A Theoretical Study Of J.Hillis Miller's Fiction Criticism

American scholar Hillis Miller's academic career is divided into four stages,namely,stages of new criticism,criticism of consciousness,deconstruction and literary speech act theory.Taking his fiction criticism theory as the research object,this thesis longitudinally combs and summarizes characteristics of Miller's fiction criticism practice and theoretical fruits in the four stages.Furthermore,based on a comprehensive analysis,the thesis will attempt to construct Miller's fiction criticism theoretical system.Hillis Miller starts his literary research careers from the new criticism,then makes the emergence of criticism of consciousness,matures in the context of deconstruction,and finally forms his own unique system in the speech act theory.Although miller's literary criticism practice shows distinct epochal characteristics,and even he himself thinks that this research stages' evolution is accompanied by shifts of academic focus,an evolution within which the stages are not related with each other,yet doing detailed reading of the literary critical practice and research fruits at each stage enables us to realize that clearly a strong interest in language and an exploration of “heterogeneity” constitute the strands of the rope of Miller's fiction criticism and practice,forming the path of Miller's fiction criticism and even the whole literary criticism.The thesis consists of an introduction,five chapters and a conclusion.The main contents are as follows:In the introduction part,on the basis of sorting out and summarizing the research materials of Miller at home and abroad,the author puts forward the key problems facing miller's literary research in particular: the emphasis on the critical theories and practice in the period of deconstruction is in a sharp contrast with the insufficient attention to the new criticism and the phenomenology-consciousness criticism;the diverse interpretation of Miller's literary research coexists with “misreading” and “insufficient reading”;the research on Miller's theory of fiction criticism has not yet taken shape;there is an want of a critical word to describe Miller's literary study on a whole.The thesis general research method and frame form out of those problems in Miller's literary research.Besides,the introduction part expounds the realistic significance of Miller's fiction criticism study.As a literary critique,Miller has an intimate contact with China's literary theories.In Chinese scholars' view,He has become a literary phenomenon,and there are diverse kinds of ideas about the study of Miller's literary theories and practice.Miller himself and his theories have been one integral factor of China's literary development.He has been conducting his literary study on the basis of specific texts,stick to close reading,and constructing his own theoretical system with the help text interpretation,providing an effective example for China's literary theory development,which is the significance of Miller's literary research.In order to present a comprehensive fiction criticism system,the thesis aims at Miller's fiction criticism theory,divides his literary experience into four stages,recognizes as the main clue the heterogeneity and focus of language in fiction practice,and expounds the fiction criticism in his early stages of new criticism and criticism of consciousness,which constitutes the creativity of the study.The first chapter focuses on the genealogy of Miller's literary theory.As a literary critic who has made great achievements in criticism,Miller's literary theory is the background of his literary criticism practice and his fiction criticism practice,which provides the basis and thoughts for his specific criticism practice.From the new criticism to the theory of literary speech act,Miller's literary research has always been “based on law”.Every adjustment of the research focus is the result of Miller's modest and cautious approach to the theory,which is accompanied by his creative use of the theory.The second chapter mainly discusses Miller's fiction criticism theory in the new criticism period.As the initial stage of Miller's literary criticism,new criticism is not only the beginning of his novel criticism,but more importantly,Miller has accumulated rich theoretical knowledge in this stage by reading works of traditional philosophy and scholars of new criticism.At the same time,his concern about the difference between literary language and scientific language forms his starting point to explore the “heterogeneity” of literary language.As the starting point of Miller's criticism,new criticism plays an important role in his literary criticism practice,especially in the practice of novel criticism.The strategy of “close reading” inherited from the new criticism has become an important methodology in his later periods,which provides a specific path for Miller's later practice of fiction criticism.The grasp of the author's overall consciousness in the phenomenological period,the deconstruction of the stability of the meaning of the work through close reading in the deconstruction period,and the analysis of performativity of works in different levels in the period of literary speech act theory are all based on the theory in the new critical period.At the same time,Miller,in the new criticism period,is committed to learning and using close reading strategy,which is also a methodology responsible for exotic language phenomenon identification and interpretation.For new criticism,close reading aims at exploring the strangeness and peculiarity of literary language.It is the close reading strategies of new criticism that helps miller began his fiction research trip to “explore difference”.The third chapter mainly discusses the fiction theory in the period of Miller's criticism of consciousness from the ontology of consciousness of a novel,the structure of novel,the narrative factors of a novel,and the reading mode of a novel.Phenomenology-consciousness criticism is the emerging stage of Miller's literary research.Influenced by George Poulet' theories,Miller views