A Narratological Study Of Singer’s Short Stories

Issac Bashevis Singer, the1978Nobel Laureate in Literature, was one of thegreatest storytellers of twentieth century. He wrote in Yiddish, a dying language, toexplore the Jewish view of religion, ethics and life in particular periods of history.Singer drew heavily on folklore and religious traditions of East European Jewry andportrayed the secluded yet vibrant lives of Jewish community in his writing which notonly brought to light the fears, desires and dilemmas of Jewish Americans lost inassimilation, but also revealed the plight of Jewish traditions and mankind.Singer and his works have long been the focus of in-depth studies abroad.Scholars have dissected the traces of Jewish religion, culture, and history in Singer’sworks as well as analyses of Singer’s writing techniques, modernism and Jewishness,etc. In China, a large amount of Chinese papers and treatises have also been inspiredto study origin, theme, characters of Singer’s works; some Chinese scholars evenintroduce Singer’s fictional characters into comparative studies with classic charactersfrom Chinese literature, which pushes the study of Singer to a new phase. However,most of these studies, both from home and abroad, focus on Singer’s novels, whilesystematical studies of his short stories are relatively rare, especially thoroughanalysis from the perspective of narratology.Based on classic narratology, the author of this thesis dissects Singer’s shortstories thoroughly and systematically from perspectives of narrative exchange,narrative point-of-view, narrative structure, narrative time and narrative space. Theauthor firstly attempts to establish a model for text analysis of short stories under theframework of narrative theory, by applying narrative tools to literary works. Secondly,the author endeavors to explore the structuring techniques and aesthetic value ofSinger’s short stories, in order to improve readers’ ability of art appreciation. Thethesis presents the narratological study of Singer’s short stories through integration ofmacroscopic view and microscopic view, quantative research, and qualitative research.Biased interpretation of Singer’s work without context has been avoided to enhancethe application of narratology. The research concludes that Singer’s communicative intention is mainly realizedby “implied author” and narrators in his works. In his short stories, thecommunication which takes “implied author” as the core is regarded as two-waycommunication, in which the author, text and the readers all contribute and exertinfluences. The narrators in Singer’s short stories tend to be stereotypes withdistinctive characteristics, mainly in forms of passionate “storyteller” and calm“onlooker”; these two types of narrators may differ in style but both serve asirreplaceable agents of communication.Alternating person view accounts for the ever-changing narrative point-of-viewand fascinating narrative process in Singer’s works. Based on the analysis andgeneralization of47short stories by Singer, the thesis concludes that the mostcommonly used perspectives are third-person omniscient, first-person retrospectiveand “demon” perspective. Each perspective has created unique narrative effects; theomniscient perspective lends itself well to presenting grand scenes; the first-personretrospective perspective helps to amplify narrative tension; the “demon” perspectiveserves to expose and criticize the cruel reality ruthlessly so that themes can be fullymanifested. The switch of perspectives in one short story makes the narration morevivid and emotionalDelicately crafted and varied structures of Singer’s short stories are classicexamples of beauty of literary structure. Singer’s short stories fall in three types oflinear structures, namely chain, round and hollow square. Functionally, Singer’s shortstories follow four basic types of structure: desertion-return, persistence-salvation,degeneration-destruction and perplexity-disillusion. Each type of narrative structure issupported by strict inherent logic behind and closely matched with the work’s themeto serve solely the writer’s intention. Moreover, the unique opening and punchyending, the highlight of Singer’s short stories, best demonstrate the writer’sstructuring techniques.As two important narrative elements, time and space are skillfully utilized inSinger’s short stories. This thesis concludes that Singer attached great importance toproper use of temporal narrative techniques to achieve strong rhythm of narration through summarization, scene description, repetition, etc. Singer’s use of spatialtechniques are mostly found in the setting and depiction of two major narrative spaces—Polish shetel and modern American community. By endowing the spaces withstrong symbolic meanings, Singer draws a striking picture of Jew’s pain and strugglein the historical spaces. When the Jews suffer endless persecution physically andspiritually, the only choice left for them is to find comfort in the space of “dream anddemon”.Through elaborate analysis and cautious demonstration, this thesis, to a certainextent, presents narrative techniques in Singer’s short stories, namely naturalcommunication, flexible perspectives, exquisite structure as well as the proper use oftime and space.