Focalization,Stream Of Consciousness And Image Narrative:Narrative Analysis Of Katherine Anne Porter's Stories

Katherine Ann Porter,whose short stories are as famous as Joyce's and Hemingway's,is one of the most important American female novelists in the 20th century.From the beginning of this century,the study of Porter's works has been on the rise.Many experts and scholars have studied her works from various perspectives,including feminism,religious outlook,Southern Consciousness,trauma narrative and so on.The narrative analysis of Porter mainly focuses on her novels and novelettes.This thesis analyses the narrative forms in Porter's short stories by integrating French scholar Genette's "focalization" theory,domestic scholar Long Diyong's space narrative theory,Yang Yi's image narrative theory and Bakhtin's"mirror" theory.This paper proposes that Porter mainly uses focalization,stream of consciousness and image narration in her stories to push forward the process of textual narrative and highlight the theme of her stories.This paper is divided into five parts.The first chapter is the introduction,which briefly introduces Porter's life,literary status,the literary review of Porter and contents,methods and significance of this thesis.Chapter Two discusses the varied focalization in "The Old Mortality","Maria Concepcion" and "The Jilting Granny Weatherall" from the perspective of Genette's "Focalization" theory;Chapter Three analyses the stream of consciousness narrative in "The Jilting Granny Weatherall","Theft" and "The Grave" from three aspects of stream of consciousness:montage,inner monologue and free association.On the part of psychological montage,Porter's unique time and space narrative is emphasized by using Long Diyong's space narrative theory;The fourth chapter examines the image narrative in "Rope"and "The Cracked Looking-Glass" by using Yang Yi's "image narrative" theory;Chapter five is conclusion of the thesis.Through the above analysis,this paper finds that:firstly,"focalization" will filter information,affect the reader's information reception and regulate the narrative process.Porter sets suspense for the narrative through the alternate use of varied "focalization" to arouse the reader's interest in reading;moreover,the narrative is limited by focalization,and the author can influence the reader's emotional bias and moral identity to a certain extent,thus indirectly reflecting her themes.Secondly,in addition to using three conventional stream of consciousness writing techniques,Porter successfully formed her unique time and space narrative to promote the narrative process and highlight her thoughts.Thirdly,image exists not only as a symbol in Porter's works,but also as a narrative strategy,which runs through the whole narrative process and guides the narrative progress.