Interpretation Of Olga Tokarczuk’s Novels From The Perspective Of Phenomenology Of Body

The bodies written by Olga Tokarczuk are highly ambiguous,mysterious,and unfinished,showing the characteristics of what Merleau-Ponty called "Phenomenal Body",such as diversity,authenticity,and singularity.Starting from a focus on the disappearance of the "aura" of existents caused by the intellectual society where the "rational spirit" is excessive,this thesis focuses on the body and uses the method of phenomenology of body to analyze various bodies in Tokarczuk’s novels,various phenomena based on the body as well as the metaphor for the body with the form of novels.This thesis intends to analyze the situation and personality of the phenomenal body to avoid the violence and restrictions on individuals caused by universal regulations formulated by the public.After an introduction to the research background in the preface,this paper is mainly divided into three parts:In chapter one,this thesis interprets various types of bodies in Tokarczuk’s novels,aiming to finish the preliminary understanding of phenomenal bodies.And the phenomenal bodies can be roughly classified and understood as follows: Firstly,there are vivid and personalized human bodies that show many phenomena.For example,people make the connection with the world through the body,people will have visual worlds from different perspectives,and the sexual love of the body can show the significance of existence.They live based on their bodies,which demonstrates the characteristics of decentralization of the phenomenal bodies.Secondly,there are grotesque and vague deformed bodies that transcend the traditional scope of ration by finishing the transformation of body in gender or species.They demonstrate that the "biological gender" does not have the meaning of survival and that the body can combine the flesh and spirit.Third,the bodies in a generalized level,which can enrich the meaning of life.And they show the other two ways of the body’s existence: the mode of "animism" and the mode of "emergence" which will take place due to the force and relationship.These two kinds of bodies reveal the unique and mysterious atmosphere of the phenomenal body.In chapter two,an attempt is made to analyze several phenomena based on body in the text.First,the sense-perception: the colorful sensory world based on the body.In the perceptual world of the novel,the characters have the initial contact with the world through the sensory perception of body.It is the way that the body perceives the colorful world,which can lead to life and death.And it is also the way that the characters experience the body-subjectivity.Second,the time: the time secreted by the body.Each body in the novel has an absolute individual time,and he lives ’in the present’ in a temporal field,creating an individual history that is not modeled on the world’s history.Third,the space: multiple spaces interwoven with the body.The "phantom-limb pain" of the character indicates that the body is a schema space and a primitive space,which can also be expanded to the external space.The objective geometric space and body space are intertwined and affect each other.Houses,cabinets,drawers and other external spaces are related to the body space.The movement of space will also affect the state of the body.While in the novel,dreams,hallucinations,myths,games and other multiple spaces reflect the body’s living state in a heterogeneous form.Fourth,the environment:the environment of relationship that surrounds the body.It means that the world and other bodies are inseparable parts of existents.In chapter three,this thesis analyzes several writing styles created by Tokarczuk,exposing metaphor and expectation for the living form of the body.First,the novel is the "Constellation novel",which has a structure like the distribution of scattered stars in terms of structure,characters,plot,and content.They exist independently but connect secretly,and their relationship is flowing and generating.At the same time,this is a metaphor employed to illustrate the same living way of all the bodies.Second,"the fourth-person narrative" is a narrative way that not only pays attention to the individuals and details but also holds the whole and the connection.In Tokarczuk’s novels,she not only makes a profound understanding of personal perspectives but also involves various perspectives from different bodies.These treatments can guide readers and people to develop the ability to forget themselves when understanding others,which can share and enrich the experience of an individual.Third,her novels involve elements such as animism,astrology,mythology,religion,dream meaning,illusion space,etc.,constructing a textual world where reality and fantasy are intertwined.And it is also a metaphor for the real and spiritual body and the world.This thesis focuses on the body in the novel and intends to interpret it with phenomenology.In the first chapter,it shows the various forms of phenomenal bodies in Tokarczuk’s novels.In the second chapter,it combines and analyzes several major themes of her novels by using the method of phenomenology of body.In the third chapter,it analyzes the metaphor for the living form of bodies from the novel’s form.The close reading of text and a phenomenological study of the body in Tokarczuk’s novel are the main direction and methodology of this thesis.Furthermore,the core of this thesis is to elucidate that the personal experience of the body is real,private,and colorful in the perceptual world.The "aura" of the phenomenal body in the novel is what this thesis wishes to present,which is also the expectation for the real life of Tokarczuk.