History And Reality In Fairyland-a Dialogic Study On Graham Swift’s Waterland

Graham Swift is one of the most distinguished and highly regarded novelistsand short-story writers in contemporary Britain. Waterland, as Swift’s representativework shortlisted by Booker Prize, has garnered outstanding critical acclaim and highappreciation from critics and readers in and beyond the English World since itspublication in1983. For many years, different scholars have scrutinized this workfrom the perspectives of historiography metafiction, trauma theory, and ethic theory.However, the study from Bakhtin’s dialogic theory has been ignored.This thesis attempts to use Bakhtin’s dialogic theory and analyze Waterlandfrom three aspects including the dialogic means, great dialogue and micro-dialogue tointerpret how Swift challenges the historical narration in great dialogue as well asseeking the reality in double-voiced micro-dialogue, finally draws the conclusion thatWaterland is a vivid demonstration of comprehensive dialogism. In dialogue, theopenness of history and the predicament of modern people are unveiled.