| E. L. Doctorow (1931- ) is regarded as a remarkable phenomenon among contemporary American novelists. His latest novel The March was published in 2005, and awarded the National Book Critics' Circle award for fiction, the PEN/Faulkner award and also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and nominated for the National Book Award in 2006.The March gives us a vivid picture of the famous "March to the Sea" led by General William Tecumseh Sherman during the Civil War. In the novel, 90,000 Union troops, under the leadership of General Sherman, marched through Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina and finally ended the Civil War in the year of 1865, leaving death, destruction, looting, thievery, and chaos behind them. Many characters in the march are revealed in the novel, high and low, white and black, whose lives, struggles, achievements and disillusionments are truly presented. During the march, they strive with might and main to solve various problems which may smash their dreams. More problems such as acceptance of Afro-American legal identities, women's social status, and the value of human beings in the science-dominated society have gradually emerged as the fates of the characters exhibit themselves before the readers, which arouses people's reconsideration.However, albeit E. L. Doctorow, like Toni Morrison, ranks top of the list for contemporary American novelists, he does not achieve much recognition in China. Consequently, not many scholars do research about him, let alone for readers to know about him. One academic paper, entitled Reading American History in E. L. Doctorow's 'The March' published by Professor Yang Renjing and Doctor Lin Li in Contemporary Foreign Literature, analyzes the novel from the point of view of meta-historical fiction and postmodernist narrative theory. To the best of knowledge, this is the sole research paper dealing with this novel in the domestic academic circle.In this context, this thesis attempts to discuss the multiple themes of this novel in the light of New Historicism. Through an analysis of the novel, this thesis tries to explore how Doctorow reconstructs history, rewrites historical scenes during the march and dismantles the traditional mainstream historical consciousness, to disclose Doctorow's social criticism and his strong political solicitude through his subversion towards various social problems; and to present Doctorow's deep care about the spiritual crisis of modern man and the limitless pursuit towards a bright future.This thesis consists of five parts. The first part serves as an introduction, which presents a detailed literature review regarding The March as well as the novelist E.L.Doctorow. Thus the research gaps, questions and significance are explicated.Chapter One studies how Doctorow rewrites the grand historical scenes of the march. Influenced by the New Historicism, Doctorow has abandoned the traditional conception of history and much more attention is focused on the ordinary life. Significant historical affairs are reconstructed and postmodern emotions are expressed. In this novel, Doctorow tries to interrupt the historical continuity, and reconstructs the history of the march through re-conceiving the historical background, affairs and characters; moreover, Doctorow merges his modern pondering about war into the historical scenes and explores the relationship of war and love and death.Chapter Two maintains that the march is the concentrated expression of Doctorow's social criticism. New Historicism believes that writers' narration about history is a kind of recreation towards history, a kind of repression and reconstruction. New Historicism historicizes the reality and actualizes the past. No matter how Doctorow reproduces history, he can never come back to the past and make authentic records. His historical cognition is contemporary and reflects a new understanding of the past event. As a radical Jewish intellectual, Doctorow makes subversions on heroic transcendence, painstakingly depicts the hot stuff's cowardice and lowliness, and exposes to the readers the mechanism of modern society, women's inferior social status and racial prejudice.Chapter Three emphasizes Doctorow's expectation of an ideal life and his limitless quest of man's spiritual salvation. Two different characters and their stories are emphatically presented. In the end of the novel, Pearl gives the son of her former owner one of her last coins; another gold coin is bestowed on by Pearl to the blinded Calvin for him to realize his dream. Pearl persists in conquering the darkness and inequality of the world by her virtue, which forces us to reflect on the real salvation of spirit. Through determination, we can possibly be endowed with bravery, confidence and conscience to triumph over sufferings of life and find the real paradise for human beings.Through the analysis of multiple themes in The March, readers can identify in the novel E. L. Doctorow's reconstruction towards history and his speculation on life and future. The March blends real historical figures and events together with those plots that are mostly the products of his imagination, blurring the borderline between the real and the unreal. The March also breaks the borderline between the "central" and the "periphery", fighting against social evils on behalf of the marginalized people. At the same time, The March also shed certain light on Doctorow's understanding of an ideal life and man's spiritual salvation. |
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