On Anti-Gothicism in Northanger Abbey_论《诺桑觉寺》的反哥特观念.docx

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1、 On Anti-Gothicism in Northanger Abbey AcknowledgementsIt would not be possible for me to complete the thesis without the generous help of many. First and foremost, I would like to take this opportunity to convey my sincere gratitude and appreciation to my supervisor Dr. Wang Junhua, under whose sup

2、ervision I have obtained valuable ideas and precious suggestions. He is very intelligent on thesis instruction and also shows his great patience to me during my writing. I also want to thank all the teachers in the School of Foreign Studies of Shandong University of Finance and Economics for their b

3、eneficial courses I have attended during my college life. Besides, I owe my deep thanks to my roommates who have been encouraging me all the time, and to my colleagues at Jinan Longre Foreign Language Training Center who willingly took my part of duties so that I could have enough time for thesis wr

4、iting. ABSTRACTOn Anti-Gothicism in Northanger Abbey Northanger Abbey, one of Jane Austens famous works, mainly tells the story of an innocent girl, a Gothic novel fan, who treats herself as the heroine of a Gothic novel and makes many ridiculous adventures by taking Gothic stories as real happening

5、s, but finally learns to distinguish between the imaginary life in novels and the real life of her own. The novel criticizes the ridiculousness and meaninglessness of Gothic novels in a satirical way. The thesis analyzes Austens parody of Gothic plot, characterization, and the heroines Gothic advent

6、ures in Northanger Abbey, and argues that the work reveals her anti-Gothicism through a comparison with the typical features of prevailing Gothic novels in her age.Key words: Northanger Abbey; Jane Austen; anti-Gothicism 摘要论诺桑觉寺的反哥特观念诺桑觉寺是奥斯汀的一部著名作品。小说讲述了一位沉迷于哥特小说的天真女孩，把自己想象成作品的女主角，误把小说情节当做真实的生活，经历了

7、一系列的荒谬历险；但她最终走出幻想，学会了分辨哥特小说的荒诞情节和现实生活的区别。小说以反讽的方式批评了哥特小说的可笑和荒诞。本文通过分析该小说对哥特式情节和人物的戏仿以及女主角的哥特式历险，并与当时盛行的哥特小说的典型特征相对比，认为奥斯汀通过诺桑觉寺表达了自己的反哥特观念。关键词：诺桑觉寺；奥斯汀；反哥特CONTENTSAcknowledgementsiiAbstract.iiiAbstract in ChineseivIntroduction1Chapter One Gothic Novels and Northanger Abbey.3I. Origin and Development

8、 of Gothic Novels3II. Austens Attitude towards Gothic Novels5Chapter Two Parody of Gothic Plot and Characters.7I. Parody of Gothic Plot7II. Parody of Gothic Characters9Chapter Three Catherines Adventures11I. On the Way to Northanger Abbey11II. Three Adventures in Northanger Abbey.12III. Catherines C

9、oming back to Reality15Conclusion.16Works Cited.17 21 IntroductionJane Austen (17751817), who lived at the turn of the 18th and 19th century, is the most distinguished as well as the most widely read female novelist in British literature. She was born on December 16, 1775, at Steventon rectory in Ha

10、mpshire, England, and died in Winchester on July 18, 1817, and was buried in Winchester Cathedral. Austen lives in a large family with six brothers and one sister. Her father, George Austen was a rector for much of his life. Her sister, Cassandra Elizabeth, was her best friend. She was educated prim

11、arily by her father and older brothers, and her own reading also helped a lot with her writing. During Austens education and writing life, her father was the most important guide, for he not only provided her with a well-stocked family library, but also supported her writing with much effort. He had

12、 created a democratic and easy intellectual atmosphere at home. They often talked about different political or social ideas, and any personal opinions would be accepted and discussed. Jane Austen began to write when she was only about thirteen and the everlasting support of her family was crucial to

13、 her development as a professional writer. Austens personal experiences have a great influence on her writing. “Of events her life was singularly barren: few changes and no great crisis even broke the smooth current of its course” (James 11). Austens works are usually confined to a limited circle. I

14、n a letter to her nephew Edward, Austen made comments on her own work as “how could I possibly join them on to the little bit of Ivory on which I work with so fine a Brush, as produces little effect after much labor?” (Lefroy 160). Liu Bingshan appraised that “the comparison is true. The ivory surfa

15、ce is small enough, but the woman who made drawings of human life on it is a real artist” (309). Some critics accuse Jane Austen of writing with a narrow vision, and that her novels are all about love, marriage, money and rich relations, but Austens works show their values on reflecting the social r

