Panopticon And Pilgrimage:The Construction Of Narrator And Reader Identities In Joseph Andrews

Joseph Andrews,a self-reflexive text whose author is widely known for his active participation in literary discussions and judicial issues,provides interesting topics for narratological,social as well as spatial studies.Combining these research areas,this thesis analyses the two spatial-temporal structures,modern panopticon and traditional pilgrimage,that are manifest in the competition for power between Fielding?s narrator and his(implied)reader.Apart from the introduction and conclusion parts,the main body of this thesis is composed of two chapters.The introductory section clarifies the previous scholarship,research values,main arguments,theoretical bases and chapter structures of this thesis.The first chapter argues that the narrator-reader relationship in Joseph Andrews constitutes a panoptic model,in which the commercially influential,emotionally estranged reader?s perpetual practice of observation reconstructs the far-from-omniscient narrator?s identity into a classical scholar,a popular writer and a conscientious historian.Supported by new commercialism,this reformative power of panoptic surveillance as a product of spatial organization embodies the amorally efficient functioning of the bourgeois order in early modern England.Chapter two clarifies how the narrator exercises his narratorial authority by guiding the reader through a linear journey towards moral improvement,a journey which,running parallel to the protagonists? pilgrimages within the story,reconstructs the reader?s identity by showing him the importance of a balance between spiritual pursuits and earthly pleasures,between irresponsible complacency and thoughtless credulity.This pilgrimage structure,symbolic of an individual Christian?s lifelong quest for redemption,tempers panoptic commercialism with conventional ethics.The concluding section summarizes the relationship between these two spatial-temporal models,emphasizes the contributions of this thesis to the study of early modern literature and suggests possible topics for future research.By examining the constant rivalry for narrative control between Fielding?s narrator and his reader,this thesis illustrates the potential influence of panoptic surveillance upon not only the observed but also the observer,as well as the complicated interactions between spatial-temporal narrative structures and the social or moral orders they represent.