Subversion and Containment in Female Images: A Study of “The Dead” From the Perspective of New Historicism
- DOI
- 10.2991/assehr.k.211120.024How to use a DOI?
- Keywords
- “The Dead”; female image; New Historicism; subversion and containment
- Abstract
James Joyce is one of the most famous writers in the field of literature and “The Dead” is the last part of his short stories collection, Dubliners. The novel centers on the protagonist, Gabriel and his confrontation with three main female characters, Lily, Miss Ivors and Gretta. This thesis focuses on the subversion and containment of female image creation in “The Dead” from the perspective of New Historicism. The first part of the thesis analyzes the conception of New Historicism from two parts, “historicity of text and texuality of history” and “the power paradigm of subversion and containment”. In the second part, it discusses the subversive power of three female images through their self awakening and confrontations with Gabriel. In the third part, it demonstrates the containment upon the subversive power of three female images through the conflict between the two power paradigm and characters’ embodiment of the Irish national identity. Through the analysis from the perspective view of New Historicism, the author finds out that despite the obvious subversive effect of female image creation in “The Dead,” James Joyce, unable to break away from the mainstream ideology at that time, still defended what he attacked in an invisible way.
- Copyright
- © 2021 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press SARL.
- Open Access
- This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license.
Cite this article
TY - CONF AU - Han Yang PY - 2021 DA - 2021/11/29 TI - Subversion and Containment in Female Images: A Study of “The Dead” From the Perspective of New Historicism BT - Proceedings of the 2021 3rd International Conference on Literature, Art and Human Development (ICLAHD 2021) PB - Atlantis Press SP - 118 EP - 124 SN - 2352-5398 UR - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.211120.024 DO - 10.2991/assehr.k.211120.024 ID - Yang2021 ER -