福克纳"献给爱米莉的玫瑰"的叙事技巧 英语毕业论文

重庆大学本科学生毕业论文

福克纳“献给爱米莉的玫瑰”的叙事技巧

学 生: x x

学 号：20080933

指导教师：xxx

专 业： 英语

重庆大学外国语学院

二O 一二年六月

Graduation Thesis of Chongqing University

Study on the Narrative Techniques of Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily

Undergraduate: xxx

Student Number: 20080934

Supervisor: xxx

Major: English

College of Foreign Languages

Chongqing University

June 2012

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Associate Professor Hu

Wencheng, whose expertise, understanding, and patience, added considerably to my

graduate experience.

I appreciate his vast knowledge and skills in many areas and his assistance in writing

this paper. Without his prudent proofreading, expert comments and above all generous

understanding, I would not have been able to accomplish this paper. It has been a

privilege and great joy to study under his supervision during the one-year paper writing.

My special gratitude also goes to Professor Mao Lingying, whose academic writing

course has bestowed me with a foundation on academic writing and enlightened me

with the right way of making research, and Professor Li Yongyi, whose cross-cultural

course has expanded my horizon and given me great inspirations in writing this paper.

I would also like to thank all of my other teachers, all of my classmates for their care

and help during the past four years of my undergraduate study.

I must also acknowledge my family for the support they provided me through my

university life, and without their love and encouragement, I would not have finished this

paper.

Graduation Thesis of Chongqing University 摘要

摘 要

《献给艾米莉的一朵玫瑰》是20世纪最重要的美国短篇小说之一。作者威廉·福

克纳被认为是美国南方文学的代表。尽管许多文学评论已经认识到叙事技巧在这

篇小说中所扮演的重要角色, 并且通过马克·肖莱尔的新批评主义理论和其他相

关叙事学理论探讨了该小说。但从具体的叙事技巧结合小说情节的探讨并不多，

本论文将从小说的叙事技巧出发，探讨叙事技巧对读者造成的影响，并就此分析

叙事技巧在主人公形象塑造和展现小说主题上的作用。论文包括五章。第一章是

导论，分为三个部分：本论文的写作动机，重要意义以及阐述论文从叙事技巧着

手分析该小说的合理性；第二章是文献综述。在这一章，作者将会对国内外对于

《献给艾米丽的玫瑰》的评论做一个简要的探讨。第三章从叙事学的角度对作品

进行分析，第四章分析叙事技巧对读者的影响以及它们对人物塑造和主题展现上

的重要作用。第五章是结论。基于以上分析，论文将得出造成艾米丽悲剧的根源

是清教统治下腐朽的社会传统。

关键词：威廉·福克纳, 时间错置, 第一人称复数叙事, 意识流

Abstract

“A Rose for Emily” is generally viewed as one of the most important American short

stories in 20th century. Its author William Faulkner is regarded as the representative of

the southern literature of the United States. Although many literary critics have

recognized that narrative techniques play an important role in this novel and interpreted

it by means of Mark Schorer‟s new criticism theory and other theories concerning

narrative techniques, there are few studies in China interpreting this novel through

combining narrative techniques and the plot of the story. The core aim of narrative

techniques study is to discuss their influences on readers, and thus explain the effects

they produce on the characterization of the heroine and theme development. The paper

contains five chapters. Chapter One, the introduction, is divided into four parts: the

significance and motivation of writing this paper, which show the power of “A Rose for

Emily” as well as its writer and justifiability to employ narrative techniques in

analyzing this short story. Chapter Two is the literature review. In this chapter, the

author gives a brief survey of the critical works, both at home and abroad, on “A Rose

for Emily”. Chapter Three is the analysis of the work from the perspective of narration.

Chapter Four analyzes the narrative techniques‟ influences on readers and their effects

on characterization and theme development. Chapter Five is the conclusion. Based on

the analysis in the previous chapters, it can be concluded that the tragedy of Emily is

made by the decayed puritanical ethic tradition.

