本文是一篇英语论文，笔者研究发现《朋友》还包含了对当代文学场景和写作作为一种职业的批判性思考。在一个腐败的文学世界里，面对艺术的退化，越来越多的作家迎合市场需求或将写作作为自我发展的方式。努内斯对艺术的本质和文学的未来感到困惑。
Chapter One Theoretical Foundation
1.1 An Introduction to Ethical Literary Criticism
英语论文怎么写
“Ethical literary criticism is mainly refers to a research methodology that takesliterature as the object of criticism(Nie,2004:4).And it was in the same journal articlethat the methodology of ethical literary criticism was first explicitly put forward byProfessor Nie Zhenzhao.To have precise mastery of this theory,firstly,the origin anddevelopment of the ethical criticism will be introduced.Secondly,the differencesbetween moral criticism and ethical criticism,as well as ethics and ethical literarycriticism will be clearly clarified.1.1.1 The Origin and Development of Ethical Literary Criticism
The emergence of ethical literary criticism in China began in 2004 and it’s theinnovation of ethical criticism from western criticism.Ethical criticism is closely relatedto moral criticism,that is to say ethical criticism evolved from moral criticism at thevery beginning.Moral criticism emphasizes the importance of moral values andpolitical nature of literature.In essence,literature is the manifestation of the author’sown political intentions.Besides,the systematic theory of ethics of literature can betraced back to Greek ethics.As for the literary origin of ethical literary criticism,it datesback to Greek methodology,Homer’s epics and drama.The development of Greekethics is significant for literary criticism,because it is not only the theoretical basis tounderstand literature,but also the critical methodology to analyze literature.Although ethics as an independent discipline began with Aristotle,it has been widely involved inthe writings of some philosophers and thinkers before him,such as Pythagoras,Heraclitus,Democritus,Socrates,etc.Plato and Aristotle were the outstandingrepresentatives who researched literature from the perspectives of ethics in ancientGreece.
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1.2 Nie’s Ethical Literary Criticism
Ethical literary criticism was officially proposed by Professor Nie Zhenzhao in2004.First and foremost,it emerged as a response to theory aphasia in contemporaryChinese literary studies.Although a large amount of Western literary criticism has beenintroduced into China since the reform and opening up of China after Cultural Revolution,there was still a grave shortage of engagement of Chinese scholars withliterary criticism,since not even a single Chinese critical theory has been put forwardand applied.Second,there is a deficit of ethical engagement in those imported criticaltheories,which pays more attention to structures and forms of literature or concentratedon the politics,power and ideology in literature.Third,literary theory moves away fromliterature,and some theories have overturned the dependency relationship betweentheory and literature,as well as disconnecting the internal connection between theoryand literature.Thus,there is a heavily tendency towards theoretical complex,preordained topic complex and term complex.Forth,the origin of literature has beenmisunderstood.Literature was considered to be derived from labor or imitation.In otherwords,the moral education or enlightenment of literature has been largely ignored ordevalued(Nie,2014:3-5).
Based on the background elaborated above,Nie proposed ethical literary criticism,which was warmly accepted and heated discussed by Chinese scholars.Nie’s ethicalliterary criticism embraces the following five aspects:(1)in terms of the relationbetween writers and their works,it is supposed to investigate the writers’moral valuesand their features and their historic background and cause and process of formation,andthe connections of writers’own moral values and the moral values reflected in theirworks,and the influence of writers’moral values on their writings.(2)in terms of worksof writers,it attempts to investigate the relations of moral phenomenon existing inreality and works,the moral inclinations shown by the works,the social and moralvalue of literary works.(3)in terms of the relation between readers and works,it tries tostudy how readers feel about and the readers’evaluations of the writers’moral valuesand the works’moral inclinations,the effects of the works’inclinations on readers andsociety.(4)it should also evaluate the moral inclinations of the writers and their worksfrom an ethical perspective,the relation among the writers’moral values andinclinations reflected in their works and traditions,the influence of the writers’moralvalues and the moral inclinations on their contemporary and later writers and literature.
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Chapter Two The Chaotic Ethical Environment in TheFriend
2.1 The Oppression of Patriarchy
Aristotle believed that there is a natural hierarchy in the world,and the higher onesshould rule over the lower ones.Humans are superior to animals because they canreason and should rule over them.Men are superior to women in reasoning and shouldrule over women(Taylor,2003:34).Therefore,in Aristotle’s view,both women andanimals should serve and be used by men.In the patriarchal society,marginalizedwomen are excluded from the realm of morality.
2.1.1 White Androcentrism
Deconstructionist theorists such as Jacques Derrida argue that logocentrism anddichotomy thinking mode pervades Western philosophy,religion and language,which isa distinctive feature of Western culture.Inspired by them,feminist theorists point outthat Western patriarchal culture is male-centred culture based on the binary oppositionbetween men and women,in which the male as the subject excludes and suppresses thefemale as the other to affirm and consolidate his central position.
In American society centered on white men,white women and ethnic men belongto the other.The former is single dimensional the other,while the latter seeminglysingle dimensional racial the other.However,the white often exert racial dominationover them with the help of gender discourse.The oppression of ethnic women comesfrom white men,white women and men of their ethnic group at the same time,whichcan be said to be the other among the other.The ideological tools used to control theminclude racial discourse,gender discourse and racialized gender discourse from thewhite mainstream culture,and gender discourse from their own ethnic culture(Shi,2021:70).
