东北师范大学网络教育本科论文

论文题目：英语客观试题对教学的影响

学生姓名：X XX

指导教师：XX X

学科专业：英语专业

学 号： X X X X X X X X X X X X X X

学习中心： X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X

东北师范大学远程与继续教育学院

20xx年X X月

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本人对本文有以下声明：

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4. 本人本文成稿过程中不存在他人代写、抄袭或和他人论文雷同的现象。

论文作者签名：

日 期： 年 月

摘 要

客观试题是目前认为最广泛、最有用的测试题型之一, 它具有实用性强、适用范围广、可靠性稳定等诸多特点。 客观试题多年来在我国各级、各类英语考试中一直被广泛采用， 对英语教学起到了一定的积极作用， 但它所产生的副作用也是不应回避的。 本文对部分多重选择题中的项目进行了深入的探讨和分析，希望在英语测试方面获得更加趋于合理的方案。

关键词：客观试题； 多重选择项目；英语教学；影响

前 言

早在60年代，罗伯特·拉杜就提出了一套系统的语言测试理论，他认为客观试题是一种有用的客观测试方法。杰比·希顿也高度赞扬了多项选择这一测试技巧：客观试题是目前认为最广泛、最有用的客观测试题型之一，影响结构语言学的客观试题尽管它设计起来较为困难，但使用和评分很容易。如果客观试题设计得合理，它应该具有以下诸多特点

一、客观试题的特点

（一）实用性(practicality)

以多项选择形式出的题评分客观，阅卷速度快，在大规模测试中尤为经济。这其中的原因之一是，在大规模的英语测试中，每位被测试者可得到一张单独的标准答题卡。这种答题卡可以利用计算机批卷，大大提高了阅卷速度，减少了繁重的人工劳动，同时也节省了开支。另一个重要原因是，多项选择的标准是一样的，其测试成绩对不同学校、不同时间、不同年级同等水平的学生有效。

（二）可靠性(Reliability)

客观试题之所以受到青睐， 还因为它具有很高的可靠性。一方面它能最有效地限制由个人情绪影响而引起的评分不公现象。另一方面，客观试题能够反复使用，只要用后管理好，测试者就不用担心信息泄漏问题。因为客观试题量很大，考生在考场上一直忙于答题。无暇去记忆很多的考题内容。正是由于客观试题具有评分可靠的特点，有些部门也开始采用这种客观的测试法代替传统的测试方法，如近些年职称考试已由原来以翻译为主的主观测试形式改为以阅读理解为主的多项选择客观测试形式。

（三）适用性(Applicability

多项选择可适用于几乎所有类型的测试之中，如：成绩测试、学能测试、诊断测试、水平测试、进步测试等。 同时，客观试题所涉及的内容广泛，可测试学生除说、写作能力以外的所有语言技能。如：听力、语法、词汇、阅读等。 客观试题除了能用于测试音韵学领域的知识外， 一些特殊的知识， 如方法与步骤、知识原理、因果关系等， 也可通过此方法得以考查与验证。

客观试题在大规模英语测试中发挥了积极作用，但其副作用也十分明显地暴露出来，以致于影响到学生的学习态度和学习方法，更重要的是影响了英语教学质量的提高。

下面笔者着重谈谈这方面的问题。

二、多项选择测试方法对我国英语教学的影响

《大学英语教学大纲》指出：“大学英语教学的目的，是培养学生具有较强的阅读能力、一定的听的能力、初步的写和说的能力，使学生能以英语为工具，获取专业所需要的信息，并为进一步提高英语水平打下较好的基础。”显然，大纲所要求考核的内容不仅是学生语法结构和词汇用法的熟练掌握程度，更重要的是考核学生语言运用能力。语言是交际工具，语言教学的最终目标就是培养学生以书面或口头方式进行交际的能力。因此，教学过程中，既要传授必要的语言知识，也要引导学生运用所学的语言知识和技能进行广泛的阅读及其它语言实践活动。换言之，教学活动不但要有利于语言能力的训练，也要有利于交际能力的培养，不仅要重视语句水平上的语言训练，还要逐步发展在语篇水平上进行交际的能力。

众所周知，考试是检查教学效果的手段之一，它必须服从教学需要，为教学服务。客观试题作为我国大学英语测试的主要手段也应服从《大纲》要求。但由于客观试题本身条件的限制，它在某些方面，如考查学生实际能力方面，与《大纲》规定的上述培养目标之间存在着很大矛盾。主要表现在以下几方面：

（一）语言要素与语言技能分离

现代语言学之父索绪尔把语言看作一个符号系统。这个符号系统是由语音、语法和词汇等要素构成的。在英语教学中，这三大要素一直是重点，既使在强调功能教学的今天，仍受到重视。因为它们是表达功能的手段，也就是进行思维和交际的重要手段。交际能力由听、说、读、写等语言技能构成，而语音、语法、词汇又是听、说、读、写等技能不可缺少的构成要素。它们之间的关系是密不可分的。

在实际交际中，“说”占有十分重要的地位。因为学语言的目的是利用这种语言工具顺利地完成信息交流的任务，也就是说，学以致用。既然“说”在交际中如此重要，自然它就应该成为被测试的主要项目之一。然而，多项选择题的答题过程不具有交际性（黄素华，1997），忽视文字的基本训练，不利于培养学生的创造力，比较适合考查“听”和“读”这样接受性的语言技能，属于知识性考试，不利于培养学生积极运用语言的能力。

（二）客观试题只能考查学生的语言接受能力。

客观试题在我国的使用与研究已有30余年的历史，经过实践检验，其不足之处已明显地表现出来，一些测试专家就明确地指出，客观试题不能测出学生的说和写等语言运用能力( productive ability)，所测试的仅仅只是学生读和听的语言接受能力(receptive ability)。刘润清，韩宝成（2004）指出，多项选择题的缺点是：（1）题目很难设计，费时费力；（2）不能测试考生的表达能力和推理、论证能力；（3）对教学和学习的反拨作用不好。邹申，杨任明（2000）把多项选择题的局限性分为以下几种：（1）无法测试语

言能力的运用，只适用于语言知识的测试。（2)不鼓励综合性或产生性语言技能(productive skills)的运用，如写作。（3)在一定的程度上鼓励学生盲目猜题(blind guessing)。

（4)命题工作耗时费力．对命题人员的业务素质要求高。（5)作为间接考试的一种形式，能否有效地测量语言能力仍是悬而未决的问题。（6)过多的使用可能对教学带来负面后效作用，不利于交际能力的培养。

下面以20xx年12月高等学校英语应试能力考试（B级）真题中的语法一题为例，简析多项选择题在测试考生语言能力方面的不足之处：

If more money had been invested, we ______ a factory in Asia.

