Chapter 1 A Stranger in a Foreign Land Chapter 2 Three Pairs of Major Opposing Factors in Conrad’s Work Introduction The Virtual and the Real in Narcissus— The Nigger of the “Narcissus” Sea without Land— Typhoon Civilization and Primitiveness in Darkness— Heart of Darkness Crossing the Shadow Line— The Shadow-Line Death under the Shadow— The Secret Agent Crime and Punishment under Western Eyes— Under Western Eyes Impact of Four National Cultural Areas on Three Pairs of Main Opposing Factors in Conrad’s Subject Matter Chapter 3 John Cheever’s Creative Techniques in His Short Novels Narrow Background Non-dramatic Plots Incomplete Endings Included in the System— Non-personalization of Characters Cheever and Chekhov Epilogue Biography of John Cheever Chapter 4 The Scars of Hemingway Transfer of Scars Hemingway’s Prescription for Trauma What Hurts Hemingway？ Chapter 5 Contemporary British Female Novelists Chapter 6 Artistic Technique: “Black Humor” Subject Matter Humor Plot and Character The Authors’Attitude toward Themselves and Their Readers Stream of Consciousness Mobilization of Scientific Concepts Rhetoric and Grammar
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The slightly plaintive mood is reflected between the lines of Cheever's novels.People survive out of fear of death, and die for fear oflife.In fact, the burdens of daily life are just tragedies.But Cheever did not write tragic stories.ln O Youth and Beauty!the protagonist Cais is killed by his wife Louise.But this kind of behavior-murdering one's husband-is different from any sort of classic tragedy like Medea as written by the Greek writer Euripides, Tess of the D'Urbervilles in Hardy's great novel, or The Secret Agent by Conrad.The behavior of Louise is funny and boring.In the past, Cais was an amateur hurdler.Being middle-aged, his elegant athletic demeanor seems incongruous.But at a neighbor's party, he insists on hurdling the sofa.He lets his wife shoot a gun to act as the starting gun.As a result, his wife kills him. Tragedy is the outcome ofloving life, and is the conflict between opposite ideas" (Hegel's theory of tragedy).This kind oflove and ideas are just what characters in the work of Cheever lack.Engels thinks: Historical necessity and reality are in tragic conflict because neither is possible to realize.Cais's requirement is unrelated to any historical necessity.Leo Braudy said in the Harvard Guide to Contemporary American Writing:As a recognized form, the "New Yorker" novel tries to sublimate momentary emotion and embody all indvidual and social bodies.But, political and historical factors are often not considered."
