《土生子》中种族问题的新历史主义解读

1    Introduction 

1.1   A Brief Introduction to Richard Wright 
Richard  Wright  (1908-1960),  a  prominent  African-American  fictionist,  essayist  in  the 20th century, was regarded as one of the most prosperous literary figures in Afro-American literature.A large number of his works are about racial themes between the African-Americans and the white in the USA, especially those involving the plight of Afro-Americans from the late 19th to the middle of 20th centuries. Some people believe his works are so influential that they help to improve the racial relationships between African-Americans and the white in the United States in the mid-20th century. Besides, his works have opened up a new chapter in the field  of  protest  novel  so  that  he  was  considered  as  a  forerunner  of  the  protest  novel. Meanwhile, his works had a great impact on such writers as Baldwin, Ralph Ellison and so on. In 1965, a public opinion poll in America showed that half of the 38 Afro-American writers in the  United  States  looked  Wright  as  the  most  outstanding  Afro-American  writer,  which manifests  the  inner  voice  of  the  black  literary  circle  in  the  start  of  the  twentieth  century (Kinnamon  2007).  As  a  popular  African-American  author,  Richard  Wright  has  made  great contribution  to  the  black  literature  and  to  the  American  literature  as  a  whole,  thus  he  is honored as “father of modern Afro-American novel” across the world. Like  most  poor  African-Americans  in  America,  Wright  was  born  in  a  poverty-stricken family on a plantation in Mississippi on September 4th, 1908. Both of his grandparents were slaves of the white people. His father, Nathan Wright, in a better situation, was a farmer who did  not  have  his  own  land  and  farmed  a  white  man’s  land,  while  his  mother,  Ella  Wilson Wright, once was a country teacher, and later gave up her job to help with the farming. Born to be black man, Wright grew up in an environment full of hostility from the white people. What is worse, in 1912, because of the dropping of cotton price, the economic conditions of the  farmers  in  the  south  of  America  were  affected  seriously.  As  a  result,  Wright  and  his families  had  to  move  to  Memphis,  Tennessee.  In  the  desperate  conditions,  Wright’s  father abandoned  the  family  when  he  was  still  a  child,  at  the  age  of  six;  subsequently,  his  mother was ill for a long time, both of which made their life much harder. Therefore, Wright had to live with all kinds of relatives who lived in the ghetto areas from time to time, for many times he  even  had  to  attend  a  Seven-day  Adventist  School  in  Mississippi.  His  formal  education ended  up  with  the  graduation  in  the  junior  high  school.  Although  supplied  with  limited opportunities to education, Wright himself never gave up learning and growing by all means he could find. Especially, he was thirsty for knowledge and crazy about reading. He kept on reading works of Mark Twain, Dreiser and Louis, from which he learned much about writing. At the same time, he started to write stories since he was in junior middle school. 
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1.2   Outline of Native Son 
Native Son is one of the influential novels of Richard Wright. It is the first novel about African-Americans  written  by  a  black  writer  in  America.  Henry  Seidel  Canby,  judge  for Book-of-the-Month  Club  remarked  it  is  “the  finest  novel  as  yet  written  by  an  American Negro” (Rowley 2001).With its special features, Native Son appeared in front of its readers, vividly reflecting the conditions of the African-Americans in that special historical period of the  twentieth  century.  Just  as  Wright  said  in  “How  Bigger  Thomas  Was  Born”,  “but  we  do have in the Negro the embodiment of a past tragic enough to appease the spiritual hunger of even a James; and we have in the oppression of the Negro a shadow athwart our national life dense  and  heavy  enough  to  satisfy  even  the  gloomy  broodings  of  a  Hawthorne.  And  if  Poe were  alive,  he  would  not  have  to  invent  horror;  horror  would  invent  him.”  (Wright  1998) Wright  pieced  together  the  fragments  of  history  of  trampled  African-Americans  and  the history of a real case to create the novel. Thus, Native Son has been proved to be a great epic and a milepost in the history of black American literature. Under  the  background  of  the  society  in  Chicago  in  the  1930s,  Native  Son  consists  of three  sections, which  are  section  one  to  three:  Fear,  Flight  and  Fate.  In  the  novel,  Wright portrays an African-American young man—Thomas Bigger, born as a poor black in America, who  is  tortured  by  material  poverty  and  spiritual  trauma.  In  the  novel,  Bigger’s  father  was killed  in  a  riot  by  the  white  and  the  rest  of  his  families  have  become  indifferent  atomized individuals rather than a kinship group combining their resources for survival and growth. His mother always complained that he was not a real man because he did not bring enough money back home. On the behalf of being given financial help from the white, he was offered a job as  a  driver  for  Mr  Dalton,  who  was  a  white  millionaire.  Though  the  Daltons  tried  to  be friendly  and  kind  to  Bigger  on  the  surface,  Bigger  was  not  able  to  eliminate  the  fear  and resentment for the white in the depth of his heart.  
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2   Literature Review  