A．will set up B. would have set up

C．have set up D. had set up

假定学生完全是靠自己的语言能力做出正确的选择B，即考试分数完全反映了学生的真实水平。一些学生根据题意知道本题需用虚拟语气，但自己写不出此用法的正确形式，也写不出这样的正确句子，此例说明为什么有些学生考试成绩不错，但实际运用能力很差的原因。

（三）客观试题所衡量的只是考生的推理或猜测能力

客观试题究竟能测试学生的何种能力，专家学者已进行了大量研究。C. 里德（1986）将之称其为“应试策略（Test-taking Strategy）”，他的分析指出：多项选择试题有这样一个特点—如果有两种选择非常相象，那么正确的答案通常就是其中之一，另一个则是用来以假乱真的。知道了这个规律就掌控了一个有用的窍门。

笔者认为，客观试题的一个致命缺点就是其测试的只是学生的推理或猜测能力。也就是不用任何知识做基础“蒙”的能力。据参加评阅19xx年硕士学位研究生英语考卷的一些教师反映，有些学生英语水平很差，运用型（英译汉、作文）和半运用型（指出错误）试题做得很糟。总计35分的运用型题只能得到5分甚至零分，而选择题（三大项共65分）却得了30分甚至还多。有些考生做第一大题C部分(20题10分)时，采用抽签办法判断正确答案或一律选择答案(A)竟然得了3分，而大多数学生也只得5-6分，少数考得好的学生也不过得8分左右。这样即使英语极差的学生用“打概率”分的办法也能得四分之一左右的分数，而有些英语基础较好的学生其得分却不一定高多少。按百分计算，其中以“打概率”分的办法得到的25分，就连任何一个不懂外语的人也能得到此分数，而从卷面上我们又很难判断哪些分数是靠能力得来的，哪些分数是靠猜测得到的。靠“蒙”得分的办法无疑给我们本该严肃、严谨的考试开了一个玩笑。然而此“玩笑”足已证明多项选择对学生学习态度的负面影响。当然，除客观试题以外的其它测试方法也含有猜测的因素，但猜测程度毕竟比客观试题形式少得多。这里需要指出的是：哪里过分强调客观试题的优越性，哪里就潜伏着违背教学大纲，不利于英语教学的隐患。多项选择这项测试手段对进一步提高学生语言运用能力方面不能称之为一种最佳的测试方法。 考试是检验教与学效果的一个有效手段，应该是对教学有所促进的。然而，由于我们的考试大量采用客观试题，导致学生根据自己的“实践经验”，认为英语学习不要下大

力气打牢基础，至于翻译、作文等作业更是敷衍了事，差不多就行。在考试前，希望教师不按照教学大纲辅导他们进行全面、系统的复习，只要求教他们怎样回答试卷，多做模拟题。这就造成了一些学生有时英语考试分数不低，但实际水平较差的现状。可以说，目前围绕多项选择测试进行的教学活动，有可能是对教和学的误导。

看来，考试与教学大纲及教学目的之间的矛盾必然导致教与学都有背离“目的”和“大纲”的趋势，从而给英语教学工作造成混乱。由于受考试成绩的影响，一些教师和学生议论纷纷，今后应按什么方向进行教学。为此，有的教师和学生强烈要求更换教材以适应英语考试的需要。

纽约市立大学约克学院的托马斯·惠勒教授在他所著的《美国人写作的巨大障碍》一书中说：“许多因素导致美国学生写作能力的下降，但没有任何一种因素比广泛应用的客观试题所起的有害作用更大。”客观试题对以英语为母语的美国年轻一代的影响尚且如此，更不要说对我国学生的影响了。美国著名的卡内基教育基金会在最近的一份题为《美国大学的状况》的研究报告中建议各大学修订新生选拔条例，停止要求高中毕业生参加多项选择入学考试。因为近来美国公众和学术界的呼声强烈，就连世界上最有权威的100%以客观试题形式出现的TOEFL也从19xx年7月开始增加了写作这一主观测试项目，以弥补单纯多项选择测试的固有缺陷。值得注意的是，在以英语为主的一些国家正在全力呼吁限制使用客观试题为主要的测试手段的情况下，这种测试方法目前在我国却仍有很大的市场。

三、积极改进测试方法，提高英语教学质量

随着中国国际贸易往来的日益增多，我国对有技术、懂外语人才需求量越来越大，尤其要求科技人员要有较强的外语口头表达能力和书面表达能力，以便适应工作需要，这就对我们从事英语教学人员提出了更高的要求。大学阶段采用什么样的英语教材、教学方法、测试手段，对提高英语教学效果、培养学生实际运用语言的能力，都将起着决定性的作用。

在还没有找到一种更合理的能取代客观试题这种考试办法之前，我国大规模的英语测试，可以采用如下方法加以改善。

（一）采用混合选择项

以新编实用英语综合教程1（辽宁版）第125页第9题其中的5个小题为例：

recent confident popular culture understanding

1. The company has ________ bought a new office in central Boston.

2. Patrick was ________of his ability to get the job.

3. Golf is gaining _______with the rich people in this country.

4. They are talking about the ______ differences between the two nations.

5. Her poor French often led to ______ when she visiting France.

这种混合选择题与客观试题相比有以下特点：(1)经济。(2)避免靠“打概率”的办法得分。(3)迫使学生在理解的基础上选择正确的答案，减少了“蒙”的因素。(4)评分客观。

（二）在有上下文语境下进行多项选择

这是客观试题使用的成功之处。但在测试内容和形式上还需完善。例如：(1)增加新闻方面阅读材料；(2)通过文章测试学生的基本技能。如查读和略读这也是大纲要求学生掌握的技能，并对今后阅读英文文献很有用。

