A Foucauldian Reading of Racism in To Kill a Mocking Bird 《杀死一只知更鸟》中种族主义的福柯式解读文献综述

 2023-04-22 04:04

文献综述

1.Introduction1.1 Research background American Southern literature is a literary form that appeared in the American South in the 1880s and reached its peak in the 1930s, known as the 'Southern Renaissance' by critics, and made great contributions to American literature and even world literature. As the first and only novel written by American novelist Harper Lee, once published, To Kill a Mockingbird received numerous positive reviews and made the author one of the most famous writers in the United States. Its worth mentioning that The British Museum even ranked the book ahead of the Bible as a book that every adult should read before they die. According to 2018 PBSs activity The Great American Read surveyed among 4 million Americans, Lees To Kill a Mockingbird ranked first. As a result, it has become a classic in the history of American literature.1.2 Harper Lee and To Kill a MockingbirdPublished in 1960, To Kill a Mockingbird was seen as Harper Lees debut as a novelist in front of the public. Nelle Harper Lee (1926-2016) was born in 1926 in Monroeville, a small town in Alabama of a lawyers family. After graduating from a local public school, Harper Lee studied law at the University of Alabama and spent a year as an exchange student at oxford in the United Kingdom. With six months before graduation, she left school and moved to New York to pursue her writing dreams. She works as an airline ticket booker in New York while writing. Then encouraged by friends and editors, she returned to her hometown of Alabama and write novels based on fragments of her childhood life. In 1962, the New York Herald interviewed the go-getter novelist, concerned with nothing more than what avid readers can expect: how much autobiography is in Mockingbird. Harper Lee said two things: one, that she presented as accurately as possible what she remembered of Monroevilles customs, tone of voice, and the relationships that formed between people and landscape; and two, that her father was indeed the embodiment of the father, Atticus, in the book, practicing for years in the bar, talking to juries, facing judges and constitutional arguments, and countless times being paroled by his daughter. The girl in the novel, Scout, could be said to be Harper Lee herself, and her admiration for her father leaps off the page.In 1931, when the author was five years old, nine young black men were accused of raping two white women near Scottsboro, Alabama. After a long, much-publicized and often painful series of trials, four of the nine suspects were sentenced to long prison terms. Many good lawyers and American citizens saw the verdict as wrong. It was an evil result of racial prejudice. There was also suspicion that the two white women who accused the young black men were lying, and that the two mens claims became more dubious as complaint after complaint was made. The case became known as the Scottsboro case, on which the book was based. The story takes place in the 1930s, a small town, Maycomb, in the southern United States during the Great Depression. A orphan boy Dill came to the town of Maycomb to find his aunt for the summer, during which he met Scooter and Jem, and became friends with them. There is a rumored strange man in town named Arthur Radley. The children, in turn, used the rumors to fabricate various stories and devise plans to lure him out of the house. In the days that followed, Scooter and Jem found that people often left gifts for them in books outside the Radley house. It was the mysterious Boo who showed his goodwill to the children, but unfortunately, he never appeared in person. One day, Scooter learns at school that her dad, Atticus, has been appointed by the court to defend a black man, Tom, who is accused of raping a white teenage girl, Mayella Ewell. Although many Maycomb townspeople object, Atticus later agrees to defend Tom. During the trial, although Toms innocence was obvious, the jury still found him guilty. A desperate Tom also loses his life during his escape from prison. Harper Lee insisted on the seriousness of literature, and she believed that her stories, the characters she portrayed, were of universal significance. In addition to the Finch family, there are many other admirable characters in the story, such as Mrs. Maudie, Bradley, Mrs. Dubose, etc. The storyline is full of life and very eye-catching. The work is told from the point of view of a six-year-old narrator named Scooter, a method that mixes the simple motives and unquestionable traditions of complex situations hidden by the observations of children and adults. The book attacks the darkness and decadence of society through Scooters spiritual growth, profoundly exposes the serious racial persecution and racial discrimination in American society, reflects the difficult and painful life of black Americans, explores the meaning of black survival as a 'human being', and strives to call for the awakening of black national cultural consciousness, including female consciousness.1.3 Foucaults theory of powerFoucault was an important European philosopher in the transition from structuralism to deconstructionism in the 20th century. He analyzes the relationship between discourse and power from the perspective of intellectual archaeology, proposing that knowledge and truth are forms of power, and that power does not become power without knowledge and truth. Foucault, starting from Nietzsches 'will to power' theory, regards the desire for power as a human instinct, which is closely connected with human life, and the operation process of life is the embodiment process of this power. Every class, group and individual are in a power relation, they are subject to and exercise power, and it is through their knowledge and belief in truth that they know and explain their existence. Discourse hides the workings of power on the one hand and implies the language of desire on the other, both of which realize themselves by means of discourse and must conceal their existence in the process leading to their ends. 2.Literature review Since its publication, To Kill a Mockingbird has been widely discussed by critics. The work reflects the social situation of the United States in the era of economic depression through the window of a childs perspective. According