毕业论文——暮光之城--文学伦理学分析

摘要 美国作家斯蒂芬妮梅尔是21世纪杰出的作家，时代周刊评梅尔为全球最具影响力的100名人物之一，并打破J.K.罗琳所创的记录一举成为当时最畅销作品的作家。作为梅尔的代表作，暮光之城无疑是最具有代表性的一部作品。大多数评论者主要从女性主义、性别角色、哥特色彩的创新、吸血鬼文化等角度对此作品进行了评论和分析。然而，从“文学伦理学”的角度来解读并分析其小说中的人物的各种关系在学术界仍不多见。文学伦理学是中国学者在借鉴西方伦理批评和中国道德批评的基础上创建的文学批评方法，它是一种从伦理视角阅读、分析、阐释和评价文学的批评方法。本论文对暮光之城所展现的伦理因素从人与社会、人与他人、人与自我三种关系层面进行文学伦理学分析，发掘出斯蒂芬妮梅尔的伦理思想，由此展现斯蒂芬妮梅尔对心中完美的家庭观和忠于内心的爱情观的追求，同时也为该小说提供了一个新的研究方向。关键词 文学伦理学；暮光之城； Abstract Stephanie Meyer, an American novelist, is an outstanding writer in the 21st century. Time magazine named Stephanie Meyer as one of the worlds most influential 100 characters, and she broke the record of J.K.Rowling became the most popular author of the best-selling book at that time. Twilight, as the representative masterpiece of Stephanie Meyer, which was studied from the aspects of feminist, gender roles, the innovation of Gothic color, the culture of vampire since it was published. Nevertheless, the few research of Twilight from the aspect of ethical literary criticism. Therefore, this thesis tries to explore the novel from the new angle. Ethical literary criticism is an approach to literary criticism depended on referencing the basis of the western ethical criticism and Chinese moral criticism. Additionally, this theory is also a criticism method. It analyzed, interpreted and evaluated the literary from the aspect of ethics. This thesis intends to analyze Twilight from the aspects of relationship between human and society, relationship between human and other and the relationship between human and self to find out the ethical idea of Stephanie Meyer and exhibit the seeking of the perfect family view and loyal love view in Stephanie Meyers heart. Key Words Ethical Literary Criticism; Twilight; Contents1. Introduction11.1 Stephanie Meyer and Her Literary Achievements11.2 The Summary of the Twilight11.3 The Research into the Twilight22. Theoretical Basis and Literature Review32.1 Theoretical Basis32.1.1 Ethical Literary Criticism32.1.2 Twilight and Ethical Literary Criticism42.2 Literature Review42.2.1 The Research at Home and Abroad53. Relationship between Human and Society63.1 A Parallel Society of Human, Vampire and Werewolf63.2 Family Relationship73.2.1 Bella & Her Human Family73.2.2 Edward & His Vampire Family93.2.3 Jacob & His Werewolf Family104. Relationship between Human and Others124.1 Bella & Her Forks High School Friends124.2 Bella & Edward134.3 Bella & Jacob155. Relationship between Human and Self165.1 Bella as a Student in Forks High School165.2 Bella as a Lover to Edward175.3 Bella as a Mother to Renesmee196. Conclusion21References221. Introduction1.1 Stephanie Meyer and Her Literary AchievementsStephanie Meyer is an American young-adult fiction writer and film producer, best known for her vampire romance series Twilight. (qtd. in Stephanie Meyer of Wikipedia) Stephanie Meyer was born in Hartford, Connecticut, USA on December 24, 1973 and grew up in Phoenix, Arizona. She studied at the Chaparral High School in Scottsdale, Arizona, where her former English teacher remembered her as “bright but not overly so” and she is an excellent student in all aspects. She achieved the highest honor of the American high school graduates “National Merit Scholarship” in graduation. After high school, she entered BYU (Brigham Young University) in Provo, Utah where she received a B.A. of the United Kingdom Literature in 1997. Stephanie Meyer met her husband in college and they married as soon as graduation.Stephanie Meyer is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She had no experience as a writer of any kind and had never even written a short story before Twilight. She had regarded going to law school because she thought she had no chance of growing up to be an author. Nonetheless, later the birth of her oldest son Gabe changed her mind. Stephanie Meyer has made remarkable achievements in her young career. In May 2008, she is named one of the global hundred most influential figures in Time magazine.Twilight was released in 2005 with a print run of 75,000 copies. It reached No.5 on the New York Times Best Seller List for Childrens Chapter Books within a month of its release, and later rose to No.1. The novel was identified as the Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year and a New York Times Editors Choice. The novel won Stephanie Meyer herself first British Book Award, even if competition with J.K.Rowlings The Tales of Beedle the Bard. The series has sold over 100 million copies all over the world in 37 languages. In August 2009, USA Today showed that Stephanie Meyer broke J.K. Rowlings record on their best seller list and these series had spent 52 weeks consecutive top ten.1.2 The Summary of the TwilightThe heroine of Twilight is Bella Swan, 17 years old, after her mother remarried and she settled in Forks with her father. In this new place, Bella met Edward, who is a bloodthirsty vampire, and she cannot control herself for falling in love with Edward. After they are familiar with each other, they began their exciting and hazardous dating. While in order to protect Bella avoiding the harm from the Volturi family, Edward decided to break up with Bella and left Forks with his family. At that moment, Bellas world became unparalleled dark and she lived death. In the same time, Jacob was appearing in Bellas life as sunshine and became Bellas best friend. During the day without Edward, Jacob took good care of Bella and helps her for getting rid of the dark life. Therefore, Bella and Jacob like each other and they built up a solid friendship.However, Bella cannot ignore her heart feeling so as to do her best to move Edward and stay with him. Afterward, they stride all obstacles and difficulties and make a step into the marriage hall. Subsequently, Bella gave birth to a mixed-blood baby girl with Edward, even if she almost lost her life. At last, Bella became a vampire and lived