Key words: William Faulkner, Anachronism, The first-person plural narrative, Stream

of consciousness

Contents

Acknowledgements . .................................................................................................................... I 摘 要 ......................................................................................................................................... II Abstract . .................................................................................................................................... I II

1 Introduction . ............................................................................................................................. 1

1.1 The Motivation and Significance of the Paper .............................................................. 1

1.2 Paper Claim ................................................................................................................... 2

1.3 Brief Introduction to Theoretical Basis ......................................................................... 2

1.4 The Outline of the Paper . ............................................................................................... 2

2 Literature review . ..................................................................................................................... 4

2.1Narrative Studies on “A Rose for Emily” . ...................................................................... 4

2.2 The researches abroad .................................................................................................... 4

2.3 The researches in China ................................................................................................. 5

3 An analysis of “A Rose for Emily” .......................................................................................... 7

4 An analysis of the narrative techniques in the short story ....................................................... 8

4.1 Anachronism .................................................................................................................. 8

4.2 The first-person plural narrative .................................................................................. 10

4.3 stream of consciousness . .............................................................................................. 13

5 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 15

Works cited ............................................................................................................................... 18

1 Introduction

1.1 The Motivation and Significance of the Paper

“A Rose for Emily” is generally viewed as one of the most important American short stories appearing in the 20th century. From the early 1920s to the outbreak of WWII Faulkner published 13 novels and numerous short stories, which grounds his reputation and for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize at the age of 52. He is the most influential writer in Southern American literature. Apart from the honors it brings to its writer, it is acclaimed as the best in the history of Southern American literature as well as an important contribution to modern American literature.

Since the publication of “A Rose for Emily”, many critical works focus on Faulkner‟s literary skills and the use of stream of consciousness, symbolism and on the modernistic and post modernistic writing techniques. The greatness of this short story is that, Faulkner cultivates a rose for Emily in the story. And the rose appears in two sentences of the novel, “upon the valance curtains of faded rose color, upon the rose -shaded lights ” (qtd in Contemporary College English, 2003, p. 110) 1. This indicates Emily‟s misfortune in her life time. And her search for happiness also ends up with failure. More importantly, Faulkner makes use of non-linear narrative to show readers a poor lady‟s resistance to change and suggests that the formation of her twisted character. Emily is passive in her life and misses her chance to change. And in turn she becomes the victim of the Puritanical ethic dominated society. Thus the theme of the short story deepens from a female‟s suffering to a social tragedy.

Although many literary critics have recognized the narrative techniques‟ important role in this novel and interpreted this novel by means of Mark Schorer‟s new criticism theory and other theories concerning narrative techniques, there are few studies in China interpreting this short story through combining narrative techniques with its plot analysis. Moreover, the disordered chronology makes it appropriate to analyze this novel using anachronism. The stories in the novel, whether in the past or at present, are not straight-line activities, but interwoven in many ways. And there is suspense in the short story which needs to be discovered. This is also in concordance with the narration. Thus, it is meaningful to analyze the work in the light of narrative techniques.

1.2 Paper Claim

The author tries to interpret Emily ‟s attachment to the past and the attitudes of the townspeople towards Emily, in order to find the answer to her tragedy. It is argued that her tragedy derives from the Puritanism dominated decayed society.

1.3 Brief Introduction to Theoretical Basis

The inconformity between story time and narrative time was defined by the French narratologist Genette as anachronism. The narration time includes narrative time and story time. The narrative time order is the development of the text and the story time order is a story ‟s time from the beginning to the end. The narrative time order can changed by the narrator while the story time order is changeless. And the use of first person plural point of view in the short story creates two kinds of narrator, one is the omniscient and another is the objective narrator. And the stream of consciousness is a literary method of representing a blending of mental processes in fictional characters, usually in an unpunctuated or disjointed form of interior monologue.

1.4 The Outline of the Paper

This paper has five chapters. Chapter One, the introduction, is divided into four parts: the significance and motivation of writing this paper, which show the power of “A Rose For Emily ” as well as its writer and the justifiability to employ narrative techniques in analyzing this novel. The second part is the brief summary of the main idea if this dissertation. The third part is the brief introduction of anachronism, point of view and stream of consciousness. The last part is the outline of this paper.

Chapter Two is the literature review. In this chapter, the author will give a brief survey of the critical works, both at home and abroad, on “A Rose for Emily ”. The previous study falls into four categories: new criticism study, feminist study, psychological study and modernist study. In China, the study of this novel is comparatively limited. On the basis of literature review, the author points out that a research on this novel by employing narrative techniques may shed a new light on the interpretation of the characterization and theme of this novel.

Chapter Three is the brief introduction to the work— A Rose for Emily. The author will

introduce Emily‟s typical character and narrative techniques in the short story.

Chapter Four consists of three parts. It will have a detailed analysis of the narrative techniques together with the plot. The first part is the anachronism ‟s influence on readers and its effects on story development and characterization. The second part is the first-person narrative and to analyze the intention of the author‟ retreating from the narrative. The third part is about stream of consciousness. The paper analyzes the order of the narrator‟s consciousness and explores the source of Emily‟s tragedy.

Chapter Five is the conclusion. It will first summarize the major points of the analysis and then based on this, draw the conclusion of the research.

