She Shall Sleep No More:Insomnia,Capitalism And Female Agency In Raymond Carver’s Short Stories

As a common malady in Raymond Carver’s short stories,insomnia appears not simply as one of the literary devices that reflects the characters’ inner turmoil on an individual basis;the undermining of sleep is a visible manifestation of the omnipresent existential crisis in consequence of the damage of subjective identity in the post-modern capitalist world.This thesis aims to look into the spiritual dimension of the protagonists’ insomnia in Carver’s fiction by delving into the late-capitalist society’s purchase on the individual through widespread alienation and sleep deprivation.To examine the larger social meanings of increasing insomnia,this thesis presents a combination of literary study and cultural study,and traces the gendered patterns of sleeplessness via close reading of two Carver’s stories featuring female insomniac protagonists and then gives an analysis of their male counterparts for the purposes of comparison.Furthermore,it also scrutinizes the commodified space and commonplace objects in Carver’s fiction and relates sleep crisis to contemporary commercial culture.This thesis demonstrates that for typical Carverean protagonists with a working-class or lower-middle class background,sleeplessness is a further evidence of despair generated by their social and economic marginalization,especially for women who are more severely entrapped into unsatisfying marriages and crippling domesticity.Therefore,the depiction of insomnia is also a reflection of the power relations.Meanwhile,sleeplessness also brings forth critical moments of epiphany and serves as a turning point in the characters’ lives.It is suggested that insomnia in Carver’s fiction is not only a narrative of loss but a chance of introspection and a source of empowering in the post-modern era,which adds more practical value to this research.