An Analysis of Posthumanist Thoughts in The Birthday of the Infanta_英语论文

摘要

奥斯卡·王尔德是英国维多利亚晚期著名小说家、诗人、剧作家，同时也是英国唯美主义艺术运动的倡导者。王尔德一生共创作了《快乐王子》及《石榴之屋》两部童话集，风格诙谐幽默，运用儿童文学的形式批判了人类社会中的种种问题，蕴含了作者对唯美主义的贯彻和对人文主义的反思。《西班牙公主的生日》通过描绘西班牙公主生日的场景和小矮人的死展现了人与自我、人与人、人与自然间扭曲的关系，揭露了人文主义在应对现实挑战中的局限性，体现了后人文主义的思想。本文将从现代生活中人的异化、对理性的批判和物种间的关系三个方面探讨文本内容、出场人物及场景在文中的意义，考察王尔德在作品中表现的后人文主义思想。本研究有助于进一步挖掘王尔德的思想内涵及其作品的艺术价值，具有一定的现实启示。

关键词：《西班牙公主的生日》  奥斯卡·王尔德  后人文主义

Abstract

The Birthday of the Infanta is one of the fairy tales written by Oscar Wilde, a famous Irish novelist, poet, playwright as well as a spokesman for aestheticism in late Victorian Britain. During his lifetime, Wilde has composed two collections of fairy tales which are satirical and humorous in style. His irony on British society and insistence on aestheticism and introspection to humanism are well represented in these stories. The Birthday of the Infanta depicts an array of scenes on the Infanta’s birthday and the tragic death of the dwarf, which reveals the distorted relationships between man and self, man and man as well as man and nature. It exposes the limitation of humanism in facing challenges in reality and presents the ideas of posthumanism. This paper analyzes the context and the meaning of the characters and scenes in The Birthday of the Infanta from three aspects including the alienated man in modern life, criticism against rationality and relationships among species so as to discuss Wilde’s thoughts of posthumanism as well as explore the implications, aesthetic value and the inspiration into real life.

Key words: The Birthday of the Infanta  Oscar Wilde  posthumanism

Contents

Chapter One  Introduction 1

1.1    A Brief Introduction to Oscar Wilde 1

1.2    A Brief Introduction to The Birthday of the Infanta 1

1.3    Purpose of the Thesis 2

1.4    Structure of the Thesis 2

Chapter Two  Literature Review 3

2.1    Previous Studies on Oscar Wilde 3

2.2    Previous Studies on The Birthday of the Infanta 4

2.3    Summary 4

Chapter Three  Theoretical Framework 6

3.1    The Development of Posthumanism 6

3.2    The Main Characteristics of Posthumanism 8

Chapter Four  Analysis of Posthumanist Thoughts in The Birthday of 

the Infanta 10

4.1     Alienated Man in Modern Life 10

4.1.1  The Infanta and People in the Palace 11

4.1.2  The Dwarf 12

4.2     Criticism on Rationality 13

4.2.1  Sense of Absurdity 13

4.2.2  Destruction on the Definition of Goodness 14

4.2.3  Pursuit of Utopian World 16

4.3     Relationships among Species 18

4.4     Summary 19

Chapter Five  Conclusion 21

5.1     Major Findings 21

5.2     Limitations and Suggestions for Future Study 22

Bibliography

Acknowledgments