消费文化与西奥多·德莱塞的早期创作.pdfVIP

revolutionary realities of most American peoples life”(ditto). I choose consumer culture as a perspective in studying two of Dreisers novels: Sister Carrie and Jennie Gerhardt . In the introductory part there is an examination of the critical history on Dreiser and his writing. I also tell about the cause of the research. Part one of the thesis offers a review of consumer culture and modern consumer culture. P eople can give as many definitions to consumer culture as to the term culture; however, I choose to understand consumer culture as a dynamic term, which diversifies in accordance with the time and age, the social system, and the place it belongs to. It includes the value system, tendency, habits and fashion and even the aesthetics revealed in the consuming behavior of a community. The author discussed in my thesis lived in an age when modern American consumer culture was becoming prevalent, especially in urban areas. As accepted by scholars, “The American society was turning from a producing type to a consuming one”(蒋道超 2000: 91). The status of consumption was highlighted in commerce. The modern consumer culture in the society was featured by the intensification of the functio n of consumption as a sign of social status. The more, the better one consumed, the higher status one held. Conspicuous consumption became a fashion in this country. In addition, a distinction is made between consumer culture and consumerism in this part. The second part is the major part. The paper first expounds Dreisers using contrastive themes and characters in Sister Carrie to reveal different attitudes toward the modern consumer culture in the transitional period. One is the theme of hope connect ed with Carrie, who experiences hardship in hunting jobs, and