A Study On Contradictions Between Classes,Genders And Consumptions In Edith Wharton's The Age Of Innocence From Lukátcs's Literary Realism

Edith Wharton?1862-1937?is one of the most important female writers in the late 19^thh and early 20^th century.The Age of Innocence,a novel written by Edith Wharton in 1920,won the Pulitzer Prize,in which the author takes the unacceptable affection between Archer and Ellen as the main story line,describes the social customs,moral values and polished manners of powerful wealthy families,depicts peculiar personalities and distinctive features of characters from different social status of 1870s New York.The novel offers the reader an ideal literary text for the political,economic and ideological studies of the American society at the end of the nineteenth century.Employing the literary realism of Georg Lukátcs,one of the most distinguished Western Marxism critics,this paper focuses on the contradictions between classes,genders and consumption of the New York society in the late 19th century reflected in The Age of Innocence.First,this thesis introduces the main idea and key concepts of Georg Lukátcs's literary realism theory;second this thesis discusses the stratified class consciousness in the hierarchical capitalist,by comparing the privileged upper-class,new rising bourgeoisie and miserable downtrodden underclass;third,this thesis addresses multiple oppressions of women in the patriarchal system and great efforts for gender identity and female subjectivity of the new women;finally this thesis demonstrates hedonism and luxury consumption of the upper class and explains the underlying mechanism of commodity fetishism and cultural reification.Employing literary realism of Georg Lukátcs,this study analyzes the contradictions and conflicts between classes,genders and consumption of the New York society in The Age of Innocence,addresses the great tension between the luxury privileged and downtrodden underclass,the marginalized women and rigid patriarchal hierarchy,the distorted commodity reification and alienated consumptive capitalist.Employing literary realism and esthetic effect of Georg Lukátcs,this paper explores Edith Wharton's integrating artistic view and ethical concern in this novel,which highlights the formative role of literary realism in approaching texts.