| The American science fiction writer Terry Bisson(1942-)has received fame since his famous representative novels such as " They’re Made out of Meat"(1991)and "Bears Discover Fire "(1994),The Fifth Element(1997).These works mainly focus on the science imagination and the imaginary technological elements to emphasize the immeasurable technological function in the future human life.The novel Fire on the Mountain was published in 1988,and it’s quite different from other works,Terry Bisson puts his attention on an alternate history based on American history of John Brown Uprising,employing incredible imagination to construct a Nova Africa.In Fire on the Mountain,the author exerts his keen insight to present us the unique and brand-new socialist world of Nova Africa,the historical conditions of its emergence,the brewing of the Republic,the establishment of the Republic,the development of the Republic,together with the ups and downs of life clues in three lines,and peep into every aspect of utopian world.By interpreting this novel from the perspective of New Historicism,we can further explore the connection between utopian historical imagination and New Historicism,the theme of thesis mainly reflects the author’s anti-racist thought and in some way map the predicament of contemporary American capitalist society in the real world.This thesis will take the novel "Fire on the Mountain" as the research object,interpreting the emergence of the utopian "Nova Africa" in the novel from the perspective of New Historicism,and exploring the social and political significance of the novel to work as a response to the predicament of contemporary American society.This thesis mainly analyzes the emergence,establishment and development of "Nova Africa",and points out historicity of texts and textuality of history,so as to illustrate the possible significance of the emergence of the utopian society "Nova Africa".The main body of the thesis will focus on three phases,respectively,the brewing,establishment and development of "Nova Africa".In the brewing stage of the Republic,the novel mainly employs the memoirs of Dr.Abraham as the carrier,and expounds the early and late stories of John Brown’s Uprising from the perspective of "me".This period implies a typical characteristics of the historicity of texts,and the establishment of "Nova Africa" is the emergence of the contingency of inevitable history.In the establishment stage of the Republic,according to the description of Dr.Abraham and Thomas Hunter,Bisson reconstructs subversive history and completes the establishment of "Nova Africa"and the change of the world situation.This period implies a typical characteristics of the textuality of history.In the development stage of the Republic,mainly from the perspective of Yasmin and her daughter Harriet,the developed "Nova Africa" is a nation founded by black people,whose discourse dominate political power in this stage.The author predicts the different outcomes of John Brown’s Uprising,thus history turns into different tracks.The Blacks in America establish a utopian socialist country in the south,"Nova Africa",and trigger the change of the world situation.Through this possible prediction,the author subverts the mainstream ideology,twists the single history into multiple lines,emphasizes the subjectivity of the objective history,and discusses the certain social and political significance of utopia to work as a response to the racism predicament of the current American capitalist society. |
