摘 要

《阿拉比》 是由詹姆斯. 乔伊斯所著小说集《都柏林人》当中的一篇短故事。 该小说讲述了一个少年暗恋上邻居的姐姐，然后不辞辛苦去中东集市“阿拉比”为心上人买礼物，结果却对集市真实的境况大失所望，梦想破灭的故事。本文主要借助Fillmore提出的框架语义学的方法来分析故事所传达的瘫痪主题。 本文将系统分析《阿拉比》中的精神瘫痪的主题框架是如何构建的，以便更加系统地理解该小说的中心思想。

关键词：詹姆斯.乔伊斯；《阿拉比》；框架语义学理论

Contents

1.Introduction 1

2.Demonstration 3

2.1 The introduction to frame construction 3

2.2 An Analysis of paralysis theme of Araby based on Frame Construction 4

2.2.1 The construction of governor frame 5

2.2.2 The construction of the frame of realistic Dublin 6

2.2.3 The construction of the frame of insensitive people 8

2.2.4 The construction of the frame of boy’s idealism 10

2.2.5 The construction of the frame of boy’s disillusion 11

2.2.6 The construction of the frame of boy’s epiphany 12

2.3 An interpretation of the spiritual paralysis 12

3. Conclusion 15

Work Cited 16

Bibliography 17

A Thematic Study of the Short Story Araby Based on Frame Theory

1.Introduction

James Joyce(1882-1941) is an Irish writer, one of the most outstanding writers in the world. He is regarded as the greatest modernist writer in the 20^th century for his innovation in stream-of-consciousness writing. As a master of stream-of-consciousness writing, James Joyce becomes the pioneer of western modernist literature. His stream-of-consciousness novel Ulysses has won him the worldwide fame. Because of his influence and big reputation in literature, James Joyce has become the symbol of Ireland, and Irishmen are so proud of him though few of them can understand his modernist works. All of his books were written about Dublin, but most of his life was spent outside of Ireland.

James Joyce was born into a middle-class family who lived in Dublin. His father was a provincial nationalist, while his mother was a pious Catholic believer without examination. He had ever been educated at Jesuit schools and was expected to be a priest, but he realized the degeneration of Catholicism and renounced it since he was a young boy. After he graduated from university, he left for the Continent in 1904 “for his spiritual father lies in Europe,”(qtd in Zhao Zhenhong, 2008:01) and from then on he lived in other countries until his death. Before long he made acquaintance with a girl called Nora Barnacle, and he married her in 1931. Joyce suffered from an eye disease and lived all his life on the verge of poverty, but he was devoted to his work as a writer. His works include Dubliners(1914), A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man(1916), a play Exile(1918), Ulysses(1922) and Finnegans Wake(1939).

Araby is one story of Dubliners--- a collection of 15 short stories. Dubliners is the first important work of Joyce’s as well as the only realistic work of his. Dubliners is divided into four parts by the author: childhood, adolescence, mature life and public life in Dublin. Araby is the third story of the book and belongs to the part of childhood. All of these stories are about one main theme--- the spiritual paralysis in Dublin. With no exception, Araby presents the theme of spiritual paralysis from the eye of a young boy, the hero and narrator in the story, who loves a girl secretly. By narrating the transformation of the boy’s sentiment, the author discloses the theme of spiritual paralysis.

In the 90 years of research on Joyce’s works in the west, most scholars concentrate on the research of his post-modernist stream-of-consciousness novels, while Dubliners receives not enough attention it deserves. Studies of Dubliners in China are less than those in foreign countries and only about 80 articles can be discovered in CNKI, which include some papers about Araby. These studies are comparatively trivial and lack systematic organizing.