Research on The Turning From the Perspective of Post-Colonial Criticism

Abstract

Tim Winton, who gained fame in the 1980’s, was known as a genius child in Australia. He has won the Franklin prize, the top Literature prize of Australia, for four times and was selected based on the list of the most influential 100 Australians. He has been publishing more than 20 works, including ten novels, four collections of short stories, six children fictions as well as a lot of other types of works. The Turning is the collection of short stories by Tim Winton published in 2005. It has caused reader’s reflection on the contemporary Australian society. Apart from the Introduction and the Conclusion, the paper aims to make interpretations of the stories in four parts and reveal the current social situation and common problems of contemporary Australia as well as demonstrate the glamour of Winton’s literature. The first part is about the growth of people with the bitter experiences of one generation. The second part focus on the pure love, which causes reflections through the love story covered with a depressing atmosphere and the despair. The third part mainly emphasizes the importance of family reconciliation through the description of the broken family. The last part discusses the repressed reality and tries to tell a truth that people with an independent personality should put down their burdens and relieve themselves instead of being trapped by fame. Winton has a special insight into human nature and the post-colonial lives of Australians are depicted multi-dimensionally in seventeen stories including bitter growth, sweet love, incomplete families and oppressive reality. The Turning bases on the narration of Australian life in west coast, showing Winton’s unique writing style as well as revealing the national spirit and the characteristics of Australians from the perspective of Post-colonial Criticism. There are just a few researches on Tim Winton in China, not to mention researches combining Winton together with Post-colonial Criticism. On account of this, it has profound meaning to do researches on his works and this thesis aims to fill the blank.