A Comparative Study On The Change Of Narrative Perspective Between Water Margin And The History Of Tom Jones,a Foundling

Both China in the 17th century and Britain in the 18th century were in a stage of social transformation.At this stage,social economy,politics and culture are all facing new changes.Tradition and new things collide and blend with each other.It is also at this stage that novels have undergone new changes.Among the novels,Water Margin and The History of Tom Jones,a Foundling are outstanding.They can be regarded as the concentrated embodiment of the artistic development of novels at this stage.In Water Margin and The History of Tom Jones,a Foundling,we can find that those novels in this period began to consciously break through the barriers of early literature and realize the further maturity of the genre.Water Margin and The History of Tom Jones,a Foundling not only inherit the experience of the narrative art of previous novels,but also lay the foundation for the creation of later generations.There are a lot of researches on the narrative art of these two novels at home and abroad,but there are few achievements in the narrative perspective and its transformation.The narrative perspective not only determines the narrative tone of the novel,but also reflects the narrative changes in the evolution of the novel.Therefore,from the perspective of narrative perspective and its transformation,combined with literary psychology,stylistics and other methods,it is of certain significance to study Water Margin and The History of Tom Jones,a Foundling.In the process of research,this paper will make a parallel comparative study of the two works,which on the basis of many narrative theories of Chinese classical literary theorists such as Jin Shengtan and western theorists such as Genette.In order to explore the stylistic evolution of Chinese and English novels,understand the background of the times of literary development,and clarify the development context of Chinese and English novel theories.First of all,it can be seen that these two works are no longer stuck into a single narrative perspective as early literature did,but choose to adopt multiple perspectives in narration.In Water Margin and The History of Tom Jones,a Foundling,the narrator has multiple identities.The narrator can be either the implied author or the characters.In terms of narrative styles,Water Margin and The History of Tom Jones,a Foundling are not limited to use one form of expression.They both use the dual way of hearing and vision in the novel.This kind of conversion enables the barriers between different sensory perspectives to be opened up,and the novel narrative achieves the dynamic motion.In the specific process,Water Margin tends to use listening instead of visual narrative,while The History of Tom Jones,a Foundling uses dialogue to supplement the content of visual narrative.At the same time,the two works use different narrative perspectives to show the inner emotional changes of the characters.Water Margin is good at using the way to draw the psychological motivation of the characters ’behavior changes,while the history of The History of Tom Jones,a Foundling pays more attention to the dynamic process of the characters ’psychology itself.Secondly,during the comparation,we should not only analyze these common factors,but also pay attention to the reasons behind the differences.The two novels have different ways of expression in the transformation of narrative perspective,which is caused by different cultural traditions.Water Margin relies on historical literature,which makes it pay more attention to the control of the narrator’s identity in the narrative process and favor the objective and calm narrative style.The History of Tom Jones,a Foundling was born in the tradition of Western Epic,and the style of epic narration makes the The History of Tom Jones,a Foundling not good at dealing with the narrator’s identity.The influences of early literature’s narration also led to the differences in the narrative audio-visual conversion between the two novels.Water Margin was affected with the Hua-ben.Water Margin is good at using auditory narration,and extending the novel narrative by listening.The History of Tom Jones,a Foundling was influenced by the drama culture,and absorbed the style of drama.In the novel,the dialogue between different characters is often used as theMultiple narrators can not only enrich the content of novel,but also make the author’s theoretical viewpoint clearly.However,the two novels show different characteristics at this aspect.Water Margin is obviously inclined to the natural transformation of different narrator identities,while The History of Tom Jones,a Foundling pays more attention to the implied author,which makes the narrator identities switch frequently.whole chapter,which strengthens the Dialogism in the narrative process.In addition,we can see he traditional cultural thoughts also has impact on these two novels.Confucianism requires that the narration should follow the principle of Chun-qiu Bifa.Chun-qiu Bifa means little words and broad meaning,which makes the Water margin show restraint in the expression of the psychological and emotional changes of the characters,pay more attention to the readers ‘speculation on the psychological state of the characters,and pursue the hint of narration.The Enlightenment in the 18 th century also influenced the narration of The History of Tom Jones,a Foundling.The Enlightenment emphases on human nature that makes novelists pay more attention to the exploration of emotional details.Therefore,The History of Tom Jones,a Foundling tends to describe the content and process of the psychological transformation of the characters in the novel.Finally,the authors of the two novels realize the aesthetic effect of the shift of narrative perspective.They achieve the diversification of novel narration by switching between different narrative perspectives.In this process,the novel not only creates diversified characters,but also achieves the defamiliarization and satirical narrative effects.