| Summary: | 碩士 === 淡江大學 === 英文學系碩士班 === 93 === Many critics praise the literary merit of Henry Miller’s Parisian trilogy for his self-liberation with complicated themes and narrative technique; however, few mention the importance of The Rosy Crucifixion trilogy. This thesis argues that The Rosy Crucifixion represents a decisive period of Miller’s transitional life and explores how the narrator escapes from his old pattern of life and strives to become a writer. In the three texts, Miller intends to reveal his bitter-sweet life in New York of 1920s, thereby piecing together the mosaic of varied aspects of his life and art, including physical and spiritual transgression. Working on the interplay of realistically autobiographical narrative and real life experience, Miller aims at creating a new kind of narration which blurs the boundary between fiction and reality and brings the narrative closer to life than the Parisian trilogy. In so doing, Miller tries to achieve a self-portrait of the process of transgression and fulfills his literary life. Based on textual analysis, this thesis proceeds to examine the development of Miller’s transgression and pursuit of self through discussions on three major themes in the trilogy: sexuality, writing, and redemption. This thesis is divided into three parts: Chapter One discusses the relationship between self-liberation and the transgressive use of sexual descriptions. Chapter Two investigates how the author creates some themes in his autobiographical writing and emphasizes the function of writing as a medium of transgression. Chapter Three focuses on the relationship between the narrator and Mona and how he experiences his romance as a “rosy crucifixion.” His final transgression is actually the pursuit of self through art that makes the narrator an artist and leads Miller to discover his true self in literature.
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