A Study Of The Reconstruction Of Thomas Hardy Before The 1950s By Bourgeois Ideology From The Perspective Of Materialist Criticism

As a well-established novelist whose lifespan crossed the 19^thand the 20^thcentury,Thomas Hardy（1840-1928）is regarded as transitional figure that is liken to a bridge connecting the traditional and modernist British literature with his achievements in fiction and poetry.Most of his works are laid against an imaginary landscape called Wessex in the southwest of England.Hardy reveals a strong sense of realistic criticism and ideals of humanistic benevolence in his depictions of tragic and comic stories of the rural life in transformations in the Victorian Age.Meanwhile,as a figure of many great writings,Hardy’s fame encounters controversies in the long time of critical history,and the critics’evaluations on him are ambivalent,especially during the period from the end of the Victorian Age to the 1940s and 1950s when the Second World War came to a halt.In this period,the British bourgeois ideology exerted a great influence on Thomas Hardy criticism which brought reconstructions of this great writer by related critics.According to Terry Eagleton（1943-）and his materialist criticism,literary criticism is heavily influenced by the general ideology of a society.Since general ideology includes aesthetic ideology in itself,and literature which consists of literary criticism and other elements is one of the sub-branches of aesthetic ideology,it is never too much to say that bourgeois ideology,as the general ideology in Britain,has a direct influence on Thomas Hardy criticism.This kind of influence includes both the reconstruction and assimilation of the keynote of Hardy’s works.On the one hand,the idea that the development of the capitalist society is at the sacrifice of the happiness of individuals is frequently highlighted in Hardy’s works,which is actually a flagrant denial and criticism of utilitarianism on the part of the British bourgeoisie ideology of his time.Thus,Hardy was reconstructed as a pessimistic writer instead of a melioristic writer.In addition,the ideas of“far from the madding crowd”and return to the native pursued by Hardy in his works shows a pronounced break with the ideology of colonialism advocated by the British Empire.Therefore,the Hardy of universalism was reconstructed as a narrow-minded writer of regionalism.Moreover,as a great realistic writer,Hardy exposes the ruthless exploitation of the lower class by the bourgeoisie in the development of the capitalist agriculture,who,in order to conceal this truth,took the advantage of the bourgeois ideology to affect Thomas Hardy criticism.Thus,Hardy’s tragic works were misinterpreted intentionally by some critics as the works representing the timeless predicament of humankind as a whole.In addition,the critics denied or turned a blind eye to the realistic overtone revealed in Hardy’s works.So under such circumstances,Hardy was reconstructed as an anti-realistic writer.On the other hand,the process of assimilation in Hardy criticism happened between the two devastating World Wars when the British Empire was submerged in both the domestic and international crises brought about by the wars.And the ruling class had an attempt to promote national cohesion by virtue of the British literature so as to deal with the serious troubles they encountered.In this way,Hardy’s Wessex novels were taken into their view and reconstructed as powerful tools in disseminating national traditional culture,evoking national consciousness and boosting national cohesion as a whole.Thus,Hardy was assimilated as a William Shakespeare-like cultural icon of the UK.The analysis of the distortion and assimilation of Hardy on the part of the critics from the perspective of materialist criticism reveals the deep influence of the bourgeois ideology on Thomas Hardy criticism.