2 Literature review

2.1 Narrative Studies on “A Rose for Emily”

On account of its suspending plot, twisted character, typical way of narrative, “A Rose for Emily”, has attracted many readers and scholars at home and abroad. And more and more critics pay attention to this work since it is published. They mainly focus on psychoanalysis, socio-cultural study, feminism, narrative and comparative study, and various aspects of the story have been investigated. Among these research studies, the narrative strategy of the short story is a focus, also a difficulty. Taking the word of the title concerning “narrative ” into consideration, this paper narrows the scope of the literature review concerning narrative studies.

Narration is an inherent human impulse, so there is no wonder bringing it into literary criticism. At the end of 1960, under the impact of structuralism, narration was born in France. Narration has entered into the period of “postclassical narratologies ” from “classical narratology” since the 1990s. Classical narration tends to be called structural narratology; whereas postclassical narration, with two major characteristics: to attach more importance to the role of readers and social or historical context and to stress interdisciplinary research, aim to surpass structural narratology, so as to enrich narrative criticism. Though the research materials concerned with narratology, a brief literature review about this short story is as follows.

2.1.1 The researches abroad

The first category of study is about the narrative time in Faulkner‟s work. Sartre once points out in his “On the Sound and the Fury: Time in Faulkner ‟s Novels ” that Faulkner ‟s metaphysics is a metaphysics of time. Faulkner shows his success in using time and produces many researches such as Paul D.McGlym‟s “The Chronology of „A Rose for Emily‟”(1969), G.R. Wilson Jr‟s “The Chronology of Faulkner‟s „A Rose for Emily ‟ Again ”(1972), Gene M. Moore ‟s “Of Time and Its Mathematical Progression: Problems of Chronology in Faulkner‟s „A Rose for Emily‟”(1992), etc. All this shows that Faulkner‟s non-chronological story-telling occupy a very important role for critics. And this narrative technique reveals Faulkner ‟s strong interest in time and southern history.

The second category of studies focused on the point of view employed in this short story, such as Ruth Sullivan, Isaac Rodman, Lawrence R. Rodgers, etc. Among them, Terry Heller ‟s “The Telltale Hair: A Critical Study of William Faulkner‟s „A Rose for Emily‟” is a representative among critics focusing on the narrative effect.

The third category of studies is about narrative structure in the work. Faulkner always arranged an intricate structure to his short stories. Floyd C. Watkins‟s “The Structure of „A Rose for Emily ‟” (1954), William V . Davis ‟s “Another Flower for Faulkner ‟s Bouquet: Theme and Structure in „A Rose for Emily ‟” (1974), Ray B. West Jr. ‟s “Atmosphere and Theme in „A Rose for Emily‟” (1998).

The fourth category is about narrative language in “A Rose for Emily ” is also very typical. Faulkner describes Emily ‟s house with a very long and complex sentence, which can present a solemn feeling with a slow rhythm as well as the noble past of the owner in this town. Besides, Faulkner always uses long sentences followed by many short sentences in order to reach certain art effects. For example, in the Part Five, “The man himself lay in the bed ” in the middle of two long paragraphs is very obvious , because this short simple sentence would make readers wondering who this man is and why he is lying here. It can produce a new suspense with horrible atmosphere. The two examples mentioned above are frequently applied to illustrate certain features of Faulkner ‟s language in many critical studies.

And there is another language features in “A Rose for Emily”, which appears in Mary Louise Weaks‟ “The Meaning of Miss Emily‟s Rose” (1981). The studies concern the narrative skills are numerous, for instance, Semiramis Yagcioglu ‟s “Lauguage, Subjectivity and Ideology ” (1995). And the studies also include the interdisciplinary narrative. Mary Arensberg and Sara E. Schyfter‟s “Hairoglyphics in Faulkner‟s „A Rose for Emily‟” (1986-1987).

2.2.1 The researches in China

Though domestic study about Faulkner is later than the foreign country, it still attracted many scholars‟ interest to study the work such as Ning Juanqin and Shi Junhua‟s “On Anachronism and Narration Distance of A Rose for Emily ” (2007), Ding Xiaoyu ‟s

“The Temporal Philosophy of A Rose for Emily” (2008), Pan Buhan‟s “The Narrative Structure and Techniques in William Faulkner ‟s „A Rose for Emily ‟” (2008), Pan Xuequan ‟s “An Interpretation of „A Rose for Emily‟ from the Perspective of Linguistic Iconicity ” (2008). And Xiao M inghan‟s “S tudy of William Faulkner” is the first treatise on studying Faulkner‟s work in a more complete perspective.

