Raymond Carver’s Novels And Impressionism

To define Raymond Carver with "minimalism" is a consensus in educational circle, and there is a mixed assessment for his minimalism. However, the "minimalism" pays more attention to formal analysis, thus it makes no contribution tc getting a deeper understanding of Carver’s spiritual connotation of creation. To certain degree, the "minimalism" is the continuation of creation spirit of "impressionism". In order to get full understanding of Carver’s "minimalism", we need to make explanation on it from perspective of "impressionism".Carver’s creation seeks for "accurate" and "real". There are numerous writers who also insists on this creation concept, such as Pound, Chekhov, and Hemingway, all of whose works are more or less influenced by "impressionism"; Carver takes those writers as example to make creation, and his works also have obvious color of impressionism. The concept "impressionism" is developed from the impressionists, and then it influences literary creation field; there exists literary tradition of impressionism in America, and Carver is also one of members who inherit this tradition.The impressionists perceive the world via sense organs, especially direct delivery of visual impression; they think that the impression is not arranged according to time sequence; the external world changes at any time; if we want to seize the fleeting impression, we must break the space-time concept and seize the first impression on things as much as possible. Therefore, they pay attention to the present time rather than past and adopt objective standpoint and rapid and simple techniques for the purpose of truly restoring the present time as much as possible. Those features of impressionism all clearly exist in Carver’s novels, and it is just those features that form "minimalism" style of Carver’s novels.The reason why Carver’s "minimalism" techniques can be deemed as continuation of "impressionism" style is that both of them emphasize the idea of ’instant truth". The "truth" under change of impressionism shadow is fleeting, and the realistic life that Carver wants to express is also fleeting; their "truth" is a kind of truth based on individual experience. However, in Carver’s later creation, there is slight breakthrough on impressionism and the style becomes a kind of more extensive and significant reality from seizing of individual truth, which is also a kind of breakthrough on minimalism style.Through exploration on Carver from perspective of "impressionism", it can be found that his "minimalism" is not simply little or simple imitation from other writers, and his "minimalism" has his special imprints and delivers the impression different from other writers’ impression. His creation is a mirror which reflects people around him and his own life and it is the special "impression" which belongs to his time.