The Reception And Transmutation Of William Trevor’s Writing In Yiyun Li’s Short Stories

Yiyun Li,a contemporary Chinese American short story writer,writes about China in English.Western readers and Western critics warmly accept her works.She has repeatedly shown in public and her essays respect for literary precursors,particularly the Irish writer William Trevor.Yiyun Li’s path to be a writer is based on her absorption of Trevor’s elements,so it is valuable to study her reception and transmutation of Trevor.This paper attempts to analyze Li’s specific acceptance of Trevor in three aspects: storytelling standpoints,themes and narrative crafts,and to explore how Li creates her own writing personality by combining her personal talents,Chinese culture,literary source and literary traditions in the process of transmutation.This thesis adopts Joseph T.Shaw’s theory of literary indebtedness,examining Yiyun Li’s reception and transmutation of Trevor.Based on an influence demonstration research and a detailed text analysis,this paper aims to illustrate Li’s reception of Trevor’s standpoints as a storyteller,to explore how Li receives and transmutes Trevor on themes,and to demonstrate the similarities and differences between Li and Trevor on narrative crafts.Chapter One discusses Li’s reception of Trevor’s ideas.Li accepts Trevor’s concept of“writing from a distance” and his purpose of creation.Chapter Two focuses on “Gold Boy,Emerald Girl” by Li and “Three People” by Trevor,supplemented by other works of them,exploring Li’s reception and transmutation of Trevor on themes.Li accepts the theme of loneliness and transgression from Trevor and makes transmutations of the themes with her literary talents and Chinese culture.Centered also on “Gold Boy,Emerald Girl” and “Three People”,Chapter Three discusses the similarities and divergences between Li and Trevor from the perspective of narrative arts.While both of them use shifting focalization and flashback to highlight characters’ subjectivity,Li shows the tendency of prosaism in her works.The thesis takes Yiyun Li as the subject of the influence study and discusses her acceptance and transmutation of Trevor.Examining the literary relationship between Yiyun Li and William Trevor,this paper attempts to understand Li’s short story writing in depth.On the one hand,through analyzing Li’s reception of Trevor,this paper uncovers the foreign factors in Li’s short stories;on the other hand,through exploring Li’s transmutation of Trevor,this paper discovers the originality of Li’s short fiction.