From the researches both at home and abroad, it can be concluded that the narrative study of “A Rose for Emily ” has mushroomed. However the studies from the perspective of combining narrative study with the plot of the short story are few. And that leave possibility for researchers to try a new angel to interpret this story.

3 An analysis of “A Rose for Emily”

“A Rose for Emily ” is a gothic short, originally published in 1930. The story begins with Emily ‟s death when the whole town comes to her funeral and then flashbacks a whole life of Miss Emily. Her father, Mr. Grierson, drives all the suitors out of the door so that she does not get married even at thirty. She refuses every change that the war had brought and lives a different life from the townsmen. And finally she died with her old plantation system. The novel creates a poor female image.

The major character of Emily is her sentimental attachment to the past. In Faulkner‟s words, “the past is never dead, it is not even past” (Faulkner, 1960). Miss Emily refuses to face the new world and attempts to remain in her high social position. Those can be found in many details of the story. She refuses to pay the taxes. She does not permit people to fasten the metal numbers to her door; she even does not allow people to dispose of the body for three days when her father dies. All these facts clearly illustrate Miss Emily‟s attachment to the past. As to the motive of killing her lover, one convincing explanation is Ray West‟s （1968）theory of Emily‟s attempt to stop time, Which is consistent with her character.

The disordered chronology makes the story very complex and indicates Emily‟s bad fate. The author retreated from the narration through the first-person plural narrative. The author unfolds Emily ‟s story before readers and also indicates the reasons of Emily ‟s tragedy. And the using of stream of consciousness makes the whole narration natural and meaningful.

At the end of the story, Emily died and the story comes back to the beginning. “Our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection…the women mostly out of curiosity” (p103).

4 An analysis of the narrative techniques in the short story

This story is a typical example for Faulkner as an greatest experimentalist: from its contents, the story covers almost all the themes presented in other fictions, such as the decline of the aristocratic family, the slavery, the humanity; from the aspect of narrative arts, the story is a experimental writing field involving many artistic narrative techniques, such as multi-perspective narrative, anachronism, stream of consciousness symbolism and flashback. In the work, the “rose ” is a symbol that represents Faulkner‟s sympathy to Emily and flashback is reflected at the beginning of story with Emily‟s death. And then the work writes about her life before death in the following parts of the story. The paper will interpret it in terms of three typical narrative techniques using in the novel: anachronism, the first person narrative, stream of consciousness.

4.1 Anachronism

In “A Rose for Emily”, the chronology plays an important role in characterization, plots and theme development. It is an eye-catching technique that Faulkner used in the work. And Faulkner deliberately disjointed chronological time in the story. He uses “a complicatedly disjunctive time scheme” (Wilson, 1972:56) that “twists chronology almost beyond recognition” (Sullivan, 1971:176). In this story there are two chronologies. One is the time of narrative and another is the story time. And those two twist together and create obstacle for readers to understand the story easily and completely. So, in order to better understand the story clearly and find the potential answer of some suspense in the story , it is very necessary to make Emily‟s own chronology in the context. According to the hints and important events a timetable can be made below:

Chronology of the Major Events in Emily Grierson

Table 4.1 (Source: Buhan, Pan. 2008. The Narrative Structure and techniques in William Faulkner‟s “A Rose for Emily. 语文学刊. )

From the story, this chronology is disjointed. Some events do not appear according to the natural timetable above (Table 4.1). Instead, the chronology is disjointed into six fragments: item 5, item 6, item 8, item9, item 10 and item 11. In the story, item 5 is placed in part four, and item8-11 is placed in both part I and part IV of the story. In item 5, Miss Emily is engaged with Homer Barron and may marry to him. And this is not agreed by the townspeople. in Part IV “The men did not want to interfere, but at last the ladies forced the Baptist minister—Miss Emily‟s people were Episcopal—to call upon her ……and the following day the minister ‟s wife wrote to Miss Emily ‟s relations in Alabama ” (p108). Thus Miss Emily‟s blood-kin come. Here the item 5 in part IV is obviously the main factor of Emily buying arsenic in part III.

And in the first paragraph of part IV, “because Homer himself had remarked—he like men, and it was know that he drank with the younger men in the Elk‟s Club-that he was not a marrying man”(p108) serves as another important factor for Emily to kill Homer Barron. However, the narrator intentionally puts Emily‟s action of buying poison before her cousin‟s arrival and her lover‟s declaration of his attitudes towards marriage. Thus, the cause and the effect become unclear and the narrator deliberately isolates the event of Homer‟s disappearance in the development of the plot. This anachronism wants readers to calm down and continue to dig the deep level of the story and to recognize Emil y‟s crime without a final judgment.