后现代主义视角下《白噪音》中的精神危机分析工商管理专业

1、后现代主义视角下白噪音中的精神危机分析 AbstractThis paper aims to analyze peoples spiritual crisis by using postmodern narrative theory. White Noise is the eighth novel by Don DeLillo, and it is also an excellent example of postmodern literature. In this book, spiritual crisis is an important theme. This paper will he

2、lp readers to understand characters deeply, and it can also make further efforts to reflect the contemporary social situation through researching on the spiritual crisis. At the same time, by researching on humans obsessions with material life, selfishness or indifferent between people and people an

3、d even peoples wondering attitude to modern lifestyle to explain the following three questions: from the perspective of postmodern narrative, which parts can show the spiritual crisis and how? Why the spiritual crisis continues to exist in the modern life and how to face the crisis? The fragmentatio

4、n writing style of postmodern is can also help people to understand Don DeLillos attitude to real society and spiritual crisis. This study has a significance on reflecting peoples spiritual state, and exposing the causes of the crisis. It is benefit to learn a series of modern society problems, espe

5、cially in spiritual crisis, and to provide ideas and solutions for information. 摘要本文旨在用后现代主义叙述理论，研究白噪音中人类所面临的精神危机问题。白噪音是美国作家唐德里罗的第八部小说，它也是后现代文学的优秀代表作品之一。在这本书中，精神危机这一主题贯穿始终。通过对这一主题进行分析，不仅能够更加深入的理解小说中人物的性格，也能够进一步反映当今社会现状。同时，本文通过研究书中人物对物质生活的偏执，人与人之间的冷漠和自私以及人物对现代生活方式的迷茫来回答以下三个问题，即在后现代主义视角下，文中的哪些地方体现了精神危

6、机这一主题以及如何体现的？它之所以会持续存在于现代生活中的根源是什么，以及人们应该如何妥善面对这种危机？后现代主义固有的碎片化的写作风格，也能帮助人们了解唐德里罗对现实社会和精神危机的态度。这项研究对于反应当代社会人类的精神现状，深刻揭露造成精神危机的根源具有重要意义，并且也有助于人们更深入地了解当今社会存在的诸多问题，尤其是精神危机问题，为妥善解决当前的社会问题提供思路。关键词：白噪音，唐德里罗，精神危机，后现代叙事Key words: White Noise, Don DeLillo, spiritual crisis, postmodern narrativeContentsAbstra

7、ct 1摘要 2Contents 3Chapter 1 Introduction 4Chapter 2 Literature Review 82.1 Previous studies on White Noise abroad 82.1.1Studies on the consumption theme 82.1.2 Studies on postmodern narrative 92.1.3 Studies on environmental ecology 102.2 Previous studies on White Noise at home 112.2.1 Studies on the

8、 postmodern narrative 122.2.2 Studies on the ecological awareness 142.3 For the further studying 15Chapter 3 Theoretic Foundation 16Chapter 4 Analysis of the symptom of spiritual crisis in White Noise from the postmodern narrative 194.1 Symptom of spiritual crisis in White Noise 194.1.1 Panic in the

9、 symbol of white color 194.1.2 Absurdity in absurd plots 214.1.3 Super reality in postmodern parody 224.2 Causes of spiritual crisis 234.2.1 Consciousness of Death in White Noise 234.2.2 Selfishness and Indifference in White Noise 25Chapter 5 Conclusion 275.1 Major Findings 275.2 Limitations and Pro

10、spects 27References: 29Chapter 1 IntroductionThis paper focuses on the postmodern idea from the perspective of postmodern narrative, and firstly this paper based on the text to research how the author described modern society and what the author described, and then through closing-reading to researc

11、h the reason. Previous studies also analyzed White Noise from the postmodern narrative theory, but among of them just research the postmodern narrative skills of Don DeLillo and they ended their paper with some social phenomenon, but seldom mentioned the reason that causes the social problems. They

12、put a lot focus on how the author writes the book by using postmodern narrative skills, but not why the author use postmodern narrative skills. This paper stressed that Don DeLillo aims to express spiritual crisis by using some special postmodern narrative skills. At the same time, the postmodern na

13、rrative skills, such as absurd narrative, fragmentation writing form can also express peoples confusion and other spiritual conditions intuitively.In this paper, this paper will study on the spiritual crisis of White Noise from the perspective of postmodern narrative. During the process, this paper

14、will collect data and use close-reading method to analyze. Don DeLillo is another famous postmodernist after Thomas Pynchon and William Gaddis (Yang, 2003). White Noise is an understanding book written by him. Don DeLillo won the National Book Award in America by this book, which has been honored as

15、 literary canon since it is published. White Noise tells a story about a university professor Gladneys family, this book is divided into three parts: Waves and Radiation, The Airborne Toxic Event, Dylarama. It refers to all kinds of problems that existed in the modern society, such as crimes, religi

16、ous problems, ecological problems. These problems are influencing modern society and peoples daily life. Also in modern times, material life becomes more and more important for people, while the humans ideology is changing. The ideology is usually overlooked by people, the relationships between pers

