Symbols and the Divided Self in Janus

Xiaomi ZHANG

Abstract


The paper presents the main theme of American writer Ann Beattie’s short novel Janus—the divided self. Illustrations are given here on the symbolic meaning of the mysterious bowl as well as the cold house. The relationship between bowl and love as well as connection between house and marriage reveal the true implication of two-faced god Janus. All the work throws light on the divided self resulted from emptiness, confusion and emotional difficulties of middle and upper-middle class.


Keywords


Janus; Symbolism; Divided self; Bowl; Love

Full Text:

PDF

References


Cao, Y. (2009). Homeless modern people: Theme of Janus. Anhui Literature, 11.

Edwards, T. R. (1986, October 12). The New York Times book review.

Kakutani, M. (1986, October 1). Books of the times. The New York Times. Retrieved form the World Wide Web: http://www.nytimes.com/1986/10/01/books/books-of-the-times-202686.html?scp=1&sq=Janus+ann+beattie&st=nyt.

Li, C. G. (2008). American neorealist Ann Beattie and her works. Gansu College Journal, 13(4), 39-42.

Ma, H. Q. (2006). Janus. American short stories (pp.235-242). Nanjing University Press.

Miller, P. (1987, Fall). Beattie’s Janus. The Explicator, 46(1), 48-49.

Penner, J. (1986, October 19). Ann Beattie: The surface of things. Book World—The Washington Post (p.7).

Porter, C. (1985). Ann Beattie: The art of the missing. Contemporary American Women Writers: Narrative Strategies (pp.9-25). Lexington: University of Kentucky Press.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/n

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c)




Share us to:   


 

Online Submissionhttp://cscanada.org/index.php/sll/submission/wizard


Reminder

How to do online submission to another Journal?

If you have already registered in Journal A, then how can you submit another article to Journal B? It takes two steps to make it happen:

1. Register yourself in Journal B as an Author

Find the journal you want to submit to in CATEGORIES, click on “VIEW JOURNAL”, “Online Submissions”, “GO TO LOGIN” and “Edit My Profile”. Check “Author” on the “Edit Profile” page, then “Save”.

2. Submission

Go to “User Home”, and click on “Author” under the name of Journal B. You may start a New Submission by clicking on “CLICK HERE”.


We only use three mailboxes as follows to deal with issues about paper acceptance, payment and submission of electronic versions of our journals to databases: caooc@hotmail.com; sll@cscanada.net; sll@cscanada.org

 Articles published in Studies in Literature and Language are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY).

 STUDIES IN LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE Editorial Office

Address: 1055 Rue Lucien-L'Allier, Unit #772, Montreal, QC H3G 3C4, Canada.
Telephone: 1-514-558 6138 
Website: Http://www.cscanada.net; Http://www.cscanada.org 
E-mailoffice@cscanada.net; office@cscanada.org; caooc@hotmail.com

Copyright © 2010 Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culture