Empathetic Personification of William Thornhill in The Secret River  

作　　者：Ma Lu Peng Qinglong 

机构地区：[1]Shanghai Jiao Tong University,Shanghai 200240

出　　处：《学术界》2018年第10期225-236,共12页Academics

基　　金：the National Social Science Fund Key Project--Oceania Literature Research in Multicultural Perspective(16ZDA200); the National Social Science Fund Project-A Critical History of Contemporary Australian Literature(12BWW037).

摘　　要：Through a detailed text examination,this paper contends that albeit Kate Grenville'sThe Secret River is dedicated to interrogate white actions in the colonial past and expects to contribute to the process of reconciliation in Australia, it engages sympathy of readers through the empathetic personification of the protagonist William Thornhill,who is subtly positioned as a victim forced into morally dubious actions by extraordinary circumstances. The wrongdoing of the white settlers is normalized in a western conception of possessive logic,the plight of the Aborigines authentically diluted and minimized. This paper thus concludes that The Secret River is another white attempt to legitimize dispossession of the Indigenous and a failure of engagement in the national reconciliation process. This paper further points out that repressing the true history will never set Australia free; acknowledging collective guilt is the only way forward.Through a detailed text examination,this paper contends that albeit Kate Grenville'sThe Secret River is dedicated to interrogate white actions in the colonial past and expects to contribute to the process of reconciliation in Australia, it engages sympathy of readers through the empathetic personification of the protagonist William Thornhill,who is subtly positioned as a victim forced into morally dubious actions by extraordinary circumstances. The wrongdoing of the white settlers is normalized in a western conception of possessive logic,the plight of the Aborigines authentically diluted and minimized. This paper thus concludes that The Secret River is another white attempt to legitimize dispossession of the Indigenous and a failure of engagement in the national reconciliation process. This paper further points out that repressing the true history will never set Australia free; acknowledging collective guilt is the only way forward.

关 键 词：Empathetic PERSONIFICATION The SECRET RIVER SYMPATHY KATE GRENVILLE colonization dispossession 

分 类 号：C55[社会学]