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From Submission to Domination: Janice’s Changing Images in Rabbit Tetralogy

Author: QiangLing
Tutor: QiTao
School: Anhui University
Course: English Language and Literature
Keywords: Rabbit Tetralogy feminine domesticity sexual revolution feminist movement
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Type: Master's thesis
Year: 2010
Downloads: 110
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Abstract


John Updike (1932-2009) is one of the most eminent contemporary American writers. His astonishing productivity, no less than his polished style, has earned him all major American prizes.His works including short stories, poems, essays and literary critiques have enjoyed international readership, attested to by the translations of his books into more than two dozen languages. His reputation as a literary writer is mainly achieved by his Rabbit Tetralogy. The third volume Rabbit is Rich and the fourth Rabbit at Rest won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction respectively in the year of 1982 and 1991. He is regularly nominated for the Nobel Prize. In the past decades, American and foreign critics have done a lot of research work on Updike and his Rabbit Series. However, most critical responses center on the themes and character portrayal of the protagonist, Harry. It is obvious that the women characters, especially Janice, wife of Harry, the only woman character that survives in Updike’s Rabbit Tetralogy and that accompanies most of Rabbit’s life are ignored by most critics. To better understand "Rabbit" in the novels, a good understanding and study on Janice is of great necessity.This thesis is to select the four novels of Rabbit Tetralogy and to juxtapose them in historical criticism. By a parallel comparison between history and the changes of the image of Rabbit’s wife, Janice, this thesis is intended to explore the development of Janice’s image from a submissive housewife to a dominant woman in her life due to the influence of the vicissitudes of American society.This thesis consists of five chapters altogether. Chapter one gives a brief introduction to John Updike and research work on him and his Rabbit Series both in China and abroad. From chapter two to chapter four are the body parts of the thesis. Elaborate analysis has been done here to explore the changes of the wife’s image in Rabbit Series. Chapter two is intended to explore the submissive image of Janice against the social background of the 1950s. Under the influence of the traditional feminine domesticity, Janice is described as a stereotyped bad wife and mother image by Updike in Rabbit Run. Chapter three analyses that mainly under the influence of sexual revolution and feminist movement from the 1960s to 1970s in America, Updike has developed Janice’s image to be an independent woman in Rabbit Redux and Rabbit is Rich. Chapter four is devoted to exploring that on the impact of the popular culture and under the lasting influence of the feminist movement in the 1980s, Janice is portrayed as a mature woman in her life and a dominant image in her family in Rabbit at Rest. Chapter five draws a conclusion for the whole study. The main points dealt with in the above chapters are to be reiterated.

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