16、ealities of her day. As Zhang Dingquan and Wu Gang comment in their book that “her Jane Austens unique sensitivity to human emotions, her careful observation made her one of the finest novelists of the age” (202).Austen wrote six complete novels during her literary career. They are: Sense and Sensib

17、ility (1811); Pride and Prejudice (1813); Mansfield Park (1814); Emma (1816); Northanger Abbey (1818); and Persuasion (1818). Her literary works have been attracting more and more readers from home and abroad since their publication. Jane Austen is considered as “a genius that appeals to any generat

18、ion” (Qiao iv). The British female writer Virginia Woolf said that “of all great novelists, Jane Austen is the most difficult to catch in the act of greatness” (Zhu 5). The work discussed in this thesis is Northanger Abbey, which tells a story of the naive protagonist with a very over-active imagina

19、tion, Catherine Morland, a Gothic novel aficionado, who treats herself as the heroine of a Gothic novel, takes stories in Gothic novels as happened in her real life and makes many ridiculous adventures, but finally learns to distinguish between the imaginary life in Gothic novels and her own ordinar

20、y life situations. Although Northanger Abbey was the first to be completed by Jane Austen, it had neither been given enough attention nor been adequately studied for some considerable time in the past. In fact, Northanger Abbey has its unique research value, particularly the authors attitude towards

21、 Gothic novels, which has aroused more and more critical attention and debates in recent years (see Chapter One). This thesis argues that Northanger Abbey shows Jane Austens anti-Gothicism through her satirical criticism of the prevailing Gothic novels in her times. In addition to Introduction and C

22、onclusion, the thesis consists of three chapters. The first chapter briefly introduces Gothic novels, illustrates different viewpoints on the relationship between Northanger Abbey and Gothic novels as discussed by some critics and scholars. The second chapter analyses Jane Austens parodic anti-Gothi

23、cism by comparing the plot arrangement and characterization of the novel with that of Gothic novels. The third chapter discusses Jane Austens criticism of Gothic novels through focusing on Catherines ridiculous adventures.Chapter One Gothic Novels and Northanger AbbeyNorthanger Abbey is a parody of

24、Gothic novels. The first part of this chapter briefly introduces the origin, development and typical features of Gothic novels; the second part mainly illustrates different viewpoints on Austens attitude towards Gothic novels.I. Origin and Development of Gothic NovelsThe word “Goth,” coming from the

25、 name of an ancient tribe in Europe, and its derivative form “Gothic,” which reminds people of mysticism, terror, and dark, were frequently used to describe medieval things in the 18th century. According to a highly-popular dictionary, the word “Gothic” means a kind of architecture built in the styl

26、e that was popular in Western Europe from the 12th century to the 16th centuries, and which has pointed arches, windows, and tall thin pillars and a novel written in the style popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, which described romantic adventures in mysterious or frightening surroundings. (Horn

27、by 883) Now it generally refers to a genre of literature, which is “full of depicts of murders and supernatural things to thrill readers” (Han 36), combines both horror and romance and “deals with the strange, mysterious, and supernatural designed to invoke suspense and terror in readers” (Zhao 283)

28、. From the above quotes, it is known that some basic elements in Gothic novels include: setting in a castle, which often contains secret passages and staircases, dark or hidden rooms; an atmosphere of mystery and suspense that arouses fear and terror; supernatural events, such as ghosts or unknown g

29、iants coming to human life; high and overwrought emotion, like anger, sorrow, especially terror from which the characters suffer; heroine in distress, which appeals to the sympathy of the readers; and romance, such as powerful love between the heroine and the hero.The first Gothic novel is The Castl

30、e of Otranto: A Gothic Story, written by the English author Horace Walpole. The work is remarkable because it is the first attempt to find “a tale of amusing fiction upon the basis of the ancient romance of chivalry” (Walter 115) and it “starts a fashion and sets an example for other Gothic novelist

31、s” (Zhang 5). In addition, the novel was “an attempt to blend the two kinds of romance, the ancient and the modern” (Horace 19). Horace Walpole opens the door of Gothic novels and a lot of other Gothic novelists follow suit. Among them, Ann Radcliff and Mathew Gregory Lewis are two most famous ones

32、for their respective work The Mysteries of Udolpho and The Monk. The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), through which Ann Radcliff made the Gothic novel socially acceptable, was an unparalleled success at that time, and was also frequently referred to by Jane Austen in Northanger Abbey. In the mid-1790s t