（三）加大运用型题量

所谓运用型题即是能够客观、真实地测试学生掌握和运用语言能力的试题。如，作文、缩写、翻译等一些常说的“主观性”试题。这些试题所测试的是学生掌握英语知识的程度和运用语言的能力，是“硬通货”，充分体现了“大纲”的精神，其中翻译在20xx年12月大学英语四级测试题中，已作为新题型出现。另外，高考和研究生英语试卷中常出现的“根据拼音写单词”、“词类转换”、“用正确的动词形式填空”等客观性试题是很好的，在测试效果上明显优于客观试题，只不过不能用微机来评分。

结 论

应该说，试题的主观性和客观性不能只靠从形式上来区分，更不应该靠评分是否客观就给试题定性“主观性”与“客观性”。所以客观试题应该是一种消极的识别接受型试题。

事实上，每种测试方法都有其独特的长处，但同时也必有其副效应，不会有任何一种测试方法是万能的，且无任何缺点。因此，每一种测试方法都有一定的适应范围。为了能够客观全面地测出学生的真实语言水平，符合教学目的及大纲要求，采用单一的测试方法是不可取的。除非只测试单一的某项语言技能，否则，同一次测试中采取多种测试方法是非常必要的。

参考文献

[1] Writing, H. J.B. English Language Test. London: Longman. 1989.

[2] Lado, R.. Language Testing. London: Longman. 1959.

[3] Schalz, R. Discrete Point Versus Simulated Communication Testing in Foreign Language.

Modern Language Journal. 1977.

[4] C. 里德 [美]，李庭芗 李守京 李守明 刘来牛（编译），《英语测试》，北京：人民教育出版社，1986。

[5] 黄素华，多项选择题出题技巧及应用，《外语界》，1997（3）。

[6] 孔庆炎 刘鸿章，《新编实用英语综合教程》，北京：高等教育出版社，2008。

[7] 刘润清 韩宝成，《语言测试和它的方法》，北京：外语教学研究出版社，2004。

[8] 盛炎，《语言教学原理》，重庆：重庆出版社，2006。

[9] 田彬 吴迪，《高等学校英语应试能力考试最新历年真题详解》，上海：复旦大学出版

社，2011。

[10] 邹申 杨任明，《简明英语测试教程》，北京：高等教育出版社，2000。

 

第二篇：英语专业毕业论文范例

附件10 学士学位论文

新疆医科大学

（华文行楷 一号 加粗 居中 字间距4磅）

T H E S I S O F B A C H E L O R D E G R E E 学士学位论文

（黑体 小初 加粗 居中 字间距4磅 ）

论文题目：（中文）×××××××

（英文）×××××××

学 生 姓 名 × × × × 学 科 专 业 × × × × 指 导 教 师 × × × × 研究起止时间 × × × × 所 在 学 院 × × × ×

（宋体 三号 加粗） （宋体 三号 加粗 下划线）

××年××月××日

（宋体 四号 加粗）

摘 要

19xx年出版的《金色笔记》是英国当代女作家多丽丝·莱辛最著名的长篇小说。该小说气势宏大，结构独特。小说把人物心理分析、社会政治批评、小说形式实验三者融为一炉，具有深刻的思想内涵和丰富的审美价值。本文主要分析该小说形式方面的创新意义。 多丽丝·莱辛在该小说中对当代小说形式与现实表征之间的关系作了深入地思考与大胆地探索。她模拟现代西方立体主义画派在现实表征中所采用的时空共存、多元角度和反身观察的构成原则和艺术手段构建了一种全新的小说形式。本文运用跨学科的研究视角解读《金色笔记》，分析小说形式与立体主义画派在表现现实方面的共通之处，旨在说明二者在现实表征方面所遵循的构成原则和采取的艺术手段是相同的，对文学艺术表征现实的局限性的认识也是一致的。

本文从三个方面来阐述相关论点。论文的第一章追溯西方小说形式的变迁以及莱辛小说的形式在现实表征过程中所体现的独创性。第二章阐述小说与绘画的关系，进而确立立体主义画派与小说《金色笔记》之间的关系。第三章通过深入分析小说形式中呈现出来的立体主义画派构成原则和艺术手段来论证二者之间的相通之处。

本文运用跨学科的研究方法解读《金色笔记》的小说形式是一种创造性的、有意义的尝试，以期为充实莱辛小说研究提供一个新的视角和研究思路。

关键词：立体主义;小说形式;现实表征;构成原则;时空共存;多元角度;反身观察

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Abstract

The Golden Notebook is the most famous work by Doris Lessing. It is remarkable for its rich characterization, sharp political and social criticism, and original experiment on the novel form. The thesis mainly focuses on the significance of Lessing’s experimentation on the novel form.

Doris Lessing reflects upon and explores the relation between representation of reality and novel forms in the book. Based on the shaping principles by Cubism, the most influential Western art movement in modern times, she constructs the novel form of The Golden Notebook. The principles include the union of time and space, multiplicity of perspectives in representing reality and reflexivity in literary and art creation and observation.

The paper expounds the argument from three aspects. Chapter One traces the historical evolution of novel forms and highlights the originality of the novel form in The Golden Notebook. Chapter Two illustrates the close relation between novel and painting and specifies the parallel relation between the novel form in The Golden Notebook and Cubism. Chapter Three analyses in detail the novel form of The Golden Notebook and its parallel relationship with Cubism in terms of shaping principles and dynamics.

The interdisciplinary perspective employed in the thesis intends to provide a different reading and research orientation in evaluating the novel form.