17、ons become more and more indifferent. So I want to research the theme of spiritual crisis in this paper.The publish of White Noise creates much of a stir, different critics have different viewpoints for this book, but the majority gives a favorable comment. The thematic studies of White Noise are fo

18、cused by the academic circle. There are three directions on previous studies, the most important one focused on the consumption theme under Baudrillards consumption theory. This is the most popular research theme. With the development of commodity economy, consumption patterns and consumption concep

19、ts has been changed gradually. In Adinas essay, which constitutes an analytical exploration of the contemporary media-saturated environment. Through analyzing the major character Jack Gladney in White Noise, Sanja researched on the construction of identity in a consumerist society. In Kamals researc

20、h, one of the issues of this research is to trace in this novel these postmodern contradictions and dilemmas, and subsequent bathos of consumer society, under the burden of intensified productivism. His research also aims at scrutinizing these socio-personal postmodern dilemmas in the characters of

21、the novel and ends up analyzing some psychosomatic predicaments in their deeds and thoughts relating to the personal experiences and contexts of the readers of this novel. All of these studies revealed a situation that people are alienated by commodity, and anti-consumerism has become the core eleme

22、nt of anti-capitalist.The second direction focused on the postmodern narrative of White Noise. The focus of Aarons study stems from the tendencies in postmodern fiction to address concerns related to consumer culture, whether it is through a recognition of semiological instabilities or through an an

23、alysis of consumer practices. Wieses essay explores how Don DeLillos White Noise foregrounds the often unnotice impact of narrative on identity formation, and in his paper, he indicates that instead Don DeLillo uses narrative as a structure for comprehending and acting, often with ironically humorou

24、s results -as with his attempt to shoot Willie Mink. Chinese scholars like Ma and Yang also have their own opinion about Don DeLillos writing style. For example, besides absurd and satire narrative, Ma draws a conclusion on three features of White Noise, including black humor, parody and fragmentati

25、on. Especially parody, the parody of social disaster, modern technology, new media and even the parody of death are reflected in DeLillos book. Fan did a intertextuality research of White Noise. Yang also gives more details in his book On American Postmodernist Fiction. The third direction focused o

26、n the theme of ecology. It can be divided into two parts, the environmental ecology and the awareness of spiritual ecology. Domestic studies pay more attention to the spiritual ecology theory, on the contrary, foreign researches focused much on environmental ecology. In a word, whether focused on wh

27、ich direction, exposing social problems is a common target, and it is also the target of this book.Postmodern narrative theory has been used in this paper. Firstly, there are different interpretation about the postmodernism, and we can regard it as a kind of “modernism”, which is anti-traditional an

28、d anti-literary mainstream after WW(Zhang, 2015). Someone regards it as the development of modernism, and others think it is a counteraction of modernism. However, there is a common view for it: it is a product of an age when human beings enter information society and technology revolution, and a pr

29、oduct of high technology age (Zhang, 1996). American writers saw two great developments in their own country in the postwar era. On the one hand, the United States took the international leadership regarding global strategy and economic development for the West. On the other hand, the U.S. gradually

30、 entered a postindustrial social structure (Zhang, 2015). Thus, the theory is a symbol of an age, and it also indicates a background of White Noise.The research problem is spiritual crisis in this paper. Spiritual crisis also called “spiritual emergency”. It is a form of identity crisis where an ind

31、ividual experiences drastic changes to their meaning system, such as their unique purposes, goals, values, attitude and beliefs, identity, and focus, typically because of a spontaneous spiritual experience. A spiritual crisis may cause significant disruption in psychological, social and occupational

32、 functioning. Thus, this problem is worth studying.According to the research problem, I will focus on the humans obsessions with material life, the selfishness or indifferent between people and people, and even peoples wondering attitude to modern lifestyle in White Noise to answer the following pro

33、blems: from the perspective of postmodernism, how the text expressed the spiritual crisis? Why the spiritual crisis continues to exist in the modern life? How to face the crisis? In order to solve these problems, I will analyze the text through connecting qualitative analysis and quantitative analys

34、is. During the process, I will search lots of information about the authors writing styles. Next, through closing reading, I will collect typical sentences or scenery to do research. At last, drawing an overall conclusion to show the current situation of the spiritual crisis under the modern society

35、.The main body of this paper consists of four parts. Chapter one offers a brief introduction about the research background, questions and other information; chapter two is an account of previous scholarship on relevant topics and issues, this chapter can be divided into previous studies abroad and d

36、omestic studies from three research directions: consumption, ecology, and postmodern narrative; Chapter three focuses on theory; Chapter four focuses on the details of the novel, this chapter is a core of this paper, and it can be divided into two parts, which contains Awareness of Spiritual Crisis

37、in White Noise, and the Postmodern Narrative in White Noise. And each part aims at one problem; in chapter five, it will draw a conclusion for the study. The Major Findings and the Limitations and Prospects are two parts of conclusion. This is a introduction about my paper, it refers to research pur

38、pose, problems, the brief review about previous studies, and I give the general research steps of my paper. In the conclusion, I summarize the main content of the paper with three words: effectiveness, sociality, and ideological content.Chapter 2 Literature ReviewAs DeLillos other books, White Noise

