本文是一篇英语论文，本论文把《泰特家的风波》和《异国恋情》放在其创作的历史背景下，从主题、人物刻画以及艺术特征三方面分析他们的新现实主义特色，以期拓展《泰特家的风波》和《异国恋情》的研究视角，增强对卢里及其小说创作的认识和理解。
Chapter I Introduction
1.1 Alison Lurie and Her Works
Alison Lurie(1926-2020),Professor of English Literature at Cornell University,was an American academic novelist,writer of children’s stories,and critic.She isamong the most widely published and celebrated authors in the Department ofLiteratures in English,where she taught literature,folklore,humor,and writing fornearly four decades.Her many honors included Guggenheim and RockefellerFoundation grants,the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Fiction,and aD.Lit.from Oxford University.Most of her works are descriptions of post-war life inthe United States,focusing on middle-class American society and a more in-depth anddetailed exploration of the world of intellectuals’lives.
Born on September 3,1926,in Chicago,the second largest city in the UnitedStates,Alison Lurie moved with her family to New York City when she was fouryears old and later grew up in White Plains,a small town on the outskirts of that city.Her father was a sociologist and a founder of the Council of Jewish Federations andWelfare Funds.Her mother edited the book and magazine sections of the Detroit FreePress before her marriage.Moreover,she was well home-schooled from an early age.She inherited from her father an attitude toward social analysis and satire and fromher mother an intense curiosity and a habit of observing the lives of others.
1.2 Neo-realism
The end of World War II turned an important page in the history of humanity,and at the same time,it marked the end of an era in the development of Americanliterature in the 20th century.The elites of American post-modernistic literature cameinto prominence after World War II and gradually formed a trend.Its creative genresinclude expressionism,absurdism and black humor.Post-modernistic novels fullyreflect the state of distraction,mental tension and emptiness of the American peopleafter World War II.Cruel war and merciless killing made American society devastatedafter World War II,and the people who experienced the war were horrified to find thatthey were living in a chaotic and ridiculous world where the existence,value anddignity of human beings had already disappeared,all of which triggered thequestioning of traditional values and the reflection on history by American novelists.
“After the 1950s and 1960s,when experimental novels were mainstream,it wasin the middle of the 1970s,especially since the 1980s,that American literature had asignificant transition”(Hao 53).Into the 1970s,contemporary American novelsushered in a new turnaround after overcoming many difficulties.With thedevelopment of society and the improvement of people’s living standards,themajority of American people gradually came out of the sad memories andpsychological shadows brought about by World War II.They began to think about theproblem rationally and took a fresh look at the war,and the whole American societyalso entered a relatively stable period.
Chapter II Neo-realistic Themes in The WarBetween the Tates and Foreign Affairs
2.1 Recreation of American Family Life
Neo-realism is a major mainstream literary trend that emerged in the UnitedStates at the end of the 20th century,following the post-modern era.It alsoemphasizes the authenticity of writers’creations,that is,the writers’true feelingsabout life.One of the most important aspects of American neo-realistic novels is topresent American families’situations and people’s emotional lives in post-modernisticsociety.It has become an important symbol of the difference between Americanneo-realistic novels and post-modernistic novels in displaying the theme.The phenomenon of spiritual and physical separation in contemporary Western maritalrelationships is profoundly presented in The War Between the Tates and ForeignAffairs,highlighting the soul loneliness and gender-emotional crisis caused by it.
2.1.1 Betrayal of Intimate Relationships
The term betrayal is rich in connotations:personal betrayal of oneself is a kind ofself-splitting and denial;betrayal of others involves breaking relationships anderoding mutual trust;and betrayal of the spiritual world is a kind of disillusionment ofprimitive dreams.Because of its rich connotation,betrayal is often expressed as atheme,directly or indirectly,in Western literature of various periods.Many of Lurie’sworks reflected the theme of betrayal to varying degrees,such as The War Betweenthe Tates and Foreign Affairs,which subverted the image of intellectuals in people’soriginal conception.The War Between the Tates tells an incestuous love affair betweena college professor and a female student.And Foreign Affairs reports on a universityprofessor’s extramarital affair with an actress on his academic study trip overseas.Thetheme of betrayal in Lurie’s works teases the ethical lines of contemporary Americansociety.This part takes these two works as an example to explore Lurie’s developmentof the theme of betrayal.