Key words: Cubism; novel form; representation of reality; shaping principle; simultaneity; multiplicity; reflexivity

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Contents

Abstract (Chinese & English)

Introduction ................................................................................................................ 1

Chapter One: Forms in Novel ................................................................................... 7

1.1 What Is Form?.................................................................................................... 7

1.2 The Evolution of Novel Forms .......................................................................... 8

1.3 What Is New in the Form of The Golden Notebook ........................................ 11

Chapter Two: Novel and Painting .......................................................................... 15

2.1 Novel and Painting........................................................................................... 15

2.2 What Is Cubism? .............................................................................................. 18

Chapter Three: Cubism in the Form of The Golden Notebook ............................ 20

3.1 Simultaneity: The Union of Time and Space ................................................... 20

3.1.1 Temporal Form in The Golden Notebook ................................................. 22

3.1.2 Spatial Form in The Golden Notebook ..................................................... 24

3.2 Multiplicity: Fragments and Unity................................................................... 26

3.2.1 Breaking into Fragments: Divided Selves in the Four Notebooks........... 28

3.2.2 Parts into Whole: the Golden Notebook .................................................. 31

3.2.3 An Irony: Free Women............................................................................. 31

3.3 Reflexivity: From Reality to Observation........................................................ 34

Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 39

Bibliography............................................................................................................... 44 Acknowledgements

学位论文独创性声明

学位论文知识产权权属声明

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Introduction

Literary Review of Doris Lessing and The Golden Notebook

After many years of toiling in writing, Doris Lessing has now safely established herself as being “the most extraordinary woman writer” (Greene, 1994: 1) and “very much a representative writer for our time” (Bloom, 1986: 7). Her major work The Golden Notebook has been ranked by many critics as “one of the most powerful of post-war British novels” and “the most remarkable work by a woman to appear in Britain since Virginia Woolf’s” (Bradbury, 2004: 381).

Doris Lessing’s critical reputation is remarkable from the very beginning of her literary career. Her success as a professional writer began with the publication of her first novel The Grass Is Singing. It was accepted by Michael Joseph in London in 1950 and was an instant success, being immediately recognized as an exceptional novel on colonialism. “I had very good reviews, and I had enough money to keep me going for a bit” (Bookshelf, 1992), as Doris Lessing recalled her early success in an interview by BBC Radio. Her fame has gained steadily ever since.

It took Lessing nearly two decades following her first novel to write her next important work, the series of Children of Violence, between 1952, when Martha Quest was published, and 1969, when The Four-Gated City appeared. In the context of postwar retreat to the conventional and the conservative, The Children of Violence was “something new” (Greene, 1994: 15) indeed. It focuses on Martha Quest’s difficult, painful process of educating herself in search of true identity. Despite its conventional form, the vivid depiction of Martha’s growth in consciousness evokes the warm sympathy from many readers, especially young women who seemed to have undergone similar frustration. True to what Jenny Taylor observes, “Martha’s quest became the epic, archetypal story of our times” (Taylor, 1982: 5).

With the publication of The Golden Notebook, Lessing seems to have reached the peak of her literary fame. The impact it brought to readers as well as critics is tremendous. Gayle Greene frankly evaluates it as “a transformative work and touchstone for a generation” (Greene, 1994: 17).

Despite her intention of minimizing feminism both as a historical and a contemporary influence on her writing, Lessing is regarded as one of the early voices of the feminist movement, and The Golden Notebook one of its key texts. Margaret Drabble hails The Golden Notebook as “a document in the history of (women’s) liberation”(Showalter, 2004: 311). “It was the first book I’ve read, apart from Simone de Beauvoir’s Second Sex, which seemed to be really addressing the problems of women in the contemporary world,” says Margaret Drabble, “Nobody seemed to have written about them in the way that we were experiencing them” (Bookshelf, 1992). Showalter uses the word “monumental” to highlight it among the works of twentieth-century women writers. She interprets the novel as “the work of essential feminist implications” (Showalter, 2004: 311). Elizabeth Wilson describes it as “a manual of woman experience” (Wilson, 1982: 71). Susan Lardner calls it “a feminist gospel, a representative of Modern Woman” (Lardner, 1983: 144). Susan Lyndon describes it as “almost a Little Red Book of women’s liberationists,” “probably the most widely read and deeply appreciated book on the women’s liberation reading list, Simone de 4

Beauvoir’s The Second Sex and Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique notwithstanding” (Lyndon, 1970: 48). Ellen Brooks describes Lessing’s depiction of women as “the most thorough and accurate of any in literature” (Brooks, 1973: 101).

However, Doris Lessing herself is somewhat indignant with such critical categorization. In the 1971 introduction to The Golden Notebook, she clarifies that “the novel was not a trumpet for Women’s Liberation” (Lessing, 1975: 25). She declares that rather than the sex war, the theme of “breakdown” was the point she aimed at in her novel. She questions the validity of grouping her and her work into feminism and the Women’s Liberation Movement by pointing out that the novel came out ten years earlier than the launching of the Movement (Lessing, 1975: 24).

While women are thrilled to find themselves truly depicted and named in the book, the novel receives very different readings from men. To be sure, some men recognize its importance. For example, Louis Kampt describes Lessing’s massive novel as a “significant and exemplary attempt to deal with,” “the central questions of modernism” and “a very true, and very great work of art” (Kampt, 1967: 322,326). Robert Taubman believes it is “unique in its truthfulness and range” (Taubman, 1964: 402). And Irving Howe calls it “the most absorbing and exciting piece of new fiction I have read in a decade” (Howe, 1986: 181). But most other male critics and reviewers find some ways to discount it. Anthony Burgess laments and dismisses The Golden Notebook as “a crusader’s novel,” “unacceptable as a work of art” (Burgess, 1967: 19). P.W. Frederick McDowell similarly criticizes the novel, saying that it is “disorganized,” “subjective” and “a cross between a standard novel and a confession” (McDowell, 1965: 330). Other critics concede that The Golden Notebook has interest for what is revealed about women’s lives but deny that it is art. Walter Ellen concludes that the novel “fails as a work of art” and “the structure is clumsy, complicated rather than complex” (Ellen, 1964: 277). Frederick Karl calls it “the most considerable single work by an English author in the 1960s,” but he too dismisses it on purely literary grounds as “a carefully organized but verbose, almost clumsily written novel” (Karl, 1971: 291). James Gindin, one of the first critics on Doris Lessing, criticizes Lessing’s tendency to condition her characters historically, which suggests an aesthetic shortcoming in creating unforgettable characters that may transcend time and place (Gindin, 1986: 24). Even Harold Bloom, the chief editor of Modern Critical Views, suggests in his introduction to the book that Doris Lessing lacks the style that a piece of art may need when he remarks “Lessing has the spirit, if not the style, of the age” (Bloom, 1986: 7).

