The Literary Significance Of Architectural Image

Philip Roth's The Human Stain is the last work of the thematic “American Trilogy”.Published in 2000,it was highly recommended by The New York Times.In the next year,it won Philip Roth the Faulkner Award.Philip Roth sets America in the 1990 s as the background of this novel,and tells a series of tragic stories which are caused by Coleman's choice of passing.Because of its rich connotation and diverse themes,the researchers keep an increasingly high enthusiasm on this work.Currently,domestic and international researchers attach great importance to the multiple themes and creative techniques in this novel.The approaches to study this work are mainly based on ethical literary criticism,existentialism and Foucault's theory of power.However,the study of the literary significance of architectures in this work is rarely found.Based on architectural phenomenology,this thesis tries to explore the literary significance of architecture in characterization and theme generation in The Human Stain,with aims to reveal the function of architectures in literary works and trigger more reflections on it.This thesis consists of five chapters.The first chapter gives an introduction of the author,the novel and the research background at home and abroad.It expounds Norberg-Schulz's theory of architectural phenomenology.Based on the concept of genius loci in architectural phenomenology,the second chapter explores the genius loci in the architectures in the city,town and county,and discusses the process of the change of space into place.Taking the four major characters as the research focus,the third chapter discusses the interactive relationship between the architectural images and the characters,trying to reveal the function of the architectures in moulding each major character.The fourth chapter mainly explores the influence of the architectural images on the theme generation.This part demonstrates the architectural images' function in representing the themes of personal identity crisis,social moral persecution and disillusionment of the American Dream.The last chapter gives a conclusion.By analyzing the functions of the architectures,this paper brought architectures from the background to the foreground,thus provides a new perspective to further the understanding literary works.