2.2 Reflection of Social History
Neo-realistic novels are not the production of a writer’s personal imagination butthe ingenious combination of actual events and fictional events.Historical charactersand events have re-entered neo-realistic novels and become one of their majorfeatures.Based on the past,present,and future,Lurie successfully constructs adialogue between reality and the realm of fantasy.She used the method of blendingactual events and fictional events to interweave historical figures and fictionalcharacters,as well as actual events and fabricated plots.It not only gave the workrealistic historicity but also effectively reflected the contemporary American socialworld.From the perspective of neo-realism,Lurie’s novel The War Between the Tatesreproduces and reconstructs American history in the 1960s and 1970s.These twoworks also truly reflect the reality of American society and the people’s livingconditions at that time.By studying this,we can not only appreciate the artistic charm of the historical and fictional characters in the novel but also appreciate the spirit ofthe times in a broader panorama of American society.
Chapter Ⅲ. Neo-realistic Characterization in The War Between the Tates and Foreign Affairs ........................... 31
3.1 Combination of the Character’s External Reality and Internal Reality ............................. 31
3.1.1 Existential Dilemma and Spiritual Anxiety of Intellectuals ...... 32
3.1.2 Realistic Plight and Spiritual Crises of Female Characters ....... 37
Chapter Ⅳ. Neo-realistic Artistic Characteristics in The War Between the Tates and Foreign Affairs ....................... 48
4.1 Inheritance of Traditional Artistic Characteristics ........................... 48
4.1.1 Integrity of the Plot ............................ 48
4.1.2 Grand Narrative .................................. 50
Chapter Ⅴ. Conclusion ................... 63
Chapter IV Neo-realistic Artistic Characteristics inThe War Between the Tates and Foreign Affairs
4.1 Inheritance of Traditional Artistic Characteristics
Neo-realism continues the core principles of traditional realism by employingrealistic writing approaches to attain authenticity,while also incorporating elementsfrom modernism and post-modernism.As Malcolm Bradbury pointed out,the flash ofrealism is a reconstruction of post-modernism and favored again,“these have been thetime of photo-realism and hyper realism,magic realism and fantastic realism,documentary realism and drama-doc realism…and,of course…neo-realism”(Bradbury 23).Lurie adopts such writing techniques as integrity of the plot and grandnarrative in the creation of these two novels,The War Between the Tates and ForeignAffairs,so both of her novels showed the charm of the traditional realistic narrativefeatures in the plot.
4.1.1 Integrity of the Plot
Traditional realistic novels focus on integrity of the plot and the development ofthe plot.They concentrate on structuring the plot into four distinct sections:introduction,development,climax,and ending using cause and effect to demonstratethe story’s entirety and enable the characters to reveal their personalities within acoherent and comprehensive narrative.In The War Between the Tates and ForeignAffairs,Lurie returns to the traditional realistic novels’narrative technique,that is,integrity of the plot.In terms of time,these two novels’narrative unfolds inchronological order,and the plot in these two novels is coherent;in terms of plot,Lurie also presents the storyline from the beginning,development,climax,and endingin its entirety.These two novels resonate consistently from start to finish,elevatingthe storytelling to a high level.
Chapter V Conclusion
American neo-realistic novels were created by a group of post-war novelists withrealistic creative tendencies.They combined traditional realistic writing techniqueswith non-realistic artistic techniques such as absurdity,subconsciousness,and streamof consciousness,which existed in modernistic novels.And while reflecting on reallife,more ink is used to pay attention to the spiritual life and human psychologicaldescription.At the same time,neo-realistic novels also incorporate the artisticcharacteristics of post-modernistic novels.Neo-realistic novels alternate the artisticcharacteristics and creative techniques of realistic novels,modernistic novels,andpost-modernist novels.Then they create a whole new sense of realism.Alison Lurie’snovels,The War Between the Tates and Foreign Affairs,are categorized asneo-realistic novels precisely because of their realistic,modernistic,andpost-modernistic creation features.Lurie changes the traditional creative mode anduses a combination of traditional,modern,and post-modern writing techniques todepict the enormous pressures that post-war American society puts on thecontemporary American people in The War Between the Tates and Foreign Affairs,aswell as their deep-seated dilemmas.
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