An Analysis of Domestic Research Status of the Novel The Loons

【Abtract】In the last 16 years， Margaret Lawrences short novel The Loons has always attracted researchers attention at home and abroad. From the view of domestic published papers， both the number and quality of the articles show a trend of continuous development. This paper tries to summarize its domestic research status by combing relevant data and research content.

【Key words】The Loons; Research status; Reflection

【作者簡介】慕晨（1996-），女，汉族，山东烟台人，哈尔滨师范大学，硕士，研究方向：英语语言文学语言学。

1. Introduction

Margaret Lawrence， one of the famous Canadian women writers， is known as “the mother of contemporary Canadian Literature”. Her “manawaka” novel series is regarded as the most important achievement and lofty prestige in her life. A collection of novels A Bird in the House written by her was published in 1970. As one of the short stories， The Loons is selected by Zhang Hanxi as a textbook of Advanced English， which is very important in the teaching of Senior English Majors in colleges and universities. To some extent， many scholars are attracted to study The Loons.

2. The Research Emphasis and Reflections of The Loons

2.1 The Research Trend of The Loons

According to the statistics of CNKI， from 2002 to 2017， there were 48 literatures published directly on the theme of The Loons in China， among which 46 were published in journals， accounting for about 96%. A total of 42 papers were published under the title of The Loons， among which 39 were published in journals， accounting for about 93%， which we can see from table 1.

In addition， it is shown in Table 2， from the perspective of content， literatures published in these 16 years mainly analyze and discuss The Loons from the following aspects：

① Regarding the theme of tragic symbolism in The Loons as the theme， we will explore the symbolic implications in this novel.

② To summarize the tragic source of the heroine--an Indian girl Piquettes short life.

③ Through the analysis of Piquettes living situation， the extinction of the loons in the forest and their metaphorical relationship， we can reveal the relationship between the male， female and natural.

④ An analysis of the discourse and artistic techniques in The Loons.

⑤An analysis about the influences of multiculturalism and the tragedy of marginal cultures.

2.2 Reflections on the Research Status of The Loons

From the above two tables， we can see that in the past 16 years， the research on The Loons is mainly concentrated on the journals. After making deep analysis of these published literatures， it isnt difficult to find some problems.

The research topics are too concentrated and repeated. Up to 2010， the categories of this novel are diversity， but from 2011 to 2012， most researchers pay attention to the analysis of the tragic character image，and then from 2012 to 2015， the topics about the symbolism and the ecological nature become more and more. However， from 2016 to the present， although there is a new research perspective， only three articles are published. On the other hand， the quality of literature isnt high. According to the statistics of CNKI， when studying the causes of Piquette tragic fate in the novel， researchers mostly choose to discuss them from the external and internal factors.

3. Conclusion

The above is the general research situation of the novel The Loons. In short， scholars make achievement for the entire novel or the protagonist， but objectively speaking， the study of depth or breadth is not enough. if researchers can jump out the inherent mode of thinking， the novel The Loons still has great study space and its development prospects are also anticipated.

參考文献：

[1]陈娇娇.解析《潜水鸟》中的皮格特[J].林区教学，2014，11.