【作者】 王芸；

【导师】 罗良功；

【作者基本信息】 华中师范大学 ， 英语语言文学， 2012， 硕士

【摘要】 托马斯·沃尔夫是美国二十世纪初期备受关注和认同的一名作家,也是美国文学史上最重要的作家之一。他凭借第一部小说《天使,望故乡》而声名鹊起,引起了文学界的关注和广大读者的喜爱,他的第二部小说《时间与河流》是《天使,望故乡》的续篇,继续了其中的故事,获得了更大的成功,登上了美国畅销书的排行榜,同时也奠定了他在美国文坛的地位。沃尔夫的作品被普遍认为具有自传体作品的性质,这一点也得到了他本人的承认和证实。《天使,望故乡》和《时间与河流》围绕着主人公尤金·甘特及其一家的生活故事而展开,主要讲述的是尤金从出生、求学到最后的成熟的成长故事。尤金的家庭及其人生与沃尔夫有着惊人的相似之处,从内容上看,这两本书几乎是沃尔夫本人对自己成名之前的人生的回忆录,是他对于自己人生的一种回忆和反思。但与此同时,尤金又不仅仅是作者的化身,更是二十世纪初期美国青年的一个缩影,他的故事具有很强的时代性和美国性,具有普遍意义。托马斯·沃尔夫本人不赞成随意使用肤浅而空洞的艺术行话和术语批评文艺作品的行为,厌恶批评界空谈理论而不深入研究文学作品的倾向,本文即遵照作者的这个理念,以《天使,望故乡》和《时间与河流》这两部小说为研究对象,通过研究两部作品中主人公尤金·甘特在人生道路上对理想的执着追求及其个人思想和行为的变化,总结出尤金的个人成长道路及其所反映的时代精神。逃离是这两部小说也是尤金人生道路上的一大主线,本文通过研究尤金在人生道路上的不断的逃离,发现他的逃离分为两种：一种是由于他对至高无上的精神理想的追求而引起的对家庭、家乡以及祖国的逃离,尤金以逃离作为对追求精神理想的努力,但他的努力却失败了,并导致了他精神理想的幻灭以及他对“现实”的初步意识；另一种逃离是由于尤金精神追求失败之后、暂时搁置精神追求转而追求物质生活而引起的,他错误地把现实与物质甚至是纵欲等同起来并深陷其中,但在此过程中,他逐渐不满于自己的行为并不断地进行反思,并由此达到了最终的回归。小说内容以尤金决定回美国作为结束,本论文经过对他的回归的深入分析,认为他的回归具有极大的积极意义：它不仅仅是指尤金最终回归到美国,更意味着他的完整自我的回归、是他精神追求的回归、也是他向现实世界的回归；他的回归表明了他对我自我的个性、自我与社会的关系上有了一个新的认识和调整,并让自己在精神和物质、理想和生活这两对曾经一直折磨他的矛盾上达成了一种妥协,人生观从理想主义转变为实用主义,完成了精神上的成长,达到了最终的成熟。更多还原

【Abstract】 Thomas Wolfe is an American writer who receives great attention and respect in the early twentieth century and he remains one of the most important American writers in the history of American literature today. His first novel Look Homeward, Angel won him immediate fame, arousing the attention of the literary world and the interest of the readers. His second novel Of Time and the River was a sequel to Look Homeward, Angel, which continued the story in it and became a greater success--it became a best-seller in America and established Wolfe’s status in American literary world.It is commonly believed that Wolfe’s works bear the autobiographical features, which has been admitted by Wolfe himself. The story in the two novels Look Homeward, Angel and Of Time and the River develop with the family and the life of the protagonist Eugene Gant as the center, mainly telling the story of Eugene Gant’s life from his birth, school days to final maturity. Eugene’s family and life resemble that of Wolfe and the two books seem memoirs of the author about his early years before he became famous, which is a recollection and reflection about his own life. Meanwhile, Eugene doesn’t only stand for the author alone, but is also an embodiment of the young Americans in the early twentieth century, whose life story bears the epochal and American character and is of universal significance.Thomas Wolfe didn’t approve of the behavior or the tendency of misusing the glib and empty jargon of arts or phrase-mongering of artistic theories instead of serious studies on literary works. Based on this ideal of Wolfe, this thesis studies the content of the two novels Look Homeward, Angel and Of Time and the River, mainly focusing on the protagonist, Eugene Gant’s persistent pursuit of ideals on his road of life and the change of his views and behaviors in this process and inferring the direction of his growth and maturity and the social and spiritual background behind it in that time. Escape is a major clue of Eugene’s growth in the two novels Look Homeward, Angel and Of Time and the River. Studying the continuous escapes of Eugene, this thesis finds out that his escapes can be divided into two categories. One is that kind of escapes from family, hometown and then homeland due to his pursuit of the lofty spiritual ideals. Escapes were Eugene’s efforts to pursue his spiritual ideals, which he failed once and again and led to the disillusionment of his spiritual pursuit and original consciousness of "reality". The other kind of escapes resulted from the deadlock of Eugene’s spiritual pursuit and his shift to material pursuit after his failure in spiritual pursuit. He equalized reality and material or even sensual indulgence erroneously and escaped into it. However, in this process, he became dissatisfied with his own behavior and began to reflect over his life and decided to return finally. Of Time and the River ended when Eugene decided to return to America. With the deep analysis of Eugene’s return, the thesis finds that his return is of great positive significance:his return does not only mean his return to America but also means the return of his integrated ego, the return of his spiritual pursuit and the return of him to the real world. His return showed that he had developed a new and better understanding about his own personality and the relationship between himself and the world and made a compromise between the conflicting spirit and material, ideal and reality, whose contradictions had been tormenting him for a long time and transferred from the previous idealism to a pragmatic view of life--in one word, his return meant that he had accomplished his growth in spirit and achieved the final maturity.更多还原