Analysis Of Babbitt’s Anxiety And Sublimation From The Perspective Of Spatial Construction In Babbitt

Babbitt is universally regarded to be the novel that contributes most to the great literary reputation enjoyed by Sinclair Lewis, the first American writer to be honored with Nobel prize. Ever since its publication, critics have been attempting to interpret it from various perspectives. Yet their focuses are mainly restricted to its cultural and social backgrounds, realistic importance, artistic and stylistic skills, thematic explorations and psychoanalysis of Babbitt, etc, missing the important factor of spatiality constituted in it. Space is a multidimensional entity concerning geography, society, culture, psychology and plays an essential role in literary construction. A thorough analysis of the constructed spaces in the novel will be of enormous help in obtaining a new understanding of the novel and the author himself. Through the application of space theories and the study of the multidimensional spaces constructed in Babbitt, this paper intends to reveal that Babbitt’s seemingly unaccounted anxiety actually stems from his passive conformity to standardization and his being subjected to surveillance imposed within social spaces. And the spatial tranlocations experienced by Babbitt contributes to his psychological transition from unconscious conformity to conscious non-conformity and ultimate sublimation.This thesis consists of five chapters. In the first chapter, a brief introduction to Sinclair Lewis and Babbitt including researches that have been conducted on Babbitt both abroad and at home is made, which is then followed by some relevant space theories of Lefebvre and Foucault and a further illustration of the possibility in the interpretation of this novel from the perspective of space. Chapter Two focuses on Lewis’s construction of social spaces in Babbitt, which will be further classified into private space and public space. In the part of private space, Babbitt’s conformity and anxiety manifested in his standardized residential space are studied. And the public space will be studied from the traditional patriarchal gendered space, the strictedly divided space of social classes and the omnipresent surveillance space of power along with their respective links to Babbitt’s anxiety. Chapter Three is centered on Lewis’s construction of wild space, which is represented by Maine in Babbitt, to study its rich implications and the influence it exerts upon Babbitt’s psychological space. Chapter Four is devoted to the tracing of Babbitt’s psychological space with focus on his psychological progression from unconscious conformity to conscious non-conformity to ultimate sublimation through his spatial translocations, as well as the studying of its significance in furnishing Babbitt with a complete structure. Based on the above analysis, the thesis comes to the conclusion that a spatial interpretation of Babbitt reveals that Babbitt’s anxiety orignates from his passive conformity to the standardization and resignation to surveillance imposed within the social spaces, and his spatial translocation from Zenith to Maine exerts great impact on his psychological space and contributes to his ultimate psychological progression from anxiety to sublimation. Hopefully this thesis can cast a new light on reading Babbitt and inspire readers to explore some more profound connotations of the epic contexts in Lewis’s other works.