On William Faulkner’s That Evening Sun from the Perspective of Cubism_英语论文

摘要

《夕阳》是威廉·福克纳所创作的一篇构思精巧，在叙事技巧上极具创新性的短篇小说，可被视作体现福克纳现代主义写作手法的典范之作。而在20世纪现代主义文学兴起之前，一场名为立体主义的艺术革新在艺术界引起巨大轰动，对现代视觉艺术，建筑甚至文学都产生了深远影响，使得视觉艺术和文学在20世纪开始有了交集。本文通过探寻《夕阳》的写作手法与立体主义作品创作手法的相同点，试图从现代主义的源头立体主义的角度对《夕阳》进行解读。基于对立体主义的多角度观察、解构与重构、共时性以及拼贴等艺术手法的了解，本文分析了《夕阳》的写作特色与立体主义艺术手法的相似性及由此产生的文学效果。通过对《夕阳》的写作手法以及立体主义主要创作特点的比较，可以说《夕阳》在很大程度上带有立体主义的特点。本文希望能吸引福克纳文学作品的研究者更多地关注这一新的视角，即探究福克纳作品与现代主义视觉艺术的共通之处。

关键词：威廉·福克纳 《夕阳》 立体主义 

Abstract

That Evening Sun is a short story of Faulkner with well-designed structure and innovative narrative techniques, which could be regarded as an epitome of Faulkner’s experimental literature works. Before the emergence of modernist literature, an artistic movement dubbed as Cubism movement caused a sensation in the art field, exerting profound influence on visual art, architecture as well as literature. It is in the 20th century that literature and visual arts developed a linkage. In this thesis, Faulkner’s That Evening Sun is analyzed in perspective of Cubism, and the similarities between narrative tactics in this short story and creating techniques of Cubist works are to be found. Based on major Cubist techniques of multi-perspective observation, decomposition and reconstruction, simultaneity, and collage, the narrative features of That Evening Sun as well as the literature effects are analyzed. Through comparison between techniques of cubist painting and narrative techniques of Faulkner’s That Evening Sun, it could be inferred that, to a large extent, That Evening Sun embraces the features of cubism. This thesis is expected to attract more scholars’ interest in studying Faulkner’s literary works from another perspective that is to investigate the similarities between Faulkner’s works and modern visual art. 

Key words: William Faulkner  That Evening Sun  Cubism

Contents

Chapter One  Introduction 1

1.1  Research Background and Significance 1

1.2  Research Questions 2

1.3  Thesis Structure 2

Chapter Two  Introduction to That Evening Sun 4

2.1  Introduction to That Evening Sun 4

2.2  Previous Studies on That Evening Sun 5

Chapter Three  Theoretical Framework 7

3.1  Origin and Development of Cubism 7

3.2  Major Aesthetic Features of Cubism 8

3.2.1 Multi-perspective Observation and Decomposition 8

3.2.2 Simultaneity 10

3.2.3 Collage 10

3.3  Influence of Cubism on Literature 11

Chapter Four  Analysis of That Evening Sun in Perspective of Cubism 14

4.1  Multi-perspective Narrative of Main Characters 14

4.2  Decomposition of the Plot 15

4.3  Simultaneity of Dialogues 17

4.4  Collage of Events in Different Time Sequence 18

4.5  Summary 20

Chapter Five  Conclusion 21

5.1  Major Findings 21

5.2  Limitations 21

Bibliography

Acknowledgements