The Symbolism Reflected in To the Lighthouse开题报告

1. 研究目的与意义

When it comes to English Literature from the 19^th to the mid20^th, writer Virginia Woolf is inevitably mentioned. Virginia Woolf,thefamousBritishauthoress,makesoutstanding contributions on both creation and literary criticism. She is one of the three famous stream of consciousness writers of the world and also the pioneer of feminism.Virginia Woolf was regarded as one of the greatest modernism novelists. She often uses symbolism to imply the spiritual worlds and inner personalities of the characters . Her works, widely noticed and prevailed throughout the world, reflects her ideals of relations between men and women, man and society, and the exploration of spiritual world, which were mainly drawn from her own experience. To the Lighthouse，which was writtenintheprimeperiodofherliterarycareer，is usually consideredasherbest work in which her writing techniques come to perfection. The depth and involvement of her and her novels give me a curiosity to research this modernistic novelist and her representative work ---- To the Lighthouse.

Moreover, the symbolism reflected in To the Lighthouse attracts readers#8217; attention brilliantly for its forms of the manifestations of the characters, the aesthetic effect of her exploration of the minds of her characters. In addition, the research of symbolism itself is not boring but profound and practical.

2. 研究内容和预期目标

This thesis intends to carry out a detailed analysis of symbolism of Virginia Woolf#8217;s To the Lighthouse and to try to reveal the beauty and the theme in the work by analyzing some important symbols. In this novel the application of symbolism plays a vital role in depicting every character#8217;s inner worlds and personalities. Through the analysis of the symbolism in To the Lighthouse, we will have a better understanding of the author#8217;s wish of building the harmony between people and between the material world and the spiritual world.

3. 国内外研究现状

As the novel To the Lighthouse wins world fame, the critics on Virginia Woolf and this representative novel by scholars at home and broad vary from person to person. In China, study on Virginia Woolf and her work started at the beginning of 1980s with Prof. Frank Shijing Qu as a recognized scholar in the stream of consciousness novel and the first in China to make a thorough study of Virginia Woolf and her works. Scholars have observed the writing devices and narrating techniques, such as symbolic features, stream of consciousness, inner monologue, free association, time montage, multiple narrative monologue etc. Many thematic issues have also been explored----life and death, suicide, existentialism, objectivity and subjectivity, the theme of art, time and space, love, morality, androgyny, sex and lesbian issues, dual personality, individual consciousness and group consciousnessand criticism about fascism, anti-war, dialogism, the atheism, and dialectical materialism. For example, Nancy Topping Bazin''''sVirginia Woof and the Androgynous vision(1973), Ellen Rosenman''''s The Invisible Presence: Virginia and the Mother-Daughter Relationship (1986), and Jane Marcus''''s Virginia Woolf and the Languages of Patriarchy(1987) studied Woolf and her works with the feminist criticism. Pamela L. Caughie analyses Woolf''''s narration of story, the expression of significance, the portrait of characters and the comprehensive sense of language in Virginia Woolf and Postmodernism: Literature in Quest and Question of Itself(1991). However, there are little concern about the analysis of symbolism of this novel, which is the reason why I attempt to make research on this topic.

4. 计划与进度安排

Outline

1. Introduction

2.Virginia Woolf and To the Lighthouse

5. 参考文献