20 世纪 50 年代美国冷战小说的文学社会学研究

The United States entered an affluent society in 1950s when economy boomed and social prosperity prevailed. At the same time, Cold War caused great spiritualstrike to the whole nation. Truman administration’s loyalty movement and the later McCarthyism created a social climate of terror shrouding every single American. The Non-American Activities Committee and the McCarthyites tried every possible means to persecute the progressives; accused any allegedly suspicious person without evidence; blacklisted innocent people; fabricated treason. Under the persecution of McCarthyism, fear and anxiety was pervasive at all walks in the United States. When Americans felt increasingly repressed and lived in intensifying social constraints, some of them struggled with the oppressive society, resisting authority and challenging traditional values. This was reflected in some American novels of 1950s. In The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger shaped Holden as a cynical, idle and passionless teenager, echoing many American teenager’s life in 1950s. Salinger’s description of Holden’s psychological process when he left school to explore the hypocritical adult world for three days showed us the anxiety and confusion of American teenagers and even the whole nation then. In On the Road, Kerouac expressed the thoughts of pursuing freedom and smashing social chains in his description of a group of young adults’ indulgent life. Peeping out through their decadent and depraved behaviors was their sorrow of faithlessness and feature lessness. Rabbit, Run told a story of “Rabbit”, Harry Angstrom, who escaped from his family for four times due to his dissatisfaction with his mediocre work and life. By describing a series of contradictory characters and their ambivalence towards religion, Updike showed the shackles of traditional family values and belief crisis of Americans in an affluent society in 1950s. In Invisible Man, Ellison reflected the dark social reality and racial discrimination by describing the unfair treatment of a black man. It realistically reproduced the living conditions of American blacks under the dual pressure of racial discrimination and McCarthyism in 1950s. They were invisible men living in a world where they were outsiders. The invisibility also involved many white people who were politically, socially, or sexually, rather than racially, forced to be invisible in 1950s.

Introduction

Literary works are never isolated in the world. Just as Ross C. Murfin said, “The new historicists...want us to see that even the most unlike poems are caught in a web of historical conditions, relationships and influences” (361). No matter what kind of literary works they are, they must be influenced by the society in which their authors live. So, if the writers’ life experiences and the social reality can be taken into consideration, readers may be able to better understand the significance of these works. American Cold War Fiction in 1950s provides us a persuasive example of how literary works reflect the social reality. The decade of the 1950s was an important time for the United States. It witnessed the change of national psyche in the United States from the post-war excitement to the early Cold War repression. Compared with most of the participating countries in the Second World War, the United States was the only country that made its fortune because of the war. Its economy boomed and the society entered a period of encouraging affluence. According to relevant records, the United States gross national product increased from 88.6 billion in 1939 to 135 billion dollars in 1945. During the war, American factory scale expanded by nearly 50%, and products increased by more than 35%, accounting for one-third of various industrial products in the world. The 1950s was an unprecedented prosperous period for the United States, however, it was also a dangerous period. Although people’s material life was greatly satisfied, their spiritual life was gradually moving towards an abyss. After the Second World War, in order to get the world’s leadership, the United States launched a confrontation with the socialist camp headed by the Soviet Union. The Marshall Plan in 1947and Truman Doctrine marked the beginning of the Cold War. The following McCarthyism persecuted many innocent people in 1950s. Their living conditions and mental outlook were recorded by many writers in their literary works.

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Chapter One Literature Review

1.1 Studies on Literary Sociology

Literature and society interact each other; the social environment affects thecreation of literary works and also can be reflected by them. Because every literarywork is a product of human beings, and we must admit that everyone who works onliterature creation is a member of the society. He cannot get rid of the social influence,neither can his literary works. In this sense, the publication of every literature work isalways determined by individuals and society. Therefore, it is beneficial to understandthe relationship between the creation of literature work and the society.In essence, there is no literary work for itself. Literature, as the product of human being’s spirit, is always a social phenomenon. Its emergence and development can not be separated from certain social environment and historical conditions. It is animportant part of society and history.Literary sociology has its own history. It is generally believedthat the relevanttheories of literary sociology could be traced back to Rousseau, Schiller, and the discussion of the“spirit of the times”.Rousseau, a French thinker, realized the inner relationship between elegant culture/literature and society from the beginning, and explored issues at a new level of concerning the development of the whole society and culture (Fang 7). He believed that the corruption of modern society was embodied in the field of art. Because artwas closely related to human expanding demand which came from their unscrupulousprivate ideas, resulting in the loss of human original kindness and humanity. For thefirst time, he critically studied the relationship between art with social representativeand extravagant material society, and linked literary art to the social reality. In his view, artists and writers not only attached to the society which they serve, but if theywanted to get the understanding and recognition of the society, they must recognizeand accept many social realities. They were dominated and deeply influenced by thewhole social culture, the living environment of the corresponding classes, the specificsocial status, and their different thoughts and basic values.Literary sociology really originated from the French Romanticism period,deriving from an overall understanding of a certain culture. Madame de Stael wasfamous for studying literature from the view of historicism and social environment.Her work, De la Littérature considérée dans ses Rapports avec les InstitutionsSociales (1800), was often regarded as the pioneering work of literary sociology(Fang 10). It systematically discussed literary phenomena from history and socialenvironment. The clear goal of it was to observe and study how religion, customs andlaws affected literature, and how literature reflected them. With the principle of socialanalysis criticism, she believed that different stages of historical development haddifferent standards of aesthetics and poetics. So, she put forward her literature view:when we commented on a literature work, environmental factors which would affectits creation must be paid attention, such as, society, politics, philosophy and religion.That is, wemust examine the internal reason which influenced the literature from theliving environment and the national state.

1.2 Studies on Cold War Fiction

There are a lot of studies on this subject at home and abroad, and foreignscholars begin earlier and their studies are relatively mature. Besides the studies fromsuch traditional literary criticism perspectives as theme, character image and languagecharacteristics, foreign scholars also analyzed fictions from the historical backgroundand tried to find the relationship between text and social discourse in 1950s.In 1995, Leerom Medovoi wrote Bad boys: Masculinity, oppositional discourse,and American youth culture in the 1950s. By analyzing the image of “bad boy” in fourworks, which were Story of A Very Bad Boy, The Catcher in the Rye, Rebel Without aCause, and The Blackboard Jungle, he illustrated the side effects of the dark societyon teenagers in 1950s. In the repressed social atmosphere of the Cold War, these “bad”teenage boys began to rebel against social constraints. Instead of studying the themeor content of one literary work, Leerom Medovoi studied four works as abreakthrough point and analyzed the mutual reflection between literature and society.Such studies were not uncommon in foreign studies. Through the analysis ofthree American Cold War fictions which were The Catcher in the Rye, The Crying ofLot 49 and Lost in the Funhouse, Kristin L. Matthews elaborated on the depressivesocial reality of the United States during the Cold War and people’s living conditionsin 1950s in Cold War Fiction and the Politics of Reading (2004). In 2013, Antonia A.Mackay analyzed the implications of Cold War fictions from 1945 to 1965 in City,suburban andpastoral spaces and the formation of identity in Cold War America(1945-1965). It focused on American culture and literature during the Cold War andsought to challenge accepted notions and assumptions about this era and its culture. Itshowed readers the period in American history characterized by fear, control, andcontainment. As she said in her dissertation, “Fifties culture purports a rigidity, a fixedform of identity, gender and sexuality, but at the same time might offer a line ofescape through physical, virtual and literary spaces, landscapes and architecturalforms” (Mackay 5).

Chapter One Literature Review..........................4

1.1 Studies on Literary Sociology...................4

1.2 Studies on Cold War Fiction......................7

Chapter TwoAmerican Society and Culture in 1950s................ 11

2.1American Affluent Society in 1950s....... 12

2.2 The Beginning of the Cold War and Truman Doctrine....... 14

2.3 McCarthyism...............16

Chapter ThreeAmerican Cold War Fiction in 1950s..................20

3.1 The Catcher in the Rye:Anxiety of Growth........................21

3.2 On the Road: Revolt in Silence and Freedom in Indulgence..........................30

3.3 Rabbit, Run: Escaping from Social Constraint....................38

Conclusion...53

Chapter Three American Cold War Fiction in 1950s

3.1 The Catcher in the Rye:Anxiety of Growth

The Catcher in the Rye published in 1951, is the masterpiece of Jerome DavidSalinger. Although there are only a hundred thousand words, it has a huge impact inthe United States, and is hailed by many literary critics as a classic novel of rebellion.In the novel, Salinger used the adolescent tone from the first-person perspective todescribe the anxiety and depression of the inner world of American middle-classadolescents, who were in confused dilemma. He described in detail three day’s mentalactivities of Holden, the protagonist. This novel is said to be a precedent for thepsychological realism of American literature. It successfully shaped the image of adream catcher who pursued the truth and defended the childhood purity, andprofoundly analyzed the rich spiritual world and the growing of adolescents.As soon as the novel was published, it was warmly welcomed by many youngpeople in America who thought it was telling their story. At the moment, Holden wasimitated on campus throughout the United Stated. They wore wind coats and red capsin winter, copying Holden’s words and actions. And some of them said that “I relatedto Caulfield”, “I know a guy just like Ackley”, or “it killed me, it really did” (Qtd. inZhao 6). Even today, The Catcher in the Rye is on the compulsory reading list forstudents in many American universities.

3.2 On the Road: Revolt in Silence and Freedom in Indulgence

The transition period in human history often reveals the most profoundcontradictions in society and culture. The literature in this period often touches themost essential problems in society and human nature, enlightening people onunderstanding and thinking about the nature of society, the value and meaning of life(Xiao 66). This is the most important value of the outstanding literary works of theBeat Generation. They made people, who lived in the modern society withmaterialistic desires and forgot the spiritual values pursued by ancestors, face theproblems of themoments and continue the pursuit of freedom and democracy. Theliterary work that could comprehensively express the lifestyle of the Lost Generationand deeply explore their rebellion and pursuit must be Jack Kerouac’s On the Road.This novel was completed in 1951, but repeatedly rejected by publishers. After manytwists and turns, it was finally published in 1957. However, when the novel waspublished, it immediately got a big success and produced a wide range of influences.Looking back at history, we would find that the history of the development ofhuman civilization to some extent is the history of the rebels who truly created history.Their rebellion itself was pioneering. They were explorers and creators for a new life.What they brought not only the revolution in philosophy, religion and politics, butalso the profound changes in the social system, literary creation, values, behavior andeven the way of life. The Beat Generation, which appeared in the United States in thelate 1940s,was also a rebellious generation in nature.