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2.2 The Existence of Anthropocentrism
Ecofeminist believes that anthropocentrism has a similar ruling logic withpatriarchy that humans are separated from nature and men are opposed to women(Wei&Li:11).Anthropomorphism is the projection of human affect and capacity ontononhuman animals,concepts,acts,and objects is commonly understood as an error.Across texts and contexts,modern and postmodern,anthropomorphism appears not onlyas a form of magical thinking,but also as a symptom of anthropocentrism,a rejection ofpluralism,and the failure to appreciate nonhuman difference(Guyer,2020:31).
In Animal Rights and the Politics of Literary Representation,John Simonsdistinguishes“trivial”from“strong”anthropomorphism.In Simons’opinion,trivialanthropomorphism refers to treat animals as people,such as children literature or fables.Trivial anthropomorphism is here and there in everyday life.For example,People traintheir pets to perform human tasks such as using a toilet,or teach them to shake handswith people.Anthropomorphism is less a projection than an appropriation and a forcible“morphing”of animals into a human image,a literal anthropomorphism(Schiesari,2012:7).On the other hand,the absolute negation of anthropomorphism constructs an intellectual and emotional fence between humans and animals,implicitly degradinganimals to the things or possessions that can be bought,sold,or used.“Strong”anthropomorphism,also called“self-reflective”anthropomorphism,is justified becauseit points both the similarities and the differences between humans and animals,showingan intersubjectivity that does not deny the radical uniqueness of each species(Schiesari,2012:9).Both the“trivial”anthropomorphism and“strong”anthropomorphism areembodied in The Friend.
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Chapter Three The Ethical Choices of the Main Characters in The Friend .............37
3.1 The Ethical Choices of the White Male Professor ........................... 38
3.1.1 Uncontrollable Animal Factor: Indulgence of Desire ................ 38
3.1.2 Manifestation of Irrational Will: Suicidal Behavior .................. 43
Chapter Four The Ethical Value of the Ethical Choices in The Friend .... 62
4.1 New Ideas of Deconstructing the Binary Gender Opposition ......... 63
4.1.1 Arousing Male Empathy with Emotional Power ....................... 63
4.1.2 Unsolicited Help from Men ...................... 65
Conclusion ................................ 78
Chapter Four The Ethical Value of the Ethical Choicesin The Friend
4.1 New Ideas of Deconstructing the Binary GenderOpposition
The binary relationship between men and women is one of the important themes ofWestern literature.However,there is a tendency for the dichotomy between men andwomen to gradually dissolve.
Take Doris Lessing as an example,who is always referred as feminist by earlycritics,in her work The Grass is Singing,she holds that men and women are opposites,and men are the source of women’s pain and tragedy,the culprit of repressions thatdestroyed women.Later,Lessing’s views have changed a lot.She once wrote in theintroduction of The Golden Notebook,men and women have also reflected each other,been aspects of each other,given birth to each other’s thoughts and behavior—are eachother,form wholes(Lessing,1971).The Golden Notebook was more to show that onlyby achieving the ultimate integration between men and women,learning from eachother’s strengths,can they achieve their true perfection.In her late work The Diaries ofJane Somers,the relationship between men and women is no longer opposed to eachother.Instead,they rely on each other,learn from each other and live in harmony.Thisis what Lessing deeply felt and ultimately desired in her later life.
In The Friend,like Lessing,Nunez was also seeking a new way to blur the linesbetween men and women,to unite women and men,and thus to break the boundary ofgender and the opposition between men and women.In this part,Nunez’s thoughts ofdeconstructing the binary opposition between men and women will be fully illustrated.
英语论文参考
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Conclusion
Sigrid Nunez in her autobiographical novel The Friend deals with multiple themes,unjust gender dynamics,the persistence of grief,the degradation of art,human-animalcompanionship,writers’anxiety and confusion,reflecting Nunez’s deep thoughts onsocial issues.
The Friend was set in chaotic ethical environment where patriarchy and whitesupremacy were preached.Women were marginalized as the other in human society.Owing to anthropocentrism,animals were oppressed and anthropomorphized.Womenand animals shared a similar fate for they all struggled to survive under the maledomination.In a patriarchal society,men take it for granted and are accustomed toprivileged life.Once the superiority and privilege are taken away,they are not the centerof attention.With tremendous psychological gap,men who fall into self-doubt arehighly prone to extreme behaviors.By comparison,oppressed women are treatedunfairly and they have no voice in professional areas.That’s why some of them lose thecourage and hope for life.No one would deny these are tragedies of the patriarchy.Nunez in this novel also provides some constructive suggestions and opinions toimprove men and women relations.Nunez proves that emotion or sentiment is not aderogatory word and affirms empathy as emotional power to unite men and women.Inorder to break the binary opposition between them,compared with negativeconfrontation,the method of using soft to overcome hard is of advantage in solvingproblems,to be more specific,women’s care for animals would arouse male empathyand men would offer unsolicited help to women and animals,during which the binaryopposition between humans and animals are broken.
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