Sartre's Journey Of Narration

Jean-Paul Sartre is known to all as an outstanding French philosopher and writer with his thought-provoking critical theory and literary works.Heretofore,more research has been focused on the content of his works,such as the theme and the character,while less on the modes and techniques of narration to which Sartre attached actually much importance both in theory and in practice.This dissertation,from the perspective of narration,has a run-through of Sartre's thinking on literary forms in his critical theory and of the changes of the narrative mode in his writing practice.It also brings out how the changes lead to the revolution of literary concepts.By exploring the time,points of view,and structure of narration,this dissertation believes that Sartre's critical theory and writing practice can be divided into two periods:the early ethical narration and the late ideological one,on the basis of his personal experience and the different social background and literary concepts.It also analyzes the features of the two narrative modes and the aesthetic effect aroused by them.This dissertation includes six chapters as well as introduction and conclusion.In Introduction such aspects have been discussed as the research fruits on Sartre at home and abroad,basic ideas and methods of the author,and the novelty of the dissertation.The first chapter is entitled "The Philosophical Foundation of Sartre's Early Ethical Narration." It firstly gives the introduction of Sartre's life story and his literary achievements,which shows that the change of his philosophy of life leads to the evolution of his literary view.And then it analyzes the philosophical foundation of his ethical narration which can be originated from the idea of phenomenology and the subject's consciousness for freedom and be laid on the thoughts of ambiguous ethics.The feature of his ethical narration rests on existence paradox and ethical dilemma of the character represented by the narration in his freedom-as-the-theme novels.Chapter 2,entitled "The Features and Discourse Modes of Ethical Narration," focuses on the discourse analysis of Sartre's ethical narration.It analyzes the techniques and skills of his ethical narration from the point of view,person and structure.The first section demonstrates the close tie between the narrator's aim of self-expression and the choice in points of view.The second section illustrates the features of Sartre's ethical novels with character analysis.The life of ordinary people is the main part of ethical narration,which shows their anxious personality because of the disunion between selfhood and reality with the confrontation of some existence dilemmas.As for narrative structure,Sartre learnt from the writing skills of modern novels and paid more attention to the description of the hero's inner consciousness thus resulting in the substitution of emotional structure for the plot one.The third section shows empathie of the writer in ethical narration.That is to say,the writer keeps in accord with the consciousness of the character without considering his own view of value and morality.In this way the writer holds a proper aesthetic distance from the character in his novel.Chapter 3,entitled "Time and Body in the Ethical Narrative," explains the time techniques in the ethical narrative and the characteristics of a large number of emerged body images.Section 1 introduces Sartre's philosophy of time.Under the effect of phenomenological thought,he attaches great importance to the role of time,which makes it generate a wealth of time skills in the ethical narrative.Sartre's concept of time is different from the traditional concept of linear time,for he believes that time is a three-dimensional structure.Novel's narrative can break the traditional linear narrative,and express freely in the time of three-dimensional structure.Section 2 describes the time characteristics of Sartre' ethical novel specifically.He used the time structure with dual focuses and the narration with a variety of anti-timing techniques.Section 3,from the perspective of body image, analyses the characteristics of Sartre's ethical narrative.Sartre's early ethical novels have described substantive physical phenomenon,especially some body organs with erotic meaning.Body image has become a platform to display individual mental distress and surviving confusion.Chapter 4,"Intervention Literature and Ideological Narrative," has entered into Sartre's late ideological narrative stage.Section 1 describes the theory of ideology and the concept of intervention literature.The formation and development of Sartre's ideological narrative shows the rising course of the political consciousness.And his literary works transfer from the performance of ethical dilemmas to the expression of ideological positions.Section 2 points out that "intervention literature" is not just a political gesture,but also a technical concept.It makes Sartre to take a series of changes in literature skills and creative tactics,as a result,Ideological Narrative is the discourse performance of this change.Chapter 5,"Characteristics and modes of Ideology Narrative," focuses on the discourse analysis of Ideology Narration.Section 1 defines Ideology Narration as the ideological tendency in governance of the narrators.The description of events contains the author's class standpoints and discourse modes of Ideology Narrative.In The Road to Freedom,the polyphonic narrative takes on a profound hue of ideological metaphor.Section 2 analyzes the changes in narration in The Road to Freedom,such as: plot,construction and emotional stand.As for plot,the novel shifts form ethical narration of the everyday life to historical and social events;for structure,the ethical narrative is transferred from individual mode to collectivity mode;for emotional stand,the detachment is replaced by the deep concern of social history and political value.Section 3 deplores into narrative time in The Road to Freedom,which adopted widely the "simultaneity" in order to set up an "Echo Wall" time structure. In Chapter 6,"Historical Consciousness and Changes in Style," there is an analysis of the relationship between the emergence of Sartre's historical consciousness and changes in his literary style.Drama literature,which is the best embodiment of ideological notions,has become the commonly used literary style in Sartre's later literary career.It is the logical consequence of ideological narration.And the basic features of ideological narration in its entirety are exemplified by the theatre of situations.In the first section,by indicating the significance of strong historical consciousness,the transformation process of Sartre's novel of situations to the theatre of situations is brought to light.Then in section two,the characteristics of structural pattern of myth in situation plays are discussed in detail.As the accumulation of history and culture,myth interprets thoroughly the living conditions of modern man.The archetypal patterns as well as the paradoxical structure of binary opposition in mythology are dealt with efficiently as the mutual confrontation of ideology and class discourse.The situation plays of Sartre give a strong sense of political intentions.In section three,the ideological narrative strategies of situation plays are analyzed,including the subjective anti-narrative mode and the employment of "fissionable images".As for the "fissionable images",we can illustrate it by selecting the frequently used imagery mode in the plays of Sartre—"enclosed space".The Conclusion section firstly encapsulates the features of the two narrative modes of Sartre, then the relationship between Sartre's narrative theory and Chinese literature in the new era.The early ethic narration,formed in the context of literary ethics,highlights the formal characteristics of narrative discourses.In the meantime,it explores the fictionalized and literalized life.While the later ideological narration formed under the influence of moral values engagement,puts emphasis on the political and moral grounds of literature;what's more,it pays close attention to what thoughts the literary texts convey to the readers.Ethic narration along with ideological narration,explore the same problem of human existence from two opposite directions.They describe the existence circumstances and essential matters of humans from two different perspectives.The differences of the two are of ