Another Way Of Looking:“New Sensibility” In The Volcano Lover-A Romance

As a Jerusalem International Literature prize winner and German Book Industry Peace prize winner,a prominent critic and novelist in America,Susan Sontag(1933-2004)is known as ―the conscience of the American public‖.In her favorite novel The Volcano Lover,Sontag has presented the panorama of Naples Revolution in the 18th-century and has brought modern consciousness into the novel which creates the space and historical depth for the novel.Meanwhile,the novel also shows Sontag‘s inclusiveness and moral fervor as a modern novelist.Through the deployment of Susan Sontag‘s new sensibility theory and its related theories,this thesis attempts to make an in-depth analysis of aesthetic and moral sensibility in this novel in order to introduce a new perspective on the interpretation of The Volcano Lover.This thesis is mainly divided into the following three parts:The first part is the introduction part of the thesis,which mainly introduces the author Susan Sontag,the work The Volcano Lover and a summary of studies related to this novel both abroad and home as well as a brief introduction to the new sensibility theory and related theories which dominate an important position to support present thesis and raise the research questions.The second part is the main part of the thesis and is divided into two chapters.In chapter one,this thesis analyzes the attitude of protagonists toward reason and sensibility and the allegory of ruins,finding out that the indeterminacy of art contained in this novel is no other than the embodiment of Sontag‘s aesthetic sensibility which rejects integrity.Chapter two aims to analyze the extramarital lovers,homosexuals and victims who are usually marginalized,finding that the moral outlook presented in this novel is all inclusive.This is a good show of postmodern morality.It also achieves the same result with Sontag‘s moral sensibility for setting aside all value judgement.In the third part,a conclusion based on the analyses above will be drawn.Through analyzing the aesthetic sensibility and moral sensibility in The Volcano Lover,this thesis concludes that there exists an inseparable connection between Sontag‘s theory and her novel.