Urban Writing In Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg,Ohio

In American literature,Sherwood Anderson’s masterpiece Winesburg,Ohio truly reproduces the destructive impact of social transformations on human survival and spirit during the process of urbanization in the United States.Through the portray of town’s life,Anderson touched upon the social problems such as the unbalanced development,identity diversification,the profusion of consumerism;from the bald exposure of city dweller’s inner world,the spiritual vacancy of modern people has been presented.This thesis applies Lefebvre’s theory of “the production of space” and Raymond Williams view on the relationship between the country and the city to the analysis of urban writing in Sherwood’s Winesburg,Ohio,aiming at exploring the root of grotesques’ isolation and alienation during the process of urbanization.It consists of five parts.The introduction part provides information about Anderson’s life and creative concepts,and the main structure of this thesis with a comparatively brief literature review.Chapter one elaborates on a fact that Winesburg has been involved into the productive process of urban spaces for the benefit of capitalist.During the process,urban fabrics have exerted profound impact on rural areas through the penetration of capital and modern consciousness into remote villages;Chapter two explores into the construction of spaces in Winesburg,Ohio,so as to reveal social consciousness and problems reflected by spatial images;chapter three tries to present the characters’ existential dilemma and spiritual crisis,holding that the spiritual alienation of those grotesques has historical and social roots.And at last,a conclusion is drawn that through the fragmented presentation of town’s life in aspects of economy,culture,and spirit,Winesburg,Ohio incisively exposures psychological distortion of the Midwestern town’s people in the process of industrialization in the United States,and denotes that the root of spiritual crisis comes from the destructive effect of modernity on individual existence,and the construction of subjectivity and social relationship.