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2. Literature Review
Jack London was a famous writer in the early 20th century in America. His experiences furnished him with plenty of material for his stories. Critics have made analysis of London’s works from various perspectives. Owing to a variety of philosophies that have influenced Jack London throughout his life, scholars hold varied statements on his ideology.
Jack London is often listed as a realistic writer in different literary histories for his experience of poverty and hardships and the heavy burden of life he has to undertake before his success, especially for his works that reflect the cruelty and ugliness of the capitalistic society at his time such as Martin Eden, The Iron Heel and The People of the Abyss. In History and Anthology of American Literature (2003), edited by Wu Weiren, Jack London was regarded as a realistic writer, because of his patently autobiographical novel Martin Eden, his beliefs in Marx’ socialism, and his rather darker views of Nietzsche and Darwinism in his The People of the Abyss, The Iron Heel, and The War of Classes. In Wu’s book, The Call of the Wild was noted as Jack London’s commitment of his belief in the law of survival and the will to power.
It was largely because of his animal tales that Jack London was considered as naturalist by lots of scholars, such as Chang Yaoxin, Mao Xinde, and Jacqueline Tavenier Courbin. Professor Chang Yaoxin categorized Jack London in his A Survey of American Literature as a naturalistic writer along with Stephen Crane and Frank Norris. Many Darwinists and Spenserian ideas are embodied in his novels. So he is regarded as a naturalistic writer by most literary critics because naturalism is theoretically based on the theory of evolution.
The Call of the Wild written by Jack London describes a kidnapped domesticated dog turning into a wild animal, while its companion novel White Fang details a wild wolf’s journey to domestication. The present literary study on these two novels can mainly be classified into three categories:
The first one is to take them as escapist novel. In other words, they are regarded as allegories suitable for children to read. Nash’s The Call of the Wild: 1900-1916 pointed out that the novel succeeded as an escapist literature that it is useful for children to have a positive world outlook. However, this kind of study just remains on a superficial level.
The second one is to analyze the naturalism that embodies in them. Some of the researchers argue that Jack London depicts many characteristics of humanity which is related to our position in nature. In Naturalism in Jack London's novels-Talking from The Call of the Wild and White Fang, the author elaborates the writing styles of naturalistic creation and expounds the effects on the animals from the perspective of the environment.
The third one is elaborate London’s superman philosophy and superman complex. Irving Stone, a famous biographer said that “Nietzsche had a great emotional effect on Jack London. He found the theory of superman in Nietzsche’s works. Jack felt that superman philosophy was to his taste because he thought he was a superman who could conquer any barriers” (Stone, 1938: 23). In these novels, two protagonists have strong will, infinite strength and can defeat their enemies in the fight.
Besides, psychoanalysis, myth and archetypal criticism are also employed to elaborate his works.
Domestic research on Jack London’s The Call of the Wild and White Fang evolved into prosperity after 1980s. The studies have been developed into persified methods: Life Philosophy of Jack London-Theme Analysis of The Call of the Wild by Li Xingliang and Yi Jianhong’s Theme Discussion of White Fang, are two of those that explore from the perspective of discussion themes; Jian Junhong’s Image Interpretation of Buck in The Call of the Wild in The Call of getting Rid of the Chain of Love and Responding to the Freedom is an example of those that expound on traditional images; Yi Jianhong’s Discussion on The Call of the Wild and White Fang From the Perspective of Psychoanalysis of Sea dogs and Wolves and Huan Caixia’s Superman Thought in Tentative Discussion on The Call of the Wild and White Fang are examples of those that analyze the inward world of Jack London from the point of view of psychoanalysis; and Discussion on rspective of Jack London in The Call of the Wild by Zhao Linya researches from the viewpoint of narratology.源:自'751.·论,文;网·www.751com.cn/