More recent criticism shares Doris Lessing’s denial of The Golden Notebook as a feminist text. And many critics are aware of its scope which goes beyond feminist concerns. Ruth Whittaker remarks that reading The Golden Notebook is that of absorbing several different novels (Whittaker, 1988: 75). This observation is true because people’s responses vary according to their process of growth and changing perceptions. And The Golden Notebook is credited with the title of an “encyclopedia of ideas” (Greene, 1994: 1). Viewed in this light, the title is appropriate because The Golden Notebook takes on a lot of big issues at present, including sex, race, class, imperialism, the hope and failure of communism, mental illness and psychosis, even the art and problems of writing. All of these big things are included in one 600-page, epic-like novel. Joanne Frye’s argument also 5

supports the view that the novel “does not argue a feminist position or even center exclusively in female experiences; instead it examines broadly the crises of the twentieth century society and the problems of characterizing those crises in novelistic form” (Frye, 1986: 172). The criticism listed above seems to prove that the novel accomplishes quite well Lessing’s ambition “to describe and present the intellectual and moral climate of the time” (Lessing, 1975: 28).

While some critics explore the themes of The Golden Notebook, others notice the innovation Doris Lessing does on the form. Because of its structure of a novel inside a novel, some critics classify The Golden Notebook into metafiction. Malcolm Bradbury is sure of its metafictional category as he says, “The Golden Notebook is no doubt a work of metafiction” (Bradbury, 2004: 380). For other people, the form of The Golden Notebook carries the theme of “fragmentation” or “breakdown” in a way that the novel itself has been fragmented into different sections. In his introduction to the Chinese version of The Golden Notebook, Chen Caiyu maintains that the form of the novel explains the content included in the novel (Chen Caiyu, 1999: 72). And Jiang Hong shares his view as to the form of the novel ( Jiang Hong, 2003: 95).

With The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing has secured her place in the literary world. Honors from all levels and many countries heap on her ever since. In June 1995, she received an Honorary Degree from Harvard University. She was on the list of nominees for the Nobel Prize for Literature and Britain’s Writer’s Guild Award for Fiction in 1996. And the honors keep on coming: her autobiography was nominated for the 1997 National Book Critics Circle Award in the autobiography/biography category. In May 1999, she was presented with XI Annual International Catalunya Award, an award by the government of Catalunya. On December 31,1999, in the last Honors List before the new Millennium, Doris Lessing was appointed a Companion of Honor, an exclusive honor for those who have done conspicuous national service. It was officially bestowed by Queen Elizabeth II. In 2001, she was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize in Literature, one of Spain’s most important distinctions, for her brilliant literary works in defense of freedom and Third World causes. She has also received the David Cohen British Literature Prize ().

Doris Lessing is a very prolific writer. Besides The Golden Notebook, she published nineteen novels, eleven volumes of short stories, six works of nonfiction, five plays, and a volume of poetry, and two volumes of autobiography. Her works are widely translated, and she is recognized internationally as a committed novelist dealing with serious issues. Her most recent novel The Sweetest Dream was published in 2001.

The Significance of the Thesis

Many critics have discussed the themes in The Golden Notebook. In fact, widely included in the novel are familiar themes, which have been explored by different generations of writers. What is different and new about The Golden Notebook is its form, with itself echoing the content in its fragmentation so that theme and form reflect each other. As Ruth Whittaker said, “The Golden 6

Notebook was a radical examination of the novel form” (Whittaker, 1988: 76).

However, many critics tend to downplay the significance and the function of the novel form Doris Lessing took pains to elaborate. In one of her letters to the publisher, Doris Lessing claims that The Golden Notebook is an attempt to “go beyond what has been possible” and “provides a new way of look at life” (Lessing, 1974: 20). She once again asserts in an interview that “It (The Golden Notebook) was a very highly structured book, carefully planned and the point of that book was the relation of its parts to each other” (Lessing, 1975: 51). She also accuses people of their indifference to or misunderstanding with the significance of the shape of the book as she says, “they were not interested in the shape of the novel, and the point of that shape, and what it meant” (Lessing, 1975:

51).

Then, what is the shape of the novel? And what is the point of that shape? And what does it mean? We may as well ask ourselves these questions Doris Lessing once asked us. To her regret, there appears no such article or treatise so far on a thorough exploration of the form of The Golden Notebook to do justice to Lessing’s admirable effort in enriching the novel forms and narrative techniques. Most reviews and criticism bend on the discussion about the themes in the novel while remarking on the novel form in no more than several lines. What Doris Lessing suggests to us is that the key to understanding the book lies in its form. And the writer’s own words cannot afford to be discounted.

Form usually serves as the carrier of the content and the instrument to convey the content to readers. In fact, literature transmits ideology significantly from forms. As Terry Eagleton suggests, “the true bearers of ideology are the very forms,” and “in selecting a form, the writer finds his choice already ideologically circumscribed” (Eagleton, 1976: 45). In Fredric Jameson’s view, “formal processes” “carry ideological messages of their own, distinct from the ostensible or manifest content of the works” (Jameson, 1982: 98-99). Raymond Williams describes forms as “involving social assumptions of causation and consequence” (Williams, 1977: 176). In fact, Jameson extends the ideology of form to the aesthetic act itself. He elaborates that “the production of aesthetic or narrative form is an ideological act in its own right, with the function of inventing imaginary or formal solutions to irresolvable social contradictions” (Jameson, 1982: 79).

As is shown from what are quoted above, it’s a shared view that the form an artist or a writer chooses reflects his or her perceptions and outlooks about the outside world. To sum up, the formal study of a work is not only necessary but also important to the understanding of the work and its writer. If, as Lessing claims, she tries something new in the form of The Golden Notebook, which she thinks as being overlooked by most critics of her time and not given a justified consideration, I think it’s necessary to analyze, in my thesis, the form of The Golden Notebook so as to find a key to better understand her and her marvelous work.

Format of the Thesis

The thesis is an attempt to find the plausible explanations to the problems the previous critics have overlooked, or could not foresee, or have not solved, on the study of the novel form in The 7

Golden Notebook.

