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摘要：美国作家西奥多德莱塞被认为美国自然主义的杰出代表，本文以其第一部小说《嘉莉妹妹》为例分析德莱塞自然主义的一些特征。论文从德莱塞创作《嘉莉妹妹》的历史文化背景出发，研究德莱塞在《嘉莉妹妹》中表现出来的自然主义思想。论文涉及该小说的主要三大背景：一是达尔文主义和宿命论；二是美国然主义；三是19世纪末在美国兴起的消费主义。同时分析自然主义的三大特点：欲望,本能和环境,最后得出结论：《嘉莉妹妹》一文中主人公嘉莉妹妹的最终命运与德莱塞本人的命运息息相关，赫思渥德的最终堕落也是德莱塞惧怕失败的结果。而德莱塞却把嘉莉妹妹和赫思特渥德最终得不到幸福归因于“人心Dreiser’s Naturalism in Sister Carrie
Zhang Yu
Abstract：Theodore Dreiser is regarded as an outstanding representative of American naturalism. In this thesis, Dreiser’s first novel Sister Carrie is taken as an example to analyze th e features of Dreiser’s naturalism. The thesis referred to three great historical and cultural background of the novel which are Darwinism，Determinism. American Naturalism and Consumerism. Meanwhile the thesis analyzes three features of naturalism. At last, we can draw the conclusion that the leading character of the novel-Carrie’s destiny has a great connection with Dreiser himself and the decline of Hurstwood is a result of Dreiser’s fear of failure, but Dreiser attributes Carrie and Hurstwood’s unhappine ss to their insatiable desire for life or they are doomed to be unhappy etc, and from which we can see Dreiser’s naturalism easily.
Key Words：Naturalism Darwinism Consumerism desire environment
Contents
Introduction (1)
1. The historical and cultural background for Sister Carrie (2)
1.1 Darwinism and Determinism (2)
1.2 American naturalism (2)
2. The typical characteristics of naturalism in Sister Carrie (2)
2.1 The relationship among reason, free will and instinct (2)
2.2 The influence of the environment (3)
3. Dreiser’s naturalistic attitude of truthful reflection of life (3)
3.1 Dreiser's “Sister”一Carrie (3)
3.2 Hurstwood's decline一Dreiser's fear of failure (3)
Conclusion (3)
Notes (4)
Bibliography (4)
Dreiser’s Naturalism in Sister Carrie
Zhang Yu
Introduction
Theodore Dreiser is one of the most influential American writers of critical realism, but many of his works referred to the description of naturalism and weakened his critical spirit. His first novel Sister Carrie published in 1990 revealed the financial disparity and the moral decline of American society and thus regarded as forbidden book. But now the book becomes one of the best-sellers of American literature because of the naturalistic features in it. Then Dreiser is regarded as a pioneer of American naturalism and as a naturalist Dreiser expresses the characteristics of naturalism in most of his works. The themes of Darwinism and Determinism are the common features of Dreiser’s story which also characterize Sister Carrie.
When most novels deal only with the smiling and beautiful aspects of life, Dreiser advocates truthful reflection of life in his fiction. It is not an exaggeration to say that Dreiser's Sister Carrie clears the way for the development of American fiction.
Since 1900, American critics have never ceased their study on Dreiser. The early research was mainly based on the writer's life experience. It provided us with lots of useful information about the writer. The study witnessed a transition from the author himself to the text in 1960s. From 1980s, scholars employed new devices of Freudianism, Feminism and Post-Structuralism in their studies. These new methods help us know Dreiser and his works from different angles. However, one thing they share in common is that they lack macroscopic analysis.
In china , some Chinese critics have also shown great interest in Sister Carrie. Two domestic literary magazines, Foreign Literature Study and Foreign Literature Review, have been the major publishing fields for these critics…
In order to find out Dreiser's naturalism, the method of text analysis is employed in this thesis. The author of this thesis reads the novel intensively so that
