On "Histories" Of British Modernization In The Victorian Era

Thomas Hardy is one of the momentous British writers in the Victorian era.His early and mid-stage writings are principally composed of novels and short stories,among which many literary pieces are the Wessex ones.Those novels and short stories have led the arrival of the Britain’s modern novel.During the transition period of his creation,Hardy published Two on a Tower in 1882.On the basis of an astronomical background,the novel presents a tragic love story that happens in the Wessex area.Despite the fact that the novel was ever so popular with readers after its publishing,it was severely criticized by critics of the day,and subsequently ignored by them for a long time.In recent years,nevertheless,academia abroad and at home has paid gradually increasing attention to this novel,making quite a few affirmative appraisals of it.With a New Historicist approach,this thesis is planned to start a probe into Thomas Hardy’s viewpoints of and historical writing on British modernization in the Victorian period,which is from three perspectives: “historicity of text”,“textuality of history” and the political function of literature.New Historicists hold that text is the product of history and culture,and attention should be paid to the social existence in and around the text.Moreover,literature,as a historical text,by means of noticing the “histories” of the marginalized groups,can deconstruct the “History” dominated by a single discourse of the ruling class.In addition,literature has a political function,which can subvert and destroy the dominant ideology in society;while in the meantime the dominant ideology is also able to suppress and assimilate the alien factors in literature.This thesis is comprised of three central chapters.The first chapter is based on the assumption of “historicity of text”,analyzing the social and historical situations inside and outside the novel.It includes three aspects: the development of economy,politics,and natural sciences and humanities.Though most of the story takes place in the countryside,it involves nearly every aspects of British modernization at that time,which reflects Hardy’s strong concern for the development of British society.The second chapter combines the assumption of “textuality of history” to analyze Hardy’s attention to the “histories” of rural people and rural areas.The author writes about the easily neglected groups in social development,and chooses countryside,the marginalized environment in the modernization wave,as the place where the story comes up.He observes the negative impacts of modernization on rural residents and villages,and calls for rural inhabitants to return to countryside.The third chapter is based on the assumption of the political function of literature,analyzing the subversion and containment in the novel.The subversion is embodied in two aspects: the view on gender relationship and on British colonialism.That reflects that,though praising the positive progress brought by modernization,Hardy detects the problems it causing and thence advocates that humanity must be cared about while social development is being made.However,there is containment from the ruling discourse when the novel communicates its subversive thoughts,which is indicated in Hardy’s compromise in the writing;moreover,the thoughts are not thorough either.Notwithstanding the fact that Two on a Tower is a Wessex novel about a love tragedy,Hardy’s creative vision shown in it has surpassed Wessex itself.Firstly,he presents the situation of British modernization in the limited space of countryside.Secondly,he notices the negative impacts of modernization on rural residents and villages,and calls on villagers who have been tortured by the unprecedented growth to return to countryside.Finally,he cares for gender relationship,and reflects on the colonialism that prevails in the world.In short,through this novel,Hardy is capable of stepping out of the Wessex countryside and standing at the forefront of the Victorian era.