2.1   Studies on Native Son Abroad 
A  number  years  after  its  publication  in  1940,  Native  Son  is  quickly  approached  and commented by a broad range of critics abroad. Native Son has won affirmative praises as well as  received  negative  criticisms  from  the  critics  in  the  circle  of  foreign  literature.  However, what is worth mentioning, since the 1960s, scholars have fully affirmed that the work is an influential  and  remarkable  one  in  the  history  of  American  literature,  in  particular,  they emphasized its great status in black literary field. Generally speaking, this novel is explored mainly  from  three  branches  of  explorations,  which  include  thematic  analyses,  political analyses, and analyses of narrative strategies. To start with, racialism is inevitably a principle focus in thematic analyses in Native Son. Racialism,  an  age-old  conflict  between  the  white  people  and  the  black  people,  has  been deliberately  hidden  in  the  USA  for  hundreds  of  years.  However,  Native  Son  makes  it presented in public. Clifton Fadiman, who was a reviewer for the Book of the Month Club, said that Native Son served the same as what Theodore Dreiser in An American Tragedy did one  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago  for  the  confused  white  people  in  the  USA,  therefore,  the people who read the work would get a clear map that what is the meaning to be a black people in the United States. (Reilly 1978) In other words, Wright makes a vivid description of what is the life of a black man in a society dominated by the white people.  Besides, In “Richard Wright’s nameless NATIVE SON”, James Nagel uses the blindness as a metaphor for white society’s racial myopia, which means the white seem to be blind to see the humanity of the black. Nagel points out that the the white Americans are not able to realize  the  humanity  of  the  African-American  people.(Nagel  2013)  Furthermore,  in “Incorporating the White Shadow: The Destructive Masculinities of Richard Wright”, Steven M. Gleeson shares the same viewpoint with Nagel, but he also points that the inequality and discrimination should not provide a reasonable excuse for the anti-social aspects of communal life. He disagrees to the violent reaction to the racialism. However, Demiturk and Lale insist that  it  is  by  violence  that  Bigger  has  challenged  and  threatened  the  black  images  in  the dominant whites’ mind, which are beasts and savages, devils and servants, and he has taken on  the  role  of  the  oppressor  in  an  attempt  to  alleviate  his  marginal  role  in  his  dire  social environment (Demiturk 2014).  
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2.2   Studies on Native Son at Home 
Although  Native  Son  was  first  published  in  March  1940,  it  did  not  get  to  China  until forty-three years later. In 1983, Native Son was introduced into Chinese people by Xianrong Shi.  Xianrong  Shi  is  a  famous  translator  in  our  country,  who  translated  Native  Son  from English into Chinese for the first time. Since then, Native Son has been widely read by our Chinese readers, and there followed the vigorous critical debates from different perspectives by many critics in China. In  April,  1991,  Chizhe  Wu,  a  professor  in  Inner  Mongolia  University,  submitted “Comments  on  Richard  Wright’s  Short  Stories”  at  the  National  Institute  of  American Literature,  he  mainly  analyzes  Wright’s  social  philosophy,  viewpoints  of  literature  and  art, ways  of  creation,  etc  (Wu  1911).  In  1993,  Chizhe  Wu  published  “The  Creation  Path  of Richard  Wright”  to  profoundly  analyze  Wright’s  whole  life  and  his  various  works,  which supply us with a clear framework about Wright (Wu 1993). In 1997, Tiesheng Hu, a professor in Jilin University, by analyzing the psychological motivation and personality fission resulting from the contemporary society, he clarifies the value of the typical character in the aesthetic sense (Hu 1997). In addition, Guilan Fan, a lecturer in Northwest Normal University, in her “On Artistic Image of Black People in Native Son”, illustrates the tremendous achievement of Native  Son:  on  one  hand,  it  shows  the  topic  with  a  realistic  approach  to  expose  racial discrimination  and  oppression  in  the  USA  at  that  time;  On  the  other  hand,  it  successfully shaped a typical artistic image—Thomas Bigger, who is a new generation of black resisting and  struggling  with  racial  discrimination  and  oppression  (Fan  2003).  What  is  more,  Yufeng Xue, a professor in the college of foreign languages in Henan University, in her “Comments on the ideological state apparatus in Native Son”, refers to that Native Son profoundly reveals the  ruling  class  uses  its  ideological  apparatus  to  realize  the  brutal  and  indiscriminate manipulation  of  the  people  who  are  ruled  (Xue  2004).  The  previous  researches  of  scholars help us with the further study on the popular novel. 
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3   Theoretical Foundation ...... 11 
3.1   A Brief Introduction to New Historicism ......... 11 
3.2   Key Terms of New Historicism ........ 13 
3.2.1   A Brief Introduction to Textuality of History ......... 14 
3.2.2   A Brief Introduction to Historicity of Texts ........... 15 
4   Textuality of History Embodied in Native Son .......... 17 
4.1   History Recorded in Native Son ....... 17
4.2   Marginalized Characters in Native Son .... 21 
4.2.1   Bigger—to Achieve Self-esteem by Violence ........ 21 
4.2.2   Bessie—to Numb Herself by Alcohol .... 24 
4.3   A Combination of History and Imagination in Native Son ...... 26 
5   Historicity of Texts in Native Son ...... 28 
5.1   The Influence of Wright’s Life Experience and Society .......... 29 
5.2   The Function of Native Son in Society and History ......... 31 
5.3   Native Son as One of Histories ......... 34 

