"implied Author" Research

"Implied Author" is an important concept in the theory of Westernliterature, initially proposed by Booth, and will soon be widely adoptedand accepted by the academic community. However, by the prevalence ofpolitical criticism and cultural studies, this concept, which arose from acontext put more attention on studies of the interior structure of text, wasleaven into question. This dissertation makes a scrutiny its relation of realauthor and narrator, and ascertains that it identifies neither of these twolatter, instead, it has a peculiar signification. "Implied author" is animaging that the author projects in text and the personification image ofthe text, as the joint of the text and writer, it would fall under theinfluence of real author and other complicated factors outside the text.Based on the analysis of several critical factors, this dissertation makes aconclusion: this concept is necessary; it will assert a unique function inconcrete textual criticism methodologically.The dissertation consists of introduction, text and epilogue, and thetext includes four chapters. The introduction briefs the sketch and clue ofthe dissertation. In chapter 1, the dissertation enumerates the opinions anddefinition of "implied author" advanced by Booth, Chatman,Rimmon-Kenan, and others. The chapter 2 analyzes the relation between"implied author" and "real author", and recognizes that the existence and "implied author" does not deny and shroud the "real author". There aretwo possibilities in this relation, viz. identity and difference, of which thedissertation probes the causes.In chapter 3, the dissertation discusses the relation between "impliedauthor" and narrator, and analyzes and demonstrates the various situationof this relation alongside the different narrative persons. The chapter 4enumerates four types of the interlaced relation between "implied author"and "real author", namely, more than one real authors and one impliedauthor, one real author and more than one implied authors, more than onereal authors and more than one implied authors, one real author and oneimplied author, and observes the concrete situation, of every type.The epilogue sums up the prime content of this dissertation, and laysdown a definition of "implied author".