《看不见的人》中的象征主义_英语论文

Symbolism in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man

摘要

拉尔夫·埃里森的长篇小说《看不见的人》被誉为“划时代的小说”和“现代美国黑人生活的史诗”。这不仅是因为小说主题意义的深刻，更是由于其精湛而又丰富的表达手法。尤其是以小说中无处不在的象征主义手法独具匠心。以往的研究多数仅限于象征意义的系统分析或象征手法对主旨的揭示作用，鲜有学者继续深入挖掘其当代意义。本文将通过分析文本和综合国内外研究，利用象征主义探究《看不见的人》中的象征：“看不见”、吃山药、信和公文包。这些象征分别指代主人公觉醒的身份、对民族身份的接受、寻找身份的障碍和身份意识改变的线索，从而深化小说极具预见性的寻找身份的主题。在分析小说象征手法的过程中，主人公寻找身份的心路历程对当代青年实现自我价值和在多元文化社会中形成具有辨识度的自我风格有着重要的启发意义。

关键词：象征主义；看不见的人；身份追寻；当代青少年；启发

Abstract

Ralph Ellison’s novel Invisible Man was highly praised as “an epoch-making novel” and “an epic of modern American Negro life”. This is not only because of the profound significance of the novel’s themes, but also due to the rich and dedicate use of writing techniques in it. Especially, the ubiquitous symbolism has great originality in Invisible Man. Most of the previous studies are restricted to the systematic analysis of symbolic significance or the function of symbolism to reveal themes. However, few scholars continue to dig deeper into contemporary meanings of this novel. By analyzing the novel and synthesizing the researches at home and abroad, this thesis will make use of symbolism to explore the symbols in Invisible Man: “invisible”, eating backing yams, letters and briefcase. These symbols respectively refer to the protagonist’s awakened identity, acceptance of his cultural identity, barriers during searching for identity and a clue to the shift of the hero’s identity consciousness, which serves for deepening the extraordinarily predictive theme of pursuing identity in the novel. In the process of dealing with symbolism, the protagonist’s spiritual journey of searching for identity has an important enlightening significance for contemporary youth to realize their own values and look for a truly identifiable self-style in a multi-cultural society.

Keywords: Symbolism; Invisible Man; pursuit of identity; contemporary youth; inspiration 

Contents

1. Introduction 1

1.1 Background Information 1

1.2.1 Study on Invisible Man at Home 2

1.2.2 Study on Invisible Man Abroad 3

1.2.3 Research Problems 4

2. Theoretical Frame 5

2.1 Introduction to Symbolism 5

2.2 Function of Symbolism in Novels 6

3. Symbols in Invisible Man Highlighting the Theme of Pursuit of Identity 7

3.1 From "Visible" to "Invisible": Awakened Identity 7

3.2 Eating Baking Yams: Acceptance of One's Cultural Identity 8

3.3 Envelope: Barriers during Searching for Identity 9

3.4 Briefcase: A Clue to the Shift of Identity Consciousness 10

3.5 Summary 12

4. Reflection and Inspiration for Contemporary Youth 13

4.1 Searching for Identity -- Determining One’s Own Value 13

4.2 Looking for a Truly Identifiable Self-style in a Multi-cultural Society 13

5. Conclusion 15

References 16