the novel as a place where all kinds of consciousness meet rather than just a mechanical reflection of reality.A novel exists on consciousness,which possesses totality,that is,a writer's consciousness is stable and consistent in his different works.Meantime,the writer's consciousness is different from work to work,a consistence in difference.Miller's explores the different types of consciousness in a novel from the chronological and spatial perspective.He believes that different types of consciousness in a novel are not static but dynamic.The temporality and intersubjectivity of consciousness makes a novel's structure open and self-sustaining and self-generating,a form which resembles a sentence.The meaning of a novel cannot be found outside itself,but within the diverse relationships of a novel.The characteristics of a novel blur the borders of a novel and reality.The discussion of a novel's fabrication in his later works in this period prepares for his transition of deconstruction.Basing on reading carefully Victorian novels,Miller has a discussion of the issue of narrator in the frame of criticism of consciousness.He observes that Victorian novelists employ the omniscient narrator,trying to convey a “collective consciousness” and show the uniqueness through language,images,and plots in those novels,yet those novelists highlighted their own uniqueness which is mainly demonstrated in their application of literary language.As for reading method,Miller hold a different view from Poulet's “Reading for identification”,which view as reading a reader's sacrificing conduct,including sacrificing his or her desire,belief and so forth,so as to realize the author's consciousness in a completely neutral attitude and achieve complete “identity”.Although individual consciousness is different,after reading reader's consciousness should be fully identified with the author consciousness.It is an “identity in difference”.Miller's reading style is “seeking differences in identification”,that is,exploring the diversity of consciousness on the premise of identification.Chapter four discusses Miller's fiction criticism theory in the deconstruction period.This chapter attaches importance to Miller's view of language in his period of deconstruction,and to his deconstruction to the meaning,structure and reading of novels based on his deconstruction theory.From phenomenology-consciousness criticism to deconstruction,Miller turns back from the focus of consciousness to that of language,and he expounds the “heterogeneity” of language under the influence of deconstructive scholars,such as Derrida and Paul de Man.Miller believes that the internal subversion and deconstruction of grammar and rhetoric in language is the expression of the “heterogeneity” of language,which makes language lose its stable signified.Taking the “heterogeneity” of language as the logical starting point,Miller deconstructs the meaning of the stability of a novel,and holds that the language,sentences and text of a novel are all heterogeneous and cannot point to a stable external reality.Miller then explores the structural features of the novel.He believes that the novel is made up of vertical and horizontal lines.The former reflects itself in the heterogeneous repetition,while the latter deconstructs the continuous “line” image in the traditional narrative theory.The “heterogeneity” of the language,meaning,and structure of the novel needs a new reading mode,which Miller calls rhetorical reading or deconstructive reading.Specifically,it refers to two reading modes,“parasitic reading” and “repetitive reading”.These two reading modes are both devoted to deconstructive fiction criticism,and on the basis of respecting the essence of language,they extend and expand the journey of “seeking for differences” in the novel interpretation.Chapter five mainly discusses the practice and theory of fiction criticism in the period of literary speech act theory.In this stage,Miller recognizes the novel as a speech act.Miller in the speech act theory further discusses the heterogeneity problem of language,and,from the discussion of the static heterogeneity of language in the period of deconstruction to the study of the dynamic heterogeneity of the relationship between the constative and the performative in language,and he points out that “speech is action”;thus,he demonstrates the characteristics of performativity of narrative works and further elaborates how a work realizes its performativity,that is,catachresis and prosopopoeia.Both of these ways of saying and doing,both based on a difference,are processes of making things out of nothing.From the perspective of the author,the writer intends to realize his goal of using words to act by means of writing novels,employing words creatively to arouse readers' interest,establishing a magic world,which completes the realistic world.However,due to the “heterogeneity” of language,the writer's intention cannot be full realized.There is some distance between the writer's intention and text's practical effects.It is the difference that creates performativity.Due to the “heterogeneity” of language,reading is also creative and is aimed at “seeking for differences”.Writers a create a magical world by the application of artistic methods;in reading,readers should focus on interpreting the uniqueness of the works,which is also a process of revealing the law of life and creating new and different reality.In conclusion,this thesis summarizes the overall characteristics of Miller's fiction criticism,and the two clues running through his fiction critic practice,namely,the focus on language and the exploration of “heterogeneity”,and expounds the relationship between the two clues.The emphasis on language and the exploration of “heterogeneity” constitute the framework of Miller's fiction criticism system.The two are interchangeable and indistinguishable.Language is a heterogeneous language,and “heterogeneity” is the “heterogeneity” of language.Language is the focus and starting point of Miller's fiction criticism,and “heterogeneity” is the aim and purpose of his fiction criticism practice.