The Quest Of The Self In Harmonium

In the20th century American literature, Wallace Stevens is one of the most influential American poets, known as the "Poet of poets" or "Poet of critics". His first volume of poetry Harmonium fully exhibits his originality in art and thus later becomes his masterpiece.Based on a close reading of the texts and taking the perspective of psychological analysis, the present thesis endeavors to interpret Harmonium by adopting Jung’s individuation theory. The thesis takes that Wallace Stevens traces man’s inner world, learning the outcomes of Analytical psychology to explore the spirituality and pursue the self in his poetry. To Stevens, poetry is the perfect embodiment of the poet’s efforts to demonstrate self-activities. The creation of poetry is an excellent process of expressing the self and describing the inner experiences, thus exploiting the process to reveal modern people’s loss of the self and the substance of the self-pursuit. Harmonium focuses on the performance of the subjective rather than the external world and leads the symbolism in poetry initiated by Baudelaire to a kind of confession toward the psychological reality. Harmonium is a spiritual journey for Stevens to explore the self.The project is composed of the introduction, the body and the conclusion. The introduction offers a concise literature review on Wallace Stevens, especially his Harmonium and brings out the significance of applying the approach to Harmonium.Chapter One studies the phase of self-consciousness in the process of individuation. The thesis analyzes first the character’s state of "oneness of surroundings and I" before the self-consciousness forms, and then the character’s germination of self-consciousness driven by the Shadow and his endeavors to become a free man.Chapter Two studies the phase of self-conflict in individuation. In Harmonium, the conflict occurs between the self-consciousness and the Anima, driving the character to experience a process from passive compliance to rebellion.Chapter Three interprets the crucial phase of self-integration in individuation. The chapter is devoted to pondering the character’s dealing with the over-expansion of his double Personae and his trial to achieve a balanced personality so as to quicken to find a true self.Chapter Four expounds the phase of self-realization in individuation, which is the ultimate goal as well as the essence of individuation. The character finally gets rid of the repression, finds Him-Self, achieves the harmony with the surrounding environment and reaches the sense of "oneness" in personality.The present thesis concludes that Stevens is an explorer into the predicament of the human existence. Through the description of the personal individuation, he displays his focus on the personality, self-pursuit and self-realization in Harmonium, which is what Stevens advocates and sticks to advocate all his life, that is, to replace religion with poetry. Harmonium is the best embodiment for Stevens to help people regain their beliefs in the era of belief crisis.