《嘉莉妹妹》中明妮梦的解析 Interpretation of Minnie’s Dreams in Sister Carrie开题报告

1. 研究目的与意义（文献综述）

theodore dreiser was a famous american novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. sister carrieis his first novelabout a young country girl who moves to the big city where she starts realizing her ownamerican dream. it has been called the “greatest of all american urban novels”. since its publication, it has attracted attentions of critics and scholars from home and abroad at large. and plenty of researches about it have been done. and it seems that every stone has been turned up. however, studies on the novel mainly focus on three aspects: the disillusionment of the american dream, feminism and naturalism. most scholars concentrate on the main character carrie or the author and his writing style, while the minor characters that also play an important role in making the novel meaningful and complete are always neglected. this thesis will explore the novel from a unique perspective, which is of practical significance. it will center on the minor character minnie hanson, carrie’s elder sister and analyze her three dreams based on the psychological theory of interpretation of dreams by freud.

in the dissertation surprised by sister carrie: its current reception in china by yue xiao cui, she points out that there are a lot of problems in the researches on sister carrie. for example, there are too many repetitions instead of creative criticisms, and the quantity and quality of researches are out of proportion. sister carrie is a classic worthy of constant exploration and there remain plenty of meaningful points to be further studied.

as the subjects of psychology and psychoanalysis develop, study on dreams has made great progress, of which the most popular one is freud and his dream theory. some scholars try to find out the connection or relationship between literature and psychology. a few scholars have tried to utilize freudian dream theory to analyze dreams in literary works so as to reveal the information hidden behind dreams and to study the function and value of dreams. however, there are little achievements. therefore, this thesis will further study the essence and value of dreams in literature works.

the significance of this thesis lies in three aspects. first, according to freud, dream is a kind of fulfillment of desire. to interpret minnie’s dreams is to analyze her unconsciousness and to search for her desires, and thus to help readers better understand the character’s inner feelings and personality. second, this paper will analyze the influence and value of dreams in the story so as to help readers appreciate literary works better. third, according to the analysis of the social phenomena reflected from the dreams, readers can have a better understanding of american people’s life for the time.

2. 研究的基本内容与方案

with the development of psychology and psychoanalysis, research on dreams has become popular, of which the most notable and acceptable one is sigmund freud and the interpretation of dreams. for the connection between psychology and literature, the significance of dreams in literary works has been attached great attention of scholars from home and abroad. however, further study on this field is little. this thesis will employ freudian dream theory to interpret minnie’s three dreams in sister carrie so as to reveal the hidden message and to explore the influence and value of dreams in literature works.

the thesis includes five parts. the first part will briefly introduce theodore dreiser, previous reviews on sister carrie and the significance of this study. the second part will talk about relationship between psychology and literature. the third chapter will clarify freudian dream theory. the fourth chapter will analyze minnie’s dreams in detail and come to certain conclusions. the final part is a short summary as well as suggestions for further study.

contents

chapter Ⅰintroduction

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] dreiser,t. sister carrie[m].liaoning people’s press, 2013.

[2]freud, s. the interpretation of dreams [m],trans: a.a.brill.hertfordshire: wordsworth editions limited, 1997.

[3]lvxing..behind the masquerade-freudian interpretations of anna’s dreams in lessing’sthe golden notebook [d]. china,chongqingsouthwestuniversity,2011.