33、he Gothic novel reaches its summit, and David Punder comments, probably an exaggeration, that “this body of fiction may well have established the popularity of the novel-form” (David 61). Besides its popularity among the public, the Gothic novel has a notorious fame for a long time and has been crit

34、icized as crude by many critics. In the preface of Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth commented on Gothic novels as:The invaluable works of Shakespeare and Milton are driven into neglect by frantic novels, sickly and stupid German Tragedies, and deluges of idle and extravagant stories in verse. (Wordsworth

35、 and Coleridge 248-249)In spite of criticism from many literary figures, Gothic novels still attracted a lot of readers and the Gothic influence was amazingly continuing. “It has been estimated that the reading population of Britain increased from one and a half million in 1780 to between seven and

36、eight million by 1830” (Lin 24), and “Gothic novels have exerted significant influence on the literature of later generations and on every European literature. They have exerted great effect on the American literature, Hawthorn and Allen Poe in particular” (Zhao 283). It is not so hard for us to fin

37、d out that many works of great literary celebrities bear Gothic elements. In the Romantic period, some famous works are: Percy Bysshe Shelleys first published work, Zastrozzi (1810), was publicly-known as a Gothic novel; Mary Shelleys Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus (1818); Coleridges The Ri

38、me of the Ancient Mariner (1798) and Christabel (1816); Keats La Belle Dame sans Merci (1819) and Isabella (1820); and The Vampyre (1819) by John William Polidori. Charlotte Bronts Jane Eyre (1847) and Emily Bronts Wuthering Heights (1847) are also acknowledged as Gothic novels as well as Elizabeth

39、Gaskells tales “The Doom of the Griffiths” (1858), “Lois the Witch” (1861), and “The Grey Woman” (1861). Charles Dickens is another mainstream writers heavily influenced by Gothic novels. In his great works, such as Oliver Twist (1837-8), Bleak House (1854), Great Expectations (1861) and The Mystery

40、 of Edwin Drood (1870), we can easily feel the Gothic mood and themes. Edgar Allan Poe was a prominent and innovative re-interpreter of Gothic literature in the 19th century American literature, with his well-known works as The Fall of the House of Usher (1839), “The Black Cat” (1843), and “The Murd

41、ers in the Rue Morgue” (1841).II. Austens Attitude towards Gothic Novels“The excesses, stereotypes, and frequent absurdities of the traditional Gothic made it rich territory for satire” (Skarda 178-179). As it is universally acknowledged, the most famous parody of Gothic novels is Northanger Abbey.

42、We all say that Northanger Abbey is a parody of Gothic novels, but disagree on Austens attitude towards them. Some critics hold that Northanger Abbey offers a refinement on rather than denial of the Gothic: “Gothic elements in the novel are employed to express Austens feminist ideas rather than mock

43、 them” (Chen ii); “Through parody, Austen revises Gothic novels in a comic way for the purpose of negotiation with Gothic novels, as well as inheritance and preservation” (Zheng 89). However, some others argue that Austen shows her sarcasm towards Gothic novels and emphasizes reason and realism: “No

44、rthanger Abbey also satirized the sentimental novels, especially the Gothic novel, which was very popular at that time” (Yang 66), and “the mock of Gothic novels runs through the novel from beginning to end” (Sun 36). Northanger Abbey expresses Austens sarcasm on prevailing Gothic novels, especially

45、 The Mysteries of Udolpho, which has been mentioned several times in the work. With a close reading of Northanger Abbey, we can easily find the Gothic craze surrounding it. First of all, Northanger Abbey shares similar plot construction with the prevailing Gothic novels; secondly, it contains a paro

46、dic characterization of Gothic novels; thirdly, they all describe the female protagonists adventures and her love romance with the male protagonist eventually obtained. Additionally, Jane Austen adopts a new tactic of writing novels in Northanger Abbey by addressing the reader directly. We can feel

47、the sense of satire in reading the work. The following chapter deals with its plot construction and characterization to show Jane Austens anti-Gothicism.Chapter TwoParody of Gothic Plot and CharactersIn this chapter, we mainly examine Austens parody of Gothic novels through comparing the plot constr

48、uction and characterization of Northanger Abbey with that of Gothic novels. The novel seemingly imitates the construction of Gothic novels, but it actually satirizes their format of developing stories and depicting characters.I.Parody of Gothic Plot The widely spread Gothic novels then were sharing almost the same format. A noble heroine, who is very beautiful and intelligent and loves