从《美国悲剧》中看美国梦的破灭 The Broken American Dream in American Tragedy开题报告

1. 研究目的与意义（文献综述）

1）purposes and signifance

the works oftheodore dreiser have been significant to american society which was writtenaccording to his observation of american society for a long time and his lifeexperiences. he was born in a poor family: his father was a catholic and usedto do missionary work with his mother, and they moved to america escaping fromjoining army. his father was an emotional and bad-tempered person withoutskills to make a living. but his mother was a strong, kind person with faithand sympathy. all these traits of his parents can be seen from his novel anamerican tragedy. actually what had happened to clyde griffith in his novelwas what had happened to himself. that’s why theodore dreiser wasclassified as a realist novelist . the background of his family and educationhave helped him form the basic thoughts of his critical realism. through hiswhole life, he was fighting with capitalism as a brave, stubborn realistwriter. he was not accepted in america in his early days when people were crazyabout the ambitious american dream--everybody will have chance to become richand an upper class person. people were enjoying the entertainmenting activitieslike drinking , taking drugs,having sex, holding parties all day and all night.no writer tried to write the life of poor people, but focused on superficiallife of upper class, and theodore dreiser was the first writer to write thetrue life of poor people in american society at that time. his novel an american tragedy revealsthe corruption and sins of american society in 1920s with a worth ofresearch.

in 1920s ofamerica--the time before the economic crisis, the economy in america was bubbleeconomy with a fake sign that people had more and more money and were in theprocess of turning american dreams into reality.

2. 研究的基本内容与方案

my research objectsinclude to illustrate how the american dream broke and why it’s broken; pointout why the american dream has been so important for american literature; makeit clear why theodore dreiser has been labeld the pioneer ofrealist in america; define the american dream. figure out factors that have caused thisteagedy; findit out what the author waned to tell us in this novel. the technicalmethods of anaylization of an americantragedy.

firstly, read thechinese version of an american tragedy and the english version, try to grab the original meaning of the writer by vocabulary, tone and plots ofthis novel.

secondly, search thematerials from both overseas and china that mentioned theodoredreiser or american dream, and make a contrast between that from differentperiods, then relate the social background to figures by the way ofexemplifying how enviroment influenced figures.

3. 研究计划与安排

before 20th january : settlement of the title

before20th march:submission of the outline

before 25th april: submission of the first draft

4. 参考文献（12篇以上）

[1]barton,john cyril.”an american travesty:capitalpunishment the criminal justice system in dreiser’s an aerican tragedy.”real 18 (2002):357-84.