The Longing for Company in Old Age in May Sartons Encore文献综述

 2022-09-08 11:59:25

国内外研究现状（文献综述）

Literature review

In western countries, “the situation of studying the literary gerontology is gradually beginning to change, but the professional awakening has been slow.” (Wyatt-Brown, 1990:299) Maybe the reason is that “the investigators feared that readers, especially young ones, might develop negative attitudes towards the elderly from what they read.” (Wyatt-Brown, 1990:299) Therefore, there are very limited research books or research papers on the literary criticism of May Sarton. Additionally, there are only few comments on her last journal Encore and we can even hardly find some researches on Encore. Fortunately, because of Sartonrsquo;s great impact and significant works, we can still find The Great Sanity: Critical Essays on May Sarton, Aging and dying in the novels of May Sarton and some other critiques. One of the critiques in The Great Sanity, “seeing with fresh eyes” refers to the meaning of May Sartonrsquo;s journals, and Braham writes in this way,“ Sartonrsquo;s journals seek to connect with a wide readership by revealing the need to create order out of chaos, reentry out of withdrawal, health out of illness. Her efforts to define “self” and “values”, within a communal context, in pare supplied by readersrsquo; responses, link her journals to current theory exploring womenrsquo;s autobiography.” (Braham, 1995: 153) I agree Brahamrsquo;s view to some degree. For example, Sartonrsquo;s journals are very authentic and she wants to connect with readership by revealing the need. From what I read in Encore, I find Sarton also reveals the need to enjoy the company and to create her own freedom while she is in solitude. In Brahamrsquo;s eye, Sartonrsquo;s journals links to the theory exploring womenrsquo;s autobiography. And Sarton also explores an active way to adapt to aging and to enjoy aging. Although at the very beginning, Sartonrsquo;s journals and novels express her fear of dying and aging. “May Sarton has consistently recognized the process of dying as an indisputable aspect of living.”(Kathleen Gregory Klein, 1983:150) So Sartonrsquo;s attitude towards aging and dying is positive. She thinks it is a natural thing and it is inevitable.

In the Sarton Revisited by Elizabeth Evans, she firstly tries to figure out the relationship between Sartonrsquo;s parents and Sarton. Then Elizabeth writes, “Sarton has gratefully acknowledged her luck in having had excellent friends since her youth, and certainly one of the important friendships for Sarton was Louise Bogan.” (Elizabeth Evans,1989:13) Friendship is a significant part in Sartonrsquo;s life, and in Sartonrsquo;s old life, she still regards having her excellent friends as an absolutely lucky thing. And in Sartonrsquo;s later works, especially her journals, she showed her authentic without modifying old life to her audiences. Without denying the dark side of her solitary life, she thought that living alone was not a deprived life. “Her journals, however, are risks simply because they invite familiarity from readers who experience the day-by-day routines of the authorrsquo;s life---making beds and meals, filling birdfeeders and shoveling snowhellip;”(Elizabeth Evans,1989:27) She wrote the visiting of neighbors and friends, gardening chores, and full academic life , her concerns to political and social issues; but she also recorded the details of her own illness and the death of her friends, especially when pain and accidents frightened her and interrupted her work. It is real and from her recording, we can know the elderly peoplersquo;s daily life, which provide an approach to other old people in their twilight years. Evan appreciates Sarton, “hellip;the strength lies in her forthrightness as a person and in her skill as a writerhellip;She has literally shared her deepest experiences with the reader.” (Elizabeth Evans, 1989:41) Sartonrsquo;s well-written journals connect closely to the readers. From her journals, we can image a real Sarton. “Journal pages also recount many reports and details of Sartonrsquo;s health, and her emphasis on this topic is probably no more excessive than that of most journal keepers and writers of letters.” (Elizabeth Evans, 1989:35) Evan finds that Sarton keeps an eye on her health through the recording of her health details. Sarton has “a long hard struggle” towards her illness. But she always keeps gratitude for what she has. Also, she has looked forward to old age.

