Abstract：Letter from an Unknown Woman is one of the best novellas by Stephan Zweig and in the world. Zweig is renowned for his dedicate delineation in the literature world, while Letter from an Unknown Woman reflects his unique style. The essay will explore the unknown woman’s inner world from a Freudian perspective to find the deep impetus behind her irrational love. Furthermore, with a glimpse on the author’s life experience and the social background at his time, the essay attempts to analyze Zweig’s own spiritual world and to excavate the deeper meaning of the novella. The Freudian psychoanalysis exposes that the runaway libido caused by the heroine’s overuse of self-defense mechanism and her Electra complex are the deep impetus of infatuation in her herself. And through analysis on Stephan Zweig’s background, one discovers that the infatuated heroine is an artistic reflection of Zweig’s own spiritual world as a humanitarian, who feels despaired about the world distorted by the Great War at his time.
Key words: Stephan Zweig, Letter from an Unknown Woman, psychoanalysis, Freud
摘要：斯蒂芬·茨威格的《一个陌生女人的来信》是世界短篇小说中的经典篇目。茨威格以细腻的心理描写而享誉世界文坛,而他的代表作《一个陌生女人的来信》生动入微地体现了这一创作风格。论文从女主人公的内心入手,通过弗洛伊德的精神分析法，探究女主人公痴情背后的深层动因,并结合作者的生活经历和当时的时代背景,发掘潜藏在作品深处的精神自传，在更深层次中挖掘作品的内涵。在精神层面，女主人公的痴情主要来自于个体心理防卫机制滥用引起的力比多失控以及自身爱列屈拉情节的推动。而通过对作者个人背景的分析，可以发现小说中痴情的女主人公是因战争而对世界感到失望的人文主义者茨威格的精神世界的艺术化的表现。
关键词：斯蒂芬·茨威格，《一个陌生女人的来信》，精神分析，弗洛伊德
In a letter to Romain Rolland , Zweig wrote, “The war has turned my spiritual world into a terrible waste land. I, like a refugee, naked, moneyless, fled from the burning house deep down in my life. To where would I go…I don’t know. ”[Translated from《茨威格散文精选》[C] .北京: 人民文学出版社, 1997] When observing from a closer range, it could be detected that the situation of Stefan Zweig and that of the unknown woman share so many similarities. Zweig’s hopeless chase of liberty and humanitarian is exactly like the unknown woman’s hopeless chase of love. Their chases are both constantly out of their reach and both lead to desperation and ineluctable tragedies. The deeper one digs into Letter from an Unknown Woman, the more obvious it is that Zweig himself is depicted in it as well. Behind the text, behind the amazing plot, it is the spiritual autobiography of him. As has been stated, to better understand the unique personality of the unknown woman and the essence of her irrational love, one has to examine through Zweig’s life carefully. Yet it could effect vice versa. The psychoanalytic novel also offers critics a possible new angle to better understand his work style and cultural personality.
The unknown woman is one of such characters created by Zweig relatively early. The image of “strangeness” containing in it is the metaphor of Zweig’s way, with his artistic ideals, to the marginal region of his time. Therefore, the tragedy of the unknown woman alludes to Zweig’s own expectation of his own tragic destiny in real world.
Therefore, in The Letter from an Unknown Woman, the focus of Stefan Zweig is not, as many critics stated, to express the force of passion and to show his care, sympathy and sorrow to these females with the lofty spirit of self-sacrifice. Quite on the contrary, the real focus of him, in my opinion, is him himself. He himself is the real object to bear the care, the sympathy, the sorrow and etc. The essence of the work, in conclusion, is a euphemistic expression of the author’s own situation and spiritual world, as well as the prediction of his own destiny.