The thesis falls into three chapters. Chapter One is a survey of novel forms in literature history. Chapter Two provides an introduction to the relation between novel and painting, the theoretical background from which my thesis has been developed. Chapter Three presents a detailed study of the form in The Golden Notebook and its parallel relation with Cubism.

The Golden Notebook is to be abbreviated as GN when the quotations from it are involved.

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Chapter One

Forms in Novel

If there is something new in the form of The Golden Notebook, it is necessary for us to be informed of what is old based on the survey of the evolutionary history of novel forms. In doing so, we may understand and appreciate better the innovation in the very form of The Golden Notebook. Before our brief survey of the historical change in the novel form, it is necessary to explain the word “form” and in what sense of it that I build on my thesis.

1.1 What Is Form?

“Form” is one of the most frequently used terms in literary criticism, but also one of the most diverse in terms of its meanings. It is often used merely to designate a genre or literary type (“the lyric form”, “the short story form”), or for patterns of meter, lines and rhymes (“the verse form”, “the stanza form”). It is also, however, the term for a central critical conception. In this application, the form of a work is the principle that determines how a work is ordered and organized (Abrams, 2004: 101).

The concept of form varies according to critics’ specific assumptions and theoretical orientation. Many neoclassic critics, for example, think of the form of a work as a combination of component parts, matched to each other according to the principle of decorum (a term designating the propriety, or fitness in unity of subject matter, characters, actions and the style). In the early nineteenth century, Samuel Taylor Coleridge distinguished between the mechanic form, which is a fixed, preexistent shape, and the organic form, which is like a growing plant achieving its final form, in which the parts are integral to and interdependent with the whole (Burke, 1973: 27-91). Many New Critics use the word “structure” interchangeably with “form”, and regard it primarily as an interaction or ironic and paradoxical tension in an organized totality of “meanings”. Various exponents of Archetypal Theory regard the form of a literary work as a recurrent pattern of human experience which shares with myths, rituals, religions and dreams. And structuralists conceive a literary structure based on the model of linguistic theory (Wellek, 1963: 59-88). Narratologists concern the general theory and practice of narratives in all literary forms. They deal especially with academic explorations such as types of narrators, the identification of structural elements and their diverse modes of combination, recurrent narrating devices. Narratologists, accordingly, do not treat a narrative in the traditional way, as a fictional representation of life, but as a systematic formal construction. In other words, they focus on the formal patterns and technical devices of narrative to the exclusion of its subject matter and social values. R. S. Crane, a leader of the Chicago School of criticism, however, made a distinction between “form” and “structure”. The form of a literary work is the “dynamics”, the particular working or emotional power that the composition is designed to effect, which functions as its shaping principle. This formal principle controls and synthesizes the 9

“structure” of a work (Crane, 1953: 69). In so doing, he bridges the formal study, or more specifically, the narratological way of formal study of a literary work, with social, historical and cultural study, placing the formal study into a larger social, historical and cultural context. The formal study, thus, acquires a greater depth than before. In this thesis, I base my survey of the novel form in The Golden Notebook mainly on the sense of “form” as proposed by Crane by analyzing first the mechanical structure in form, and then exploring the shaping principle behind it.

1.2 The Evolution of Novel Forms

As far as novel forms are concerned, the classification is quite different based on different standards and criteria. Novels can be classified into dozens of forms, and may belong to several of these categories at the same time. Distinctions among forms can be drawn in many ways. Such distinctions include the form in which the works are written, such as epistolary novels, which take the form of letters written between or among characters; the settings, such as regional novels, which focus on life in a certain area; and the purpose, such as propaganda novels, which try to convince the reader to adopt a certain point of view. Other examples of distinct forms include picaresque novels, which describe the adventures of rogues; Gothic novels, which describe ghosts and other elements of the supernatural; science fiction, which portrays other worlds or other possibilities for our world; and detective stories, which focus on mysteries. A few broad genres of the novel reflect some general tendencies. Social novels tend to focus on the outward behavior of characters and how other characters react. Psychological novels explore the inner workings of an individual’s mind. Education novels recount a person’s development as an individual. Philosophical novels provide a platform for authors to explore intellectual or philosophical questions. Popular novels usually involve adventure, intrigue, romance or mystery to appeal to a wide range of people. Experimental novels are works in which writers make major innovations in form and style. My thesis intends to focus more on the history of narrative experiments done to the novel form itself rather than discussing it in the light of literary genres.

A review of the history of experimentation on the form of novel is of vital importance for a better understanding of the significance of Doris Lessing’s uniqueness and contribution as far as The Golden Notebook is concerned.

As the most flexible form of all narrations, the novel form has never been monolithic. Writers in each generation make effort in creating something new to the novel forms. One of the earliest examples of the novel of experimentation is Tristram Shandy (1759-1767) by English writer Laurence Sterne. The book is the autobiography of Tristram Shandy but Tristram himself does not appear until the middle part of the novel. And the book does not narrate Tristram’s life events accordingly. Instead, it dwells much on small details about the book itself. The novel is filled with asides, wild scholarly digressions, comic scenes, blank pages (to be filled in by the reader), and other experimental features, including a black page to express grief for a departed character (Sterne, 1978). Sterne’s Tristram Shandy opens up a new front for the novel: experimentation with structure and language.

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During the 19th century the prevailing trend in the novel was realism. The realistic novel relies on the principle of imitating the familiar surface of real life. The form of realistic novels are conventional, including an omniscient point of view, a chronological narrative with a beginning, middle part and an end, as well as conventional sentence structure and non-reflexive subject matter. But still, some experimental efforts appeared at this time. One example is Notes from Underground(1864) by Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky. Dostoevsky plunges the reader into the narrator’s complex mindset (Dostoevsky, 1993). The term underground refers to the narrator’s inner psychology, which dominates the novel and allows the reader little objective perspective. This immersion of the reader in an individual’s thoughts was not a common literary approach at the time.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries novelists experimented with narrative form and also continued to produce realistic works with conventionally resolved plots. One of the most important English novelists of the early 20th century was Joseph Conrad. Conrad is considered a master of prose in the English language, and a transitional figure from realism to modernism (Wang Zuoliang & Zhou Yuliang, 1994: 206). Conrad challenges the 19th-century manner of telling a story. In most novels up until this time there is a narrator who describes the characters and action but is outside the story itself. Conrad’s novels employ a character who tells a story within the frame of a third-person narrative. The results open unsettling questions — questions about whom the reader should trust and believe. Conrad also breaks from tradition by using symbolic patterns and recurring images to convey meaning to the reader, rather than the long descriptive passages favored by 19th-century novelists.

