The Research On Contrapuntal Presence In Aldous Huxley's Point Counter Point

Simultaneously with the development of literature towards diversity,the devices borrowed from the other art forms become popular in literary creation.Aldous Huxley is among the writers who create musicalized novels with the techniques borrowed from music.Being a modern novelist,Aldous Huxley always created works that involves various social aspects,such as science,philosophy,religion,politics,love,culture,art, etc.Point Counter Point is exactly such a kind of novel that deals with multiple themes. In this novel,Huxley applied counterpoint,which was borrowed from musical technique,as the narrative method.By using counterpoint,several melodies,or rather, characters,ideas and plots in the novel,could develop simultaneously,so as to condense and convey more information.Because of the multiple themes,special narrative method and satirical significances,there are many monographs and articles concerned with Huxley's Point Counter Point.However,the researches concerned with the special narrative technique are far from satisfactory,though some contributive results have been achieved.Against such a background,and on the basis of the previous studies and critical researches,the author thinks that counterpoint—the narrative technique borrowed from music in this novel—should be analyzed systematically from the aspects of plots,characters and themes.This paper is composed of five parts:an introduction,three main-body chapters and a conclusion.In the introduction,the paper gives a brief introduction to Aldous Huxley and his work Point Counter Point firstly.Secondly,it presents the theoretical background of musicalized novels.Thirdly,it explains the musical term counterpoint clearly.By listing his former works that he has applied counterpoint as his narrative strategy,Huxley's intention of using it in such a large scale in Point Counter Point is traced.Lastly,the author looks back on the current literature on this novel both at home and abroad.In Chapter One the author explores the counterpoints that are used in Point Counter Point.By the systematical analysis throughout the novel,Huxley's artistic technique of how to form a complex structure in the novel with such a length as Point Counter Point is presented.In Chapter Two the author focuses her attention to the counterpointed characters.By a careful analysis of several pairs of typically disharmonious counterpointed characters within this musicalized novel,Huxley's way of interweaving different representative ideas to form "novel of ideas" is revealed.In Chapter Three the author deals with the three main themes within this musicalized novel,namely loving,dying and praying.Each theme has several variations.The three themes are three independent melodies which sound simultaneously and harmoniously organized by the contrapuntal technique throughout the novel,endowing a symphonic characteristic to it.In the end the paper summarizes the artistic significance of Point Counter Point and the application of the contrapuntal technique.It helps reconsider the relationship between the novel and music,and makes significant contribution to the development of the musicalized novels.