On The Inclination Of New Historicism In E. L. Doctorow's Ragtime

Edgar·Lawrence·Doctorow (1931- ) is a significant postmodernist writer in the garden of American literature. He is considered as one of the pioneers in American Postmodernism literature. Since the publication of his first work in 1960, so far E.L.Doctorow has published 10 novels. Ragtime is one of his masterpieces, it wins 1976 National Books Critics Circle Award and Arts and Letters Award from American Academy. E.L.Doctorow's novels reveal obvious inclination of New Historicism. His novels gift history new interpretation and demonstrate that history is open and inevitably influenced by the contemporary circumstance.Ragtime is E.L.Doctorow's fourth novel. People like to classify this novel into New Historicist novels. In Ragtime, E.L.Doctorow reconstructs history and interprets his private deliberation to history. On the basis of New Historicism, this thesis embodies the inclination of New Historicism in this novel, through the depiction of the White's changing life, the Black's bitter experiences, the immigrant's frustration and the researches on the social issues of American postmodern society. The story happens at the beginning of the 20th C, which seems to enjoy the social harmony, national prosperity and peace. At the beginning, the novel emphasizes"There were no Negroes, There were no immigrants", but the novel mainly centers on the Black's and the Jewish immigrant's fates. The novel centers around the members of the three fictional families, with numerous real historical characters involved in. The members of the Black family and the Jewish immigrant family suffer the injustice and thinking shift, which reveals that the contemporary society is far away from equality and freedom which are claimed by the government. E.L.Doctorow combines the historical events with the fictional stories. History becomes no longer the monotonous record in the textbook.This thesis firstly introduces E.L.Doctorow's life and his novel Ragtime, and then introduces the basic structure and the theoretical foundation of this thesis. Next this thesis introduces the origination of E.L.Doctorow's historical opinions, his New Historicist thinking and the origination of the title of Ragtime. Then this thesis analyses the fates of three fictional families which represent different classes in American society. After that this thesis analyses how Ragtime reveals the fiction and the reality of history and demonstrates the inclination of New Historicism. In conclusion, E.L.Doctorow embodies the inclination of New Historicism in this novel Ragtime. Ragtime reveals a more special and active history to readers and brings readers new interpretation to the reality and fiction of history; this novel helps people to escape the limitation of history, build clear historical opinion and reconsider history.