with her daughter and the vampire family happiness.1.3 The Research into the TwilightThe Twilight series consists of four parts: Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn which was respectively published in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 in the United States. After its publication in 2005, the studies on the Twilight and its author Stephanie Meyer have never stopped. Series of books and academic papers from different angels or different critical methodologies have been applied by scholars, reviewers, and common readers both abroad and at home.Firstly, in 2013, Sun Xiaoli has studied this novel from the aspect of gender roles. Her paper is named Cultural Explore of Gender Roles in Twilight Saga and the author has explored the complex relationship between male and female character and how to gain conservative feminist value by heroines marriage, motherhood and domesticity. Additionally, Zhang Jingjing wrote a thesis and its interpretation of this novel is a view of feminist in 2012, which explored the produce of the feminist by the entire aesthetic style of the novel, the creation of the novel, and the formation of the characters. Besides, Jia Lijun and Xiao Wenjuan united to study the style of production of Stephanie Meyer from Twilight. As early as 2010, Shen Lei reveal the prototype of the potential Cinderella in this novel by analyzing the characters. In the same year, Zhang Xiaochen has theoretically interpreted this novel from the nomenclature of each title and the creation of the new mythicism.2. Theoretical Basis and Literature Review 2.1 Theoretical BasisNie Zhenzhao proposed ethical literary criticism as a method in literary criticism for the first time in the meeting entitled Study on British and American Literature in China: Reflection and Looking Forward” in June 2004. Besides, Nie Zhenzhao also indicates that it is necessary and urgent to explore the new critical approach for literary studies by interpreting and analyzing the problems existed in literature critical circles in recent 20 years. (聂珍钊；2004：5)2.1.1 Ethical Literary CriticismIn China, ethical literary criticism gives rise to enough attention of the critics and scholars in the recent year. Ethical literary criticism was firstly proposed by Professor Nie Zhenzhao of the essay: 文学伦理学批评：文学批评方法新探索 in 2004. Afterward, ethical literary criticism has gradually developed into a distinctive issue in the academic and criticism field. Ethical literary criticism booms quickly though it begins at a relatively later period in China. There are lots of famous scholars published a series of theses on the ethical literary criticism respectively, and they are Professor Knut comes from University of Oslo in America and Professor Qiao Guoqiang from Shanghai International Studies University. According to Nie Zhenzhao, ethical literary criticism is a method developed on the basis of the introduction of ethical methods and the assimilation of them into the texture of literary critical methods. (聂珍钊；2006) We can use ethical literary criticism to explore the ethical and moral characteristics in literary works and study on various kinds of relationship of literature from the ethical and moral aspect. (聂珍钊；2006). Ethical literary criticism also has three aspects different from ethics. Firstly, ethical literary criticism is a literary that analyzes literary issues, while ethics mostly emphasize sociological problem. Secondly, ethical literary criticism always analyzes ethical and moral problems through a literature and tries to provide a historical explanation; however, the ethics always comments on some kinds of moral phenomena and moral standard exist in reality. Thirdly, ethical literary criticism as a literary approach to emphasize literature and mostly used in literature study; but ethic is a method of studying the human society. Therefore, ethical literary criticism studies literature within a historical view and ethics studies society in reality.2.1.2 Twilight and Ethical Literary CriticismIn the concrete literary work, the core of the ethics is the ethical order between human and human, human and society, human and other that were accepted and recognized, as well as the moral ideas which was formed on the basis of this order and the various standard which was to maintain this order. Therefore, in this paper, the ethical literary criticism between the heroines, human, vampire and werewolf was interpreted. Besides, the relationship between human and society, human and others, and human and self will be discussed.Stephanie Meyer, as an author with a strong sense of ethical responsibility, paid too much concentration on the spiritual state of characters in Twilight. In the literary criticism, ethical literary criticism focuses on analyzing the ethical identity of the character. In the process of reading literary works, we will find that almost all the production of the ethical problems always be associated with ethical identity. Therefore, this paper is aimed at making an interpretation of the Twilight from a new literary perspective by analyzing the relationship of the heroine between human, vampire and werewolf.2.2 Literature ReviewOn the one hand, Twilight is the masterpiece of Stephanie Meyer and brings her worldwide reputation. Thus, many people begin to know Stephanie Meyer and studied this novel from various aspects. On the other hand, ethical literature criticism also was popular in the literary as a research method and it is a tendency that too many scholars begin to study novel with this theory.2.2.1 The Research at Home and AbroadIn China, ethical literary criticism as a new method of literary study has been nationally used by many scholars. Ethical literary criticism was put forward in the essay: 文学伦理学批评：文学批评方法新探索. This thesis mainly discussed 5 parts: the theoretical basis of ethical literary criticism methods, the targets of criticism, the contents of criticism, the idea of criticism and literary reasons.