The 20th century is a time of innovation in form and exploration of new subject matter for the novel. The movement, known as “Modernism”, challenges the mimetic quest of the realistic novel. Virginia Woolf wrote a manifesto for the 20th-century writers in her essay “Modern Fiction” (1925). Life, she argues, is not what the 19th-century realists plotted:

Life is not a series of gig lamps symmetrically arranged; life is a luminous halo, a semi-transparent envelope surrounding us from the beginning of consciousness to the end. Is it not the task of the novelist to convey this varying, this unknown and uncircumscribed spirit, whatever aberration or complexity it may display, with as little mixture of the alien and external as possible?

(Woolf, 1985: 2034)

Woolf’s manifesto reflects a shift of artists’ interest from the outside world to man’s inner life. She uses the stream-of-consciousness technique, a literary technique in which authors represent the flow of sensations and ideas, to capture the fleeting and chaotic human conscious and subconscious (Li Weiping, 1996: 4). In her works, the linear narrative structure, which is characteristic of realistic novels, gave way to a more fragmented prose, or fluid, unorganized thoughts were expressed without formal sentence structures. The omniscient point of view is dissected into a multiplicity of apparently random impressions. The chronological narrative is modified or abandoned. Woolf’s 11

experimentation on the novel form adds the new dimension to plot and the depth of character portrayal.

James Joyce, the Irish writer, also rejects the traditional plotted novels in favor of narratives that register the less-regular motions of consciousness. He expands on stream-of-consciousness technique in Ulysses (1922), a detailed recounting of the events and moments of consciousness in the lives of several Dublin residents during a single day (Joyce, 1988). The book is Joyce’s masterpiece, an exploration of the possibilities of the English language and a work that renders both the physical world of his characters and the workings of their minds (Li Weiping, 1996: 90).

American writer William Faulkner follows the trend of European authors such as Virginia Woolf and James Joyce, in innovating with style. Like the European authors, Faulkner’s greatness lies not only in his themes but also in his way of rendering them — with experiments in fragmented narrative. In novels such as As I Lay Dying (1930), Faulkner uses stream of consciousness to reproduce the perceptions of different people and to mix fact with legends and illusions (Faulkner, 1990). One of his goals is to present the world as a place where no objective truth exists — that is, a place in which each person has a dramatically different impression of the world (Li Weiping, 1996: 212).

Experiments with various aspects of the novel continued through the latter half of the 20th century. In 1962 Doris Lessing published The Golden Notebook. The form of the book is so new that most readers, even the critics, felt too shocked to make sense of it at first. But the significance of the novel form and Lessing’s contribution to the experimentation on the novels has been noticed over time. Then what is new in its form? The next section devotes to the description of the uniqueness in the form of The Golden Notebook.

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Conclusion

The central question raised both in Cubism and The Golden Notebook is how to depict reality or truth (the word used by Anna), either by means of artistic devices or by literary forms and language. To find a form for suitable representation of reality is invariably the task for writers and artists in all generations.

Since Aristotle, many writers and critics maintain the theory of mimesis that literature and art should imitate reality as truly as they can. For example, Shakespeare holds “mirror theory” to define the nature and function of literature. Dryden claims that literature should be true to real life (Yin Qiping & Gao Fen，2001：4-6). In modern criticism, Tzvetan Todorov invents the term “verisimilitude” to establish the major characteristic in the tradition of mimesis theory. By verisimilitude he means that literary works should be in accordance with realities, which are identified and represented in realistic ways in their works (Culler, 1975: 208). The art theories development follows nearly the same route as literary theories do. As I have discussed in previous chapters, before Cubism, artists’ views and representation of external reality are largely realistic in terms of themes and techniques. Therefore, literary works and artistic works before the 20th century are essentially mimetic to the external world. To some extent, before the 20th century, the value of a literary work and art was determined by its ability to imitate the outside world. The more accurate, minute a description of the external details is, the more successful it is as an art to mirror the external reality. The fundamental reason for mimetic mode of representing the world is that people take the external reality as stable, objective, independent of human consciousness and observation. The reality is just “out there”. The task of novelists and artists is to imitate them as vividly and truly as they can.

However, in each generation, there are those writers and artists who set out to subvert the realist tradition, to show how it is inadequate for their own particular time, to find out other ways of conveying their perceptions of what constitutes reality. Since Henry James, some writers and critics question the validity and effectiveness of mechanical mimesis theory in literary representation of reality. Henry James first points out that the novel is nothing but “personal impressions on life” (James, 1979: 487). For him, the novel is largely the product of fleeting impressions and its extension by means of imagination which is highly subjective and flexible due to people’s various imaginative ability, personal insights and experience in life. In recent years, Raymond Williams also emphasizes the importance of individual subjectivity in interpreting and representing reality in their works. He believes that the traditional realism depends too much on merely copying and recording outside reality whereas the human subjective intervention in understanding and interpreting reality has been overlooked. He adds further that the so-called reality is not objective, and independent of human perception. It is forever changeable and interactive with human observation and cognition (Williams, 1992: 93).

The two world wars further shake people’s faith in their ability and rationality to control and understand the outer world. The stable, orderly, objective world seems to have been shattered into 13

chaos and abyss, which is beyond people’s grasp and control. People’s attitudes and views toward external reality have changed dramatically. Against such historical background, Modernism becomes the main trend of intellectual thinking and literary and art practice, in which Cubism movement in art and modern literature can be seen as two of the main schools. Modernism highlights the essential nature of subjectivity and individuality in people’s interpretation and understanding of the outside world.