“hellip;her desire for and modeling of intimacy and candor, her seeking of the highest goals for her art,,and her quest for healing---comes from the pain and joys of her childhood.”(Mark K. Fulk, 2001:1) Sarton longs for intimacy with her readers and friends. In her childhood, she had to bear with separation and displacement. Then, she values home and values the company of her kinship friendship and readership. In an interview Sarton describes herself as an emotional, aware, perhaps over-sensitive person. It is her childhood and her motherrsquo;s influence that mould her this way. In fact, as Sarton writes in many places, she longed for ideal home and family and friends. She enjoy the company. On the other hand, “Solitude becomes a major theme Sartonrsquo;s arthellip;yet divesting it of orthodox religious meaning, and presenting it as the ideal position for a writer to reflect on her life and world. “(Mark K. Fulk, 2001:13) Being a solitary is her greatest legacy. So she enjoys solitude at the same time. In her old age, Sarton offers a model to those old people that enjoy solitude and learn to renew self in order to give more fully to others. Fulk explains, solitude in Sartons writing ultimately exist for the sake of giving back to others a fuller, more complete self through love. Therefore, Sarton tries to seek family, whether in marriage or through intense friendships. She eagers to cope with the love and family. In As We Shall Be: May Sarton and Aging, Marlene Springer praised Sartonrsquo;s dignified and sensitive treatment of the elderly in her work. “a modern exception to this pattern is May Sarton, one of the very few writers, especially in our culture, to explore profoundly both the perils and the possibilities confronted by older people; one of the few writers to treat the aged, and particularly older women, with dignity without ignoring the threats of senility, the helplessness of physical decay, the frustrations of waning power.” After adding ages, Sarton becomes to cherish the process of aging and begins to find the family through intense friendships, peoplersquo;s company, gardeninghellip;

And some previous undergraduatesrsquo; study is about May Sartonrsquo;s journal ---At Seventy. They have different focuses on their researches. Some figure out Sartonrsquo;s attitude towards dying or aging. Chen Rongfang writes in her thesis, “hellip; express the importance of all her friends on her seventy birthday. Martha Wheelock, Nancy Hartley, tiny Heidi and so many friends gathering together was such a galaxy situation for Sarton, because these friends were just like her family.” Chen observes friendship is a major part of her life, for the reason that they are like family. Some research what role poem plays in Sartonrsquo;s old life and find poem help Sarton change her fear and desperation of aging and death into positive attitudes towards old life and enjoyment. Wang Yina also discovers Sartonrsquo;s deep understanding of friendship in her poetry. She writes, “Sarton cherishes friendship very much. Many of her friends are poets and she makes friends with them by writing poems and publishing collections of poem. The rest of her friends used to work with her or read her works.” (Wang Yina, 2015) Sarton wants to be with her friends and uses poetry to make more friends.

So from the above researches, we know most of the people who studies Sartonrsquo;s work mainly concentrate on the solitude, friendship or the meaning of home towards Sarton. However, Sartonrsquo;s attitude and demands at eighty are very different from those at seventy. Sarton at eighty years old becomes more fragile and she even uses dictate to finish her journal. But Duree and other people still praise May Sartonrsquo;s Encore as an affirmative journal, and according to Barbara Duree, “many admirers will cherish Encore as the still-strong voice of an intelligent, honest, and compassionate human being.” Andrea Barrett writes in her Cleveland Plain Dealer, “Vibrancy and abundant love of life. . . . [Sarton] proves once more to be wonderful company.” In Encore, Sarton describes both hardships and joys in the daily routines of her life in remaining years—physical struggles counterbalanced by the satisfactions of friendship, nature, poem and creative spark. And she is over-sensitive, so she is also really contradictory through her own recording. On the one hand, she feels warm when her friends come to visit her. On the other hand, she demands for her own time because her fragile health. She is always tired and weak after the visits of her friends, acquaintanceshellip; Few of previous studies find her contradiction in longing for company and deal with the solitude. Sarton has a very well-known sentence, “Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is the richness of self.” But when she walks into her old age, especially when she becomes seriously sick, she cannot handle solitude as she said before. Thus the theme of longing for company in Sartonrsquo;s old age in Encore deserves to dig. It is different from the previous studies and provides a fresh angle for the elderly people together with the young generation to look for a method to manage the contradiction of being solitude and longing for company.

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