of English empire rebuild the imperial England and show the nostalgia for it.The second part investigates the construction of the pastoral England.The pastoral England bears relationship with the picturesque rural geographic landscape and with the pure rural humanistic landscape.To construct the rural England in collective memory is to reshape the national characters.There come the end of a cozy prewar England and the beginning of multiple crises in English countryside,resulting from the reclamation of the Atkinson family and side effects of world wars.First,construct through generational memory between students and their teacher.The generational memory between teachers and students reshapes a pastoral England for English people.In addition,construct the pastoral England through cultural memory.Since cultural memory relates to time and space,the Fens and the cottage are important memory landscape and the ideal media.Through these memory media,the pastoral England would jump before eyes.The third part analyses the construction of the cultural England.Cultural England is closely connected with English tradition.To construct the cultural England in collective memory is to reshape English literature and rebuild national confidence.First,rebuild English people’s belief in religion through communicative memory.Women in the book share special connections with God,which means that religions could be an evasive solution to the broken world.Then,he reconstructs English people’s understanding of English literature.Since the carrier of cultural memory is selective,French,as the aristocratic language during the Norman Conquest,can function as the media to reconstruct the cultural memory.Swift parodies Beauty and the Beast to reconstruct a cultural England.In conclusion,the Fens in Waterland is the epitome of England.The construction of the imperial England,the pastoral England and the cultural England is aimed at removing the confusion of English people and reshaping their national identity.Since England has suffered the total decline in its politics and economy,this effort is destined to function as the self-comfort,which would never work out. |
