A Study Of Spatial Narrative In Kinfolk

Pearl S.Buck,a famous American writer,won the Nobel Prize for Literature in1938 by her masterpiece The Good Earth,specializes in depicting China.As the first American woman writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature,Pearl Buck was long criticized by scholars and critics for writing only about China’s peasants,rather than about intellectuals who seemed to have more discourse power in China.Kinfolk was published in 1949,set in wartime China.It is Pearl Buck’s first work to comprehensively depict Chinese “returnee” intellectuals.The novel takes the return of the patriotic intellectual James Liang as the main line throughout the book and explores the identity dilemma of Chinese Americans and the cultural conflicts and path choices“returnee” intellectuals faced.Previous research on Pearl Buck at home and abroad has mainly focused on its award-winning works,while the research on Kinfolk is still limited,and the depth and breadth of relevant research need to be expanded.This thesis comprehensively uses theoretical knowledge such as narratology and cultural geography to analyze the spatial presentation in the novel,summarize the spatial form in the novel,and explore the aesthetic significance of spatial narrative to characters,themes,and plots.This article is divided into three parts.The first part is an introduction.The chapter one not only introduces Pearl Buck and her creative experience,but also discovered the shortcomings of spatial narrative research and established the starting point of this thesis by reviewing the current research at home and abroad.The second part is the main body and consists of three chapters.The chapter two mainly analyzes the spatial presentation in the novel by using the Marxist spatial narrative theory to divide the spatial presentation in Kinfolk into two types: the macroscopic space and the microscopic space.The macroscopic space includes “the American City”,“Chinese cities” and “Chinese rural areas”.The microscopic spaces include “theater in Chinatown”,“Liang family’s apartment in New York”,“the George Washington Bridge” and “temporary accommodation for four siblings”.The physicality of space provides a foothold for the story.The spatial imagery is also metaphorical,closely related to the characters and plot.The chapter three explores the spatial narrative form narrative in the novel.Pearl Buck mainly used three narrative techniques of “juxtaposition narrative”,“flashback narrative” and “recurring imagery” to make the text present spatial properties.The spatial narrative form breaks the events and time series,and makes the story become scattered,which requires readers to consciously read and extract the narrative structure,to grasp the theme and connotation of the novel.The chapter four discusses the aesthetic significance of spatial narrative,including spatial narrative and fictional characters,spatial narrative and fictional themes,and spatial narrative and fictional plots.Conscious spatial narrative has positive significance for shaping characters and revealing their inner worlds,deepening the theme of novels,and providing the base for the plot and pushing up plot development.The third part is conclusion.The chapter five argues that Pearl Buck has a certain sense of spatial narrative in her creation,which provides reference value for the initiative of space to participate in narrative.Through analyzing the spatial presentations,spatial forms and their aesthetic significance in Kinfolk,this thesis explores the theme of immigrant intellectuals gradually knowing themselves,finding their identity and serving the motherland in the constant wandering of different spaces,and then reaches a deeper analysis of the novel.In addition,the analysis of the spatial narrative of Kinfolk also broadens the horizons of the Study of Pearl S.Buck and fills the gaps in the study from the perspectives of artistic forms and narrative techniques.