A Metamorphosis In Body, A Journey To Find The Self

Best known for The Buddha of Suburbia, Hanif Kureishi is widely recognized as a migrating writer writing about post-colonialism, and his works are also labeled as the agents of the topics of race, immigration and sexuality. However, many western critics have reached a consensus that since Midnight All Day, a short story collection of his middle period, Kureishi’s main concerns and writing style have shifted a lot from that of his earlier works. During this period, Kureishi refers less and less to the color or ethnicity of his characters, but pays more attention to the individuals. The Body, published in2002, belongs to his latest writing period, which also hardly touches the topics of color or ethnicity. The novel is about a playwright named Adam, in his mid-sixties, has his brain transplanted into a young and handsome body. The existing researches on The Body mainly include the identity, a criticism of the society, a comparison with other similar novels (Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Gray and Goethe’s Faust), a biographical reading of the novel and so on. Some critics have noticed and mentioned the ethical aspects in the novel, but not studied in depth.The first function of literature is teaching. The ethical literary criticism is a research method to read, analyze and interpret literary works, to study literary authors and literary problems from the perspective of ethics. Based on the ethical literary criticism, this thesis tries to analyze Adam’s ethical choices when he is confronted with ethical crises, as well as the reasons why he makes such choices, and though he cannot return to his old body and old life at last, he finds the real self and gains redemption.This thesis consists of four parts. Chapter one is an introduction to the thesis. First of all, it makes a general survey about Kureishi’s life and The Body. Then it cites the well-known western critics’views to confirm Kureishi’s great change in his writing style and main concerns in his latest works.Chapter two is literature review. First it divides the existing researches on The Body into five categories according to different research topics, i.e. a comparison with other similar novels, a biographical reading of the novel, the identity, a criticism of the society and the ethical aspects of the novel. Then a detailed introduction of ethical literary criticism is made.Chapter three is the core of the thesis. Based on the ethical literary criticism, it analyzes and interprets the reasons for Adam’s being tempted to accept the operation, accepting the operation, a series of degenerating behaviors after the operation and the final redemption from three aspects-the relationship between man and nature, the relationship between man and man, the relationship between man and society.Chapter four sums up the whole thesis. It summarizes the reasons for Adam’s special experience from degenerating to redemption, as well as the revelation the novel conveys.