In modern period, fictions by James Joyce and Virginia Woolf make new exploration into human conscious and subconscious and question the human rationality in observing realities. Nevertheless, they still believe in the possibility of caging the truth by imitating the subconscious flow of thoughts. As Virginia Woolf says in her “Modern Fiction”, the task of novelists is to capture the fleeting and enormous subconscious. Anyway, she finds the way she believes to be true to represent reality. William Faulkner pushes the question of the possibility to represent realities within human capacity further in his masterpiece The Sound and the Fury (Faulkner, 1992). By employing plural narrators narrating the same event again and again, each time emerging a new narration to cancel the previous narration, he makes it clear that there is no thorough way to represent reality fully in whole. The reality discovered by one narrator from his point of view is only one reality among many (Vargish & Mook, 1999: 157). But what Faulkner does to his fiction is still limited to the language and narrative devices. He does not make radical changes in novel form. It is Lessing who goes further in the experimentation on the novel form and the narrative techniques.

In the realm of art, Picasso, the leading figure in Cubism Movement, pioneers into the reflection upon the problem of the artistic interpretation and representation of external reality. Picasso said of the “reality” in Cubism that “it’s not a reality you take in your hand. It is more like perfume ? in front of you, behind you, to the sides. The scent is everywhere but you don’t quite know where it comes from” (Vargish & Mook, 1999: 89). What he said expresses his view that external reality is not absolutely objective as people expect and it is inaccessible most of time. It exists in people’s observation and interpretation. To put it simply, external reality is the reality of the individual. To show his worldview, he rejects painting the solid objects, a mimetic way of artistic representing of reality. He makes radical distortions and violations against the physical law in his artistic composition. As I have discussed in previous chapters, the major characteristics of Cubism can be summarized as following: simultaneity in the union of time and space, multiplicity in representing reality and high reflexivity in composing process. By uniting the dimension of space and time, Cubism tries to capture the dynamic reality that is located in space but changing with time. He also tries to combine what he has observed from multiple perspectives into one single composition in order to show multiple facets of reality. Painting before Cubism is largely mimetic. Painters imitate what they have seen but seldom reflect upon what they are doing. From their paintings, we see objects they paint but no trace of painter himself can be located. But in cubist paintings, the viewer can strongly feel the presence and self-awareness of the painter himself. The reality in cubist paintings is not the reality the painter sees from one stable perspective but what he 14

thinks of it. So the artistic act in Cubism is highly reflexive.

Cubism has great impact on modern literary works. When we examine some literary works at that time or soon after Cubism Movement, we may find some trace of similarities between literary narratives and Cubism. However, no writer has constructed the form of their work based on the Cubism shaping principles as self-consciously as Doris Lessing has. She is not content with what the previous masters have done. Her struggle to find the right words and right form to designate a truth of a process, an event, is often a way of discovering more deeply the perceptions of reality. When she becomes dissatisfied with realism she is becoming aware of the “so-called” real world as superficial, and is aware that her insights into reality could not be accommodated within the conventions of mimetic writings. For this reason, she needs a new form to accommodate her multi-layered version of reality.

As Pablo Picasso defies people’s habitual view toward external reality by his great shocking paintings, Doris Lessing also makes some daring innovations on the novel form to challenge conventions in novel writing. In fact, what she has done in her fiction parallels the theory and practice of Cubism. In The Golden Notebook, she virtually constructs her novel by the shaping principles in Cubism. The shaping principles, as mentioned above, include the union of time and space, the multiplicity in representing reality and the reflexive nature in the shift from the mere reality imitation to the observation of external reality.

In The Golden Notebook, Lessing takes the novel form apart to see how far a fiction is capable of truth telling. By fragmenting the book into the four notebooks and one realistic short novel, Doris Lessing allows the reader to perceive diverse facets of realities from multiple perspectives, just as cubists have done in their paintings. While keeping the traditional temporal form of story telling, she experiments with the techniques of juxtaposition and cross-reference to achieve the spatial effect of visual arts. The integration of time and space makes her work escape the limitation of literary narratives, thus, acquiring a greater potential in its readings. The device of making the novel rolling in time and at the same time, extending in space, bears much resemblance with the artistic technique of time-space union in cubists’ compositions. In addition, more than once the reader feels the presence and the intervention of the writer herself in the book. The intervention of the writer and her continual comments on the novel writing in the book render the book highly reflexive. The highly reflexive quality in The Golden Notebook also proves its heritage from Cubism.

It is not unexpected that the form of The Golden Notebook is a cubist work in a literary sense in terms of its aesthetic shaping principles since Lessing and Picasso share the same view as to the inaccessibility of reality and the technique of representing reality. So the form in The Golden Notebook itself is a representation and a metaphor of Lessing’s understanding of external reality and the relation between reality and the representing form.

The shaping principles of Cubism are only one part of the shaping principles of the form in Lessing’s remarkable work. The shaping dynamics of a work in a particular historical time is very complex and is determined by many factors. Nevertheless, it provides a fresh reading of the novel and proves Lessing’s great ability to produce a great work characteristic of creativity and 15

originality.

The thesis has examined closely the technical characteristics and the shaping principles in the form of The Golden Notebook. As Terry Eagleton suggests, the form is the true bearer of ideology. The examination of the novel form in The Golden Notebook should go deeper to its ideological core, which constitutes broader and more complex social and political context from which a specific work arises. Although the ideology behind the novel form is too big a topic to be covered in this thesis, the research on the ideology in the form is a worthwhile effort. The further investigation on the ideology in the form of The Golden Notebook is to be tackled in the near future.

16

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19

Acknowledgements

Upon the completion of the present thesis, I feel deeply indebted to those who helped me during my research on the novel The Golden Notebook.

I feel extremely grateful to my supervisor Dr. Shan Xuemei, who encouraged and gave me valuable advice all the way through my research. Her careful proof reading, timely feedback and pertinent suggestions were a continual source of inspiration for me.

Special thanks go to Liu Hui for her help with my choice of research orientation. I am also grateful to my peers, Qu Xiaomei, Zheng Yingchun and Ge Lan. I have benefited greatly from the discussions with them.

I wish to express my gratitude to the College of Foreign Languages of Xinjiang University, which provided the M. A. study program and helped me complete the research.

Finally I would like to thank my family for their strong support through the three years of my study and research.

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