39、 is an epitome of modern society, and it is like an encyclopedia of modern society. Since White Noise had been published, there are a lot of scholars attracted by it, and this book also caused fierce controversy. Some people regard White Noise as the epitome of modern society, however some regards D

40、on DeLillo as “the scum of the nation”. The thematic studies of White Noise are focused by the academic circle. In recent years, more and more domestic scholars start to research Don DeLillo and his books. Domestic scholars have used the perspective of culture code, ecological consciousness, or post

41、modernism narrative to explore those potential problems in the modern society. In conclusion, there are three directions on previous studies, the most popular one is the consumption theme under Baudrillards consumption theory, the second direction focused on the postmodern narrative of White Noise,

42、and the third direction focused on the theme of ecology. The following is the literature review about previous studies.2.1 Previous studies on White Noise abroadThere are three major research contents on White Noise abroad. The consumption thematical research is the most popular one, both domestic a

43、nd foreign scholars have studied on it, because there are a number of names of commodity in White Noise, these names seem composed modern society. The writing skills of listing commodity names is similar to another book, In the Forests of Siberia. In this book, there is a plot showing modern peoples

44、 exquisite life, that is shopping time. When the author facing more than eighty tomato sauce, he starts to be in panic and be lost in thought. Thus, it can be see that, too rich material life perhaps one important reason to force the people pursuing nature. Thus, maybe we can say that, for people to

45、o much choose means too much pressure. In addition, postmodern narrative and environmental ecology studies are also two important parts in foreign studies.2.1.1Studies on the consumption themeConsumption theme is one of the most important research direction for the book. many scholars have research

46、the consumption or commodity society in the book. With peoples material life become more and more bountiful, consumption plays one important role. In White Noise, Don DeLillo depicted peoples consuming life carefully, so many of the scholars abroad research the theme of consumption and commodity. On

47、 the commodity study under Baudrillards consumption theory, Kamal analyzes uncertainty and dilemma in White Noise. which is as a product of the postmodern era by a postmodern thinker, incorporates these traits, and predominantly, the underlying dilemma. In his study, two issues are focused, one of t

48、he issues of his research is to trace in this novel these postmodern contradictions and dilemmas, and subsequent bathos of consumer society, under the burden of intensified productivism. Another one aims at scrutinizing these socio-personal postmodern dilemmas in the characters of the novel (Kamal,

49、2017).2.1.2 Studies on postmodern narrativeThe postmodern writing styles of Don DeLillo make the book vivid and interesting. Wiese mentions that literary interpretation always involves emphasizing particular aspects of a work or works, which means that many illuminating elements are passed over, and

50、 lacunae result. It is in light of such lacunae that I would like to address one often-missed question concerning the way we read contemporary novels, and especially those associated with postmodernism (Wiese, 2012). He begins to research narrative construction and identity formation in White Noise.

51、 And he said White Noise proves that while Jack wants his life story to be an epic or revised bildungsroman, what we need is a more contemporary definition of narrative that fits the conditions of living today: one that is open-ended, ironic, intertextual, self-conscious, and so on, in order to suit

52、 contemporary experience. This idea is circular, however, because the latter only works about our awareness of and seemingly natural propensity to organize information according to traditional concepts of narrative structure. Thus, it ends up with a perpetual need for the ideal of comprehensibility

53、in the seeming incoherence of existence (Wiese, 2012).Aaron chosen displaying a particular awareness of their position within the economy of cultural production, an awareness that informs the content of the novels at the same time that it places the texts in an engagement with the culture they criti

54、que. The analysis of Don DeLillos White Noise is designed primarily to consider the authors commentary on contemporary American culture, and secondly, to question the impact of this commentary on the abilities to construct meaningful experience and individual identity within the context of the consu

55、merism that defines these works. In Sanjas paper, it analyzes the construction of Gladneys character through his social roles as professor, husband and consumer in the narrow sense of the word in order to deduce that his consumerist practices have spread to all aspects of his life.Don DeLillos writi

56、ng language is simple, but the construction of his book is very deliberate. The brilliant characteristic charms of each characters in his book can be noticed by readers. This book also shows Don DeLillos attitude to the potential problems in modern society.2.1.3 Studies on environmental ecologyEnvir

57、onmental ecology is also another theme that has been researched by scholars. In White Noise, its protagonist, Jack Gladney, earlier suggests that engineered microorganisms released to consume the poisonous cloud may be the cause of the sunsets beauty, but their origins remain obscure, and the novels

58、 primary explicators the “American Environments” professor Murray Siskind, and Jacks eldest son, Heinrich never resolve the issue, nor seem to take any interest in it (Gandl, 2016). His research focuses on the event of “Airborne Toxic Event” from the perspective of ecology. DeLillos depiction of the

59、 Airborne Toxic Event reverberates powerfully in the twenty-first century, anticipating the insidious physical damages wrought by the toxic, proliferating by-products of consumer capitalism. The particular destabilization of reliable affective responses that White Noise registers, however, resonates with climate change even more profoundly than with contemporary “toxic events” (Gandl, 2016). The article offers criticism of the White