A Study On The Acoustic Narrative In Henry James's Late Novels

Henry James is one of the most distinguished American novelists and critics from the late 19th century to the early 20th century,whose literary theory and fictional creation had a profound influence on modernism literature.To date,international James research has a history of more than a hundred years,while China's research began in the 1980s,both with fruitful research results.However,most of the studies are relatively focused on The Portrait of a Lady,Daisy Miller and The Turn of the Screw,while the equally important late fictions such as The Golden Bowl and The Wings of Dove are less appreciated.Besides,there are limited researches on auditory culture,and even fewer from the perspective of acoustic narrative,which is precisely the focus of this paper.As a writer who led the transition of British and American fiction from realism to modernism,James brought in the auditory sense to show the characteristics of the transition to modernism novel writing in the aspects of character portrayal and character psychology,etc.James has his unique experimental creative techniques to show the Victorian era of British social life.Hence,this paper tries to take the acoustic narrative theory as the research method to study and interpret the soundscapes in James's novel The Golden Bowl and the silences in The Wings of the Dove,reveal the underlying meaning and purpose,and complete as much as possible the narrative research related to James.This thesis consists of five parts.The first chapter begins with the introduction of Henry James and his work,then summarizes the leading research results and related comments of Jamesians at home and abroad,and finally explains the purpose and significance of the acoustic analysis on James's novels.Chapter Two,as a theoretical framework,mainly outlines the development of acoustic narrative theory and explicates two core acoustic concepts of "soundscape" and "silence".Chapter Three starts with the analysis of the different reasons for the "silences" of the two principle heroines in The Wings of the Dove.Furthermore,the hidden meaning that the author intends to express through the "silence" of Milly and Kate.Then in The Golden Bowl,James enriched the background through physical sound and imaginary sound,which reflects the characteristics of James's psychoanalytic novels.Chapter Four intends to disclose the meaning of acoustic narrative in James's novels from two aspects:Victorian culture,and modernity of the art in the novels.This thesis ends the discussion with a conclusion that summarizes the possibility and inevitability of"re-listening" to James's novels.This paper holds that the aural study of James's novels is conducive to add audio tracks and enriching the space of text interpretation.At the same time,it also points out the shortcomings of this paper and the direction of future researches.