（聂珍钊；2004: 1） Professor Nie Zhenzhao also published some essay about this theory. Firstly,关于文学伦理学批评,as a monograph that published in 2005. In this monograph, the author has discussed the ethical literary criticism from a different perspective and the original, methods, contents, and significance of the ethical literary criticism completely.Secondly,文学伦理学批评与道德批评was written in 2006 which is mentioned that from the perspective of methodology. Ethical literary criticism is a criticism method for the study of literary and it is based on the reference and absorption of the ethics method.Over the last decade, there are likewise a lot of other domestic literary authors made a study of ethical literary criticism. The following examples: 2005, Liu Jianjun wrote the thesis called 文学伦理批评的当下性质. In 2006, 作为方法论的文学伦理学批评was published by Wang Songlin.There are some people who have studied Twilight from the view of feminism and the cultural explore of gender roles. Such as Zhang Jingjing wrote an essay called女性主义视角下的in 2012, in the meantime,中女性哥特特征的新世界was written by Yang Xiaojun. Besides, in 2013, there are three theses were published, which are系列性别角色的文化探讨of Sun Xiaoli,青春与成长解读成长小说of Ge Yan and中的吸血鬼文化研究of Yu Wenwen. In the western, the vampire culture has lasted a long time. Thus, there are some scholars have studied the Twilight. Clasen thought the myth of the romantic love is: fall in love at first sight; love is the most important relationship. She also found that, based on the popularity of the series, the novel is likely to be the understanding of real love of the readers. (Tricia Clasen; 2009: 28) Additionally, there are some person put the novel as religious literature; some compared the novel with the religious doctrine of the Mormonism and so on.3. Relationship between Human and SocietyEver since the literature existed, human has been the focus for the literary creation. Therefore, all human beings live in a definite community. Besides, the painting of human in literary work cannot avoid descriptions of relationships between human and society which also is the basis relationship of the literature. 3.1 A Parallel Society of Human, Vampire and WerewolfIn the entire parallel society, there are three groups: human, vampire and werewolf. On the surface at the beginning of this novel, there was a peaceful world and the human being was live in a stable and harmonious small town. There is no war, no monster and no fight. But everything was broke by the vampire arrival.Bella was a sunshine girl, because she loves the Phoenix, she loves the sun. Even though she settled down in Forks which is a small rainy town and be an outsider of the new school. The human being society is like the real society, which are the people live in the peaceful world, and there is happiness, sadness, upset. However, when Bella come to Forks as a new arrival, all things is new for her and it is like a new world. Looking back, the vampire was hidden in the human world, and they are bloodthirsty species and dangerous species for the human. But, different from the image of traditional, the Cullen family kills no people for their blood-desire. In order not to expose their identity, they change their living place in every few decades, and they chose a small town which is rainy, gloomy and cloudy because their body will shiny as long as they under the sun.Besides the human being and vampire, there is another species exist in the parallel world - the werewolf group. As vampire is a dangerous species to human, werewolf is the group to protect human being. The werewolf is the first group arrived in the Forks except the human, so as to that made an arrangement with vampire for protecting human to make sure the vampire do not kill the villagers to satisfied their bloodthirsty and no vampire are allowed to enter the specific places.This parallel society seems to be a peaceful world, but underneath it is full of dangerous and battles. That fictional world seems strange, but it is actually a reflection of the modern world with people of different interest, harmonious on the surface, scheming against each other off the table.3.2 Family RelationshipIn the context of human society, a family (from Latin: familia) is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity (by recognized birth), affinity (by marriage), or co-residence and/or shared consumption (see Nurture kinship). (qtd. in family of Wikipedia) Family is the most important role of the childs development. The functions of the family are enhance the well-being of adolescent development and psychosocial. Consequently, parents play significant roles during the adolescent development period, and father is always be the leader of the family while the mother is viewed as supportive and also is emotional rather than stringent.3.2.1 Bella & Her Human FamilyUnhealthy family relationship relates to negative social relationship, and social communication function and even rebellious act also relates that a family relationship is harmonious or not. In the reality, family is the first school for every child because the background of the family has a significant influence on the behavior of the children during their adolescence. Therefore, if a child has a complete family, it means a lot of his childhood. Unfortunately, Bellas mother and father have divorced, and her mother also gets remarried. Before the age of 18, Bella has been living with her mother in Phoenix, and Bella cannot see her father until the summer vacation which leads to reduce the intimacy of her and her father. Bellas mother, Renee has remarried a professional baseball player, so as to Renee always falls into an insoluble dilemma which she should stay at home with her lovely daughter or leave home to other cities with her husband. Therefore, Bella decided to leave Phoeni