In literary criticism, bildungsroman, a more technical term forcoming-of-age story, is “a literary genre that focuses on the psychological andmoral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood, in which characterchange is extremely important”. Of all themes that may appear in that genre,growth in solitude is among the ones most favored by novelists. Born in theearly twentieth century, Thomas Wolfe was considered a real master of languageafter the publication of his first novel LookHomeward, Angel, in which the writer’s passions for expressing himself andhis lyrical phrases, as well as the solitary life of its protagonist, Eugene,have won him great reputation, and incurred strict criticism at the same time.

After publication, the novel has become one of the bestsellers inAmerica, receiving massive approbation from the literary world. Since the1940s, literary critics have conducted researches and analysis on the novel’swriting style of autobiography, technique of stream of consciousness, whichhave produced fruitful outcomes in the study of Thomas Wolfe and his works.There also emerged a collection of excellent articles exploring the themes ofhis works, which later were discovered by a bunch of outstanding scholarsadopting a new perspective of criticism---psychoanalysis, and concluded themain themes of estrangement, self-exile, death and love as Wolfe’s most favoredchoices.

Despite its enduring popularity, the novel hasalso become a focus of critical concern at the same time. Due to its lengthiness and sprawling style, thebook has incurred harsh criticism from the literary critical community. Thereare literary critics, Harold Bloom and James Wood among them, viewing Wolfe’swork as undisciplined and largely "formless autobiography". Therenowned critic Bernard De Voto has hurled a string of outspoken and sometimesprovocative comments on Thomas Wolfe as well as his writing, accusing Wolfe ofignoring the coherence among various elements of the novel, loading his writingwith fancy phrases and purposeless words. Although De Voto’s criticism to someextent holds water, the contemporary author William Faulkner considered Wolfe as“the greatest talent of their generation for aiming higher than any otherwriter”. Paschal Reeves, an American researcher and editor, once called thisnovel a “sensation”, and described it as “having struck the literary world bystorm”. Until now, Wolfe’s works have invariably been favored by a great numberof American readers, and a heated object in the literary circle.

Early in the Chinese literary world, ThomasWolfe and his works were mostly ignored compared with his contemporary writerssuch as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and William Faulkner. Withvarious Chinese versions of his writings being published, there has been asubstantial increase in the number of viewers and men of letters devoting somestudy to this brilliant master and his posthumous masterpieces. In a bookentitled Thomas Wolfe: The Lost Giant written by Liu Jiyuan in 2013, an integrated analysis has been made on ThomasWolfe and his four famous novels including LookHomeward, Angel (1929), Of Time andthe River (1935), The Web and theRock (1939), and You Can't Go HomeAgain (1940), from various perspectives of character, theme, narration,imagery, and politics. Besides, there are a dozen of master’s theses and morethan forty periodical papers on Wolfe and his works, Look Homeward, Angel (1929) as his masterpiece, from differentangles. On the study of themes, such papers as The Solitude in Look Homeward, Angel written by Yang Yanlan, and Interpreting the Sense of Isolation: Eugenein Look Homeward, Angel co-authored by He Lingfei and Chen Xu, have puttheir focus on the loneliness permeating the novel, from the feeling of Eugene,extending to the whole family, and further raising to the human nature. Onwriting styles and techniques, viewers like Liu Jiyuan and Gao Hongxia haveunfolded us in their co-worked study OnThomas Wolfe’s Language and Narrative Style, a combination of poeticlanguage and prose style, of realism and stream of consciousness. In addition,several newly emerged types of interpretations on Look Homeward, Angel have opened up more ways of thinking. In Interpreting the Guiding Figures duringEugene’s Growth, its author Li Mengqi has conducted an analysis in detailon the influences W. O. Gant, Margaret, Ben, and Laura left on Eugene’s growth,and how their inter-relationships pushed forward the plot development.

Generally speaking,scholars abroad have conducted in-depth analysis and research on Thomas Wolfeand his novel Look Homeward, Angel,whereas it is apparent that they are not as widespread in China as in the Westernworld. Therefore, the intention of this paper is to carry on an elaboration onthe themes of estrangement and isolation, and Eugene’s life choice to be aself-exile, in the hope to promote the popularity of this talented writer andhis remarkable works.

2. 研究的基本内容与方案

Contents

1 Introduction

1.1 Thomas Wolfe and his works

1.2 Literature review

2 Growth in Solitude