to the data of CNKI, there are 54 articles written about race in them, but few of them analyze race in novels from the perspective of Foucaults power theory. A great deal of opinion and understanding of this work from a variety of perspectives has been published by scholars both at home and abroad.2.1 Studies abroadSome scholars focus on different interpretations of characterization in the article. For example, Monroe Freedman (1992) and Christopher Metress (2007) share the same idea: both of them hold a different view on the white image of Atticus. Monroe Freedman (1992), he presents a completely new perspective. Friedmans points are many, but his argument basically boils down to this: 'It is true that Atticus Finch behaves heroically and fearlessly in his representation of Robinson. But he does so out of an elitist sense of aristocratic obligation. Except under the compulsion of a court appointment, Finch never tried to change the racism and sexism that permeated Macombs life. Instead, he lived his life as a passive participant in this pervasive injustice. What if Atticus Finch had never been forced by the court to represent Robinson, but rather what if he had voluntarily committed himself to establishing the right of Macombs black citizens to sit freely in the county courthouse (instead of segregating in the balcony). This is much more respectable. Atticus Finch would indeed have been a role model for young lawyers to emulate. Besides, In Christopher Metresss opinion, in the short span of a decade, a new critical divide has emerged, one that suggests that To Kill a Mockingbird tells two stories-or, to borrow a phrase from the novel itself-speaks two languages. The second language tells a darker story, one that warns us that our admiration for Atticus Finch and our praise for To Kill a Mockingbird have less to do with the merits of the protagonist and the novels liberal vision than with our own blind spots and prejudices. Apart from these ideas, Colin Nicholson (2007), he describes that Boo Radleys demonic figure is a symbolic figure of a more serious dimension. Not only does he both signify and represent an oppressive and repressive society that, rather than confronting them, is more than happy to suppress those shameful home truths, but for the same reason he is also a sign of embarrassment to his own family and a signal of repressive intolerance in the wider community. Whats more, Sima Farshid (2010), despite she didnt research To Kill a Mockingbird, but she also uses Foucaults theory of power in her paper, which remains very valuable to me for research. Foucaults theory of power was regarded as one of the most influential thinkers of the recent decades does not sound an overestimation, because his archaeological inquiries and theory of power are among the most-referred ideas in critical, historical and political arguments of our times and his works seem to a run-on process of observation. She articulated that Foucaults observation that power is extended and transmitted by the dominated who, subsequently resist the grip of the pressure the power holders exert upon them is one of the key points in his theory of power.2.2 Studies in ChinaCompared with foreign countries, domestic scholars pay more attention to the interpretation of various symbolic meanings, and there is some insight about Foucaults power theory and the race issue of To Kill a Mockingbird, which is also very helpful for my next research.Dong Siqi (2018) combines Foucaults power theory of discourse with the study of the control of the racial and patriarchal discourses of power in To Kill a Mockingbird on the residents of Maycomb, aiming to reveal the concrete manifestation of the racial and patriarchal discourses of power existing in Maycomb in To Kill a Mockingbird; the effects of the racial discourses of power and patriarchal discourses of power on the residents of Maycomb and the resistance and resistance of the residents of Maycomb to The resistance and rebellion of the residents of Maycomb to the two power discourses.According to Li Xiaohui (2020), she illustrated in her paper that the power of discipline works on the body and psyche of individuals mainly through hierarchical surveillance and normative adjudication. These hidden spatial means of discipline reflect the unequal relationship between blacks and whites in the town, the tragedy of the other under social norms and patriarchal cooperation, and the narrow space for women to exist. The resistance of the secondary characters is manifested mainly through spatial crossing, caring for others, and artistic living. Resistance is quickly followed by forms of punishment, often violent, that restrict the freedom of the individual and thus traumatize the character psychologically or spiritually. The failure of the characters is inevitable, and their failure is the result of their historical environment, identity and social norms. In the view of power space, power is everywhere, and the marginal characters have a very narrow space for survival, so that regulation is bound to be resisted. The resistance of individuals often fails in the flood of power, but even though the resistance ultimately fails, the resistance is not meaningless.2.3 Need for the studyFrom the above studies, it can be seen that scholars at home and abroad have come up with various insights on To Kill a Mockingbird, which all have certain guiding significance for the study of this paper, but there are still too few articles that start from the aspect of power theory to study the problem of racism. This essay will start with Foucaults theory of power and provide an in-depth analysis of Tom Robinson, Arthur Boo Bradley, and the Finch family. The thesis aims to find out in what ways the power space is imposed on them and what effects it has. Whats more, by starting with Foucaults theory of power, the reader can also gain a deeper understanding of how power operates in society, thus the relationship between the individual and power, and between the individual and society will be made more easily appreciable. And lastly, in this paper, we will analyze the image of Atticus, a white lawyer, from other perspectives, and perhaps he is not as simply an impartial lawyer as the author wants us to see him.

资料编号：[578215]

剩余内容已隐藏，您需要先支付 10元 才能查看该篇文章全部内容！立即支付

以上是毕业论文文献综述，课题毕业论文、任务书、外文翻译、程序设计、图纸设计等资料可联系客服协助查找。

您可能感兴趣的文章