Jack London From The Perspective Of Aesthetic Modernity

Jack London is a world-famous American writer with great influence in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.The number of his works being published and translated is ranked among the top at that time,which makes him become one of the most influential writers to China.Many scholars from home and abroad have devoted to study him and there are a rising number of papers published every year including journal articles and academic dissertations exploring his works from various aspects.Although many contemporary scholars provide new views in light of Nietzsche's superman philosophy,psychoanalysis theory and ecologism,they can't get rid of the prejudice accumulated by years of historical background and ideology.Thus,this paper aims to analyze London's late important works—"pastoral trilogy"(Burning Daylight,The Valley of the Moon&The Little Lady of the Big House)—from the perspective of aesthetic modernity.By combining related theories and close reading,the author tends to present the modernity characteristics in London's works and further give a comprehensive understanding of this thought-provoking writer.Firstly,the author traces the origin of Jack.London's thoughts by briefly introducing his life,and generally analyzes the effects of modernity ideological trend on his creation.Secondly,an overall literature review is made.For the domestic research,there are two stages divided by the reform and opening-up policy.In the previous period,academic study of London's works was limited by the historical time and politics.After the opening up,diversified theoretical perspectives,such as superman philosophy,psychoanalysis,ecologism,feminism and so on,were emerging.This paper especially reviews the research status of the modernity in London's "pastoral trilogy" and formulates the concept of esthetic modernity with the author's individual definition.The author holds the view that theories of superman philosophy,psychoanalysis,alienation,feminism and ecologism belong to the scope of aesthetic modernity.In the first chapter,the author mainly analyzes the protagonists in the "pastoral trilogy" and makes clear their presentation under the guidance of the Nietzsche's superman ideology,collective unconsciousness and mechanical rational repression.Chapter two focuses on the labor alienation,relation alienation and self-alienation in the"pastoral trilogy" by applying the Maxism alienation theory and reveals London's alienated way to fight against the capitalism society.The third chapter mainly concludes the way of salvation and deeply explores the collective unconsciousness,feminism and ecologism in the"pastoral trilogy".It is widely accepted by many scholars and readers that Jack.London is a realistic or a naturalist writer.However,his works show lots of modernity thoughts and contents and he is actually one of the leading writers who initially kick off the American modernity literature.His complicated works and provoking thoughts have great inspirations for us who similarly live in the process of modernization.