On Isabel’s Tragic Marriage in The Portrait of a Lady: a Spatial Perspective_英语论文

摘要

作为伟大的英美小说家，亨利·詹姆斯（1843-1916）其人及其作品一直是研究者研究的热点。他的代表作《一位女士的画像》（1881）同样引起了评论家的兴趣。近年来，更多研究者注意到小说的空间因素。但是，评论者主要从空间角度剖析小说中的文化冲突和伊莎贝尔的成长。因此，本文试图以空间叙事为切入点，分析伊莎贝尔的婚姻悲剧，对小说进行一种新的解读。

本文根据爱德华·W·索雅的三种空间认识论，用文本细读的方法，从三个方面揭示伊莎贝尔是如何踏入其婚姻悲剧的：现实空间部分对小说中的房屋进行了分析，揭示具体空间见证和影响伊莎贝尔选择婚姻的过程。想象空间部分提供了伊莎贝尔心理活动的脉络，展现其虚假想象在欧洲之旅中得到强化，引导其选择最终婚姻的过程。融合空间表现伊莎贝尔如何意识到其悲剧婚姻事实的过程。这样，从空间叙事的角度全方位展示主人公一步步走向悲剧婚姻的演变过程，使读者得以更好地理解这部小说。

关键词：《一位女士的画像》  空间叙事  现实空间  想象空间  融合空间 

Abstract

As one of the greatest novelists, Henry James (1843-1916) and his works always remained as a hotpot for researchers. And his representative work The Portrait of a Lady (1881) also attracted critics’ interests. In recent years, the space factor in the novel has caught more and more attention. However, reviews on the protagonist Isabel in the light of spatial perspective mainly analyzed the cultural conflict in the novel and Isabel’s growth as well. Therefore, the author intended to analyze the Isabel’s tragic marriage from the perspective of spatial narrative, hoping to provide a new approach to understand the novel. 

In the light of Edward W. Soja’s three kinds of the space epistemologies with the exhaustive textual analysis, this thesis aims to uncover how Isabel stepped into her tragic marriage from three aspects: realistic space, imaginative space and mixed space. The part of realistic space gives an analysis of the houses in the novel to show that the concrete space witnessed and affected Isabel’s choice for marriage. Whereas the imaginative space gives a clue of Isabel’s psychological development to show that the false imagination was strengthened during her journey of Europe and led to her false marriage. The mixed space reveals how Isabel was aware of the tragic fact of her marriage. In this way, the gradual process leading to the Isabel’s marriage tragedy is manifested comprehensively from the perspective of spatial narrative so that the reader can obtain a better understanding of the novel.

Key words: The portrait of a lady  Spatial Narrative  realistic space  imaginative space  mixed space

Contents

Chapter One  Introduction 1

1.1  A Brief Introduction to Henry James 1

1.2  A Brief Introduction to The Portrait of a Lady 1

1.3  Purpose and Significance of the Thesis 2

1.4  Structure of The Thesis 2

Chapter Two  Literature Review 4

2.1  Previous Studies on The Portrait of a Lady Abroad 4

2.2  Previous Studies on The Portrait of a Lady Home 4

2.3  Comments 5

Chapter Three  Theoretical Framework 6

3.1  Spatial Narratology 6

3.2  Space Epistemologies 6

Chapter Four  Spatial Analysis of Isabel’s Tragic Marriage 8

4.1  Firstspace: Realistic Space 8

4.2  Secondspace: Imaginative Space 15

4.3  Thirdspace: Mixed Space 18

Chapter Five  Conclusion 20

Bibliography

Acknowledgments