论爱·摩·福斯特《莫瑞斯》中的同性恋形象英语语言文学专业论文.docxVIP

Engli English Abstract II II Abstract Edward Morgan Forster (1879-1970) is one of the most celebrated British writers in the early twentieth century. Maurice is Forster’s only full-length novel directly based on homosexuality. Nicola Beauman, a famous biographer, remarks that Maurice displays “almost documentary detail” of the life of one particular group in Edwardian society. Critics mainly have probed into the protagonist’s self-identity and the structure of the novel up to now. However, they pay less attention to the three different kinds of homosexual images. Queer theory is a sociological and literary theory on sex and gender studies which has gained popularity within the western academia since the 1990s. “Closet” is a term proposed by the American queer theorist Sedgwick in her book Epistemology of the Closet. In her view, the closet is “the defining structure for gay oppression”, and the oppression is logically relating to the specific social environment and moral value. According to Sedgwick, it is the life in the closet, namely, “wandering around the closet”, “hiding in the closet” and “coming out of the closet”, that dominates homosexuals’ living and spiritual situation. With Sedgwick’s three key words, this thesis focuses on the three homosexual images and explores the living predicament of homosexuals in Edwardian period in order to reflect people’s moral values in the transitional period. Chapter one analyses Maurice, the homosexual image of wandering around the closet. Maurice is confused about sex in public school, then gradually admits his true homosexual desire in Cambridge. But then he spares no efforts to deny his true nature because of bewilderment to the platonic male love. Actually, young Maurice has an ambivalent attitude on sex orientation. The second chapter focuses on Clive, the homosexual image of hiding in the closet. Clive eventually submits to conventionality and chooses marriage as a shelter from his homosexual desire in order to hide