5   Historicity of Texts in Native Son 

Consistent  with  historicity  of  texts,  Native  Son  is  not  only  a  product  of  social  and historical surroundings, but it is influenced by the author’s own identity, living surroundings, ethnics,  experiences  and  so  on.  What  is  more,  it  has  the  function  of  shaping  society  and historical development as well. Wright’s creation, different from the Old Historicism, which simply regards the history as the background of literature, he considers history as one possible frame  of  reference  which  might  help  make  the  literary  text  more  vivid  and  of  much importance.  In  other  words,  his  idea  is  in  accordance  with  historicity  of  texts  in  New Historicism. Native Son has made a complex dialogue between history and literature and has led literature to be one form of social discourses which make the fluid history. For Wright, the main body of his work is not literature or history, but to create literature in the framework of history.   

5.1   The Influence of Wright’s Life Experience and Society 
Richard  Wright  is  one  of  the  most  famous  black  writers  who  put  forward  intense criticism  for  American  society.  As  a  grandchild  of  slaves  and  the  child  of  an  illiterate sharecropper  and  a  country  schoolteacher  (Tuttleton  1992),  Wright  lived  in  a  difficult  and tortuous life and suffered discrimination and oppression from the white people, growing up in a hostile environment and feeling being abandoned by the society. At the same time, he was familiar  with  the  history  of  African-Americans  and  the  white,  and  he  knew  American traditions,  American  cultures  and  American  people,  as  well  as  struggles  and  contradictions between white and the African-Americans in the USA, in a way, just like Bigger, we can say that Wright himself is also Native Son of America. In ““How Bigger was born””, the author recollected  the  time  of  his  childhood  and  uses  it  to  make  an  analysis  of  his  Native  Son.  Wright lost his father early in his childhood and his mother was chronically ill, as a result, he suffered more than the common African-Americans in his life. Just as Claudia Tate once said Wright  read  extensively  and  knew  much  about  psychology,  moreover,  he  applied  his  own thoughts  to  his  works  (Tate  1998).  Similarly,  in  the  work,  Bigger  also  lost  his  father  at  an early  age,  Wright  depicts  Bigger’s  father  was  killed  in  a  riot  in  Mississippi,  and  he  was probably  murdered  by  the  white,  which  makes  “all  his  vague  dread  of  the  white  world  into hatred”(Fabre  1973),  therefore  the  death  of  Bigger’s  father  probably  is  the  basic  root  for Bigger about horror and hate for the white people.
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Conclusion 

As a new and important critical theory in the 20th century, New Historicism brings us a wider sphere of vision to interpret literary works. New Historicists advocate to analyze a text by all kinds of factors, such as the social, political and cultural situations, location, time and so  on.  Even  though  New  Historicism  still  faces  all  kinds  of  criticism  of  other  schools,  but there turn to be some points which are very reasonable, such as its two important concepts put forward by Louis A. Montrose: textuality of history and the historicity of texts. Based on the two core theories of New Historicism, the thesis makes a careful study on Native Son. Native Son is an outstanding novel which blends literary fiction with fragments of history in the past. It  is  evident  that  this  novel  contributes  to  reconstructing  the  history.  At  the  same  time,  it  is also shaped by history. On the surface, Native Son is a novel narrated by the past history of African-Americans in the USA in the beginning of twentieth century, in fact, it reveals many racial problems and criticizes the social system at that time. Richard Wright acutely captures the  characteristics  of  political  and  social  situation  at  that  time  and  shows  his  views  in  the novel. He narrated the past history and reconstructed the present history when the works was being created.  
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The reference (omitted)