Speaking For The Marginalized

Susan Sontag, the most influential American critic and writer, was still very active in literature in the first several years of the 21st century and won the National Book Award in 2000 for the novel In America. As her last novel, In America is based on the Polish historical figure Helena Modrzejewska who indeed emigrated to America in 1876 and settled in Anaheim. However, Sontag didn't follow the historical record very closely. She wrote stories out of the historical events in which her critical thinking on the current social issues was fully reflected. Adopting Foucault's power and discourse theory, this thesis attempts to investigate Sontag's concern for the power of discourse of the marginalized Other. It argues that the marginalized Othern have no chance to voice themselves under the control of the dominant discourse unless they revert it and reconstruct their own in the world for Sontag creates a woman who fights bravely under the repression of the dominant discourse and eventually wins her own power of discourse.The thesis consists of an introduction, three chapters and a conclusion.The introduction is a general survey of the author Susan Sontag, her novel In America, the literature review on the previous research of this novel and the research method of this thesis. Chapter one is the detailed discussion of the discursive repression that Maryna has experienced. In Poland, she not only undertook the patriarchal repression but also suffered the Russian invaders'discursive manipulation. In America, Maryna and her followers'discourse was repressed by the mainstream discourse. In chapter two, the author analyzes Sontag's subversion by studying Maryna's revolting action from two aspects: on one hand, she made efforts to revolt the dominant patriarchal discourse by choosing stage performing as her career which could provide her with the opportunity to make her voice heard in public, and balancing the wife and husband's role and intervening the friends'discursive manipulation. On the other hand, she managed to revolt mainstream discourse as a marginalized member by arguing and writing. Chapter three mainly discusses Sontag's longing for an ideal world through analyzing the protagonist's reconstruction of her power of discourse and the freedom in life. The conclusion restates the author's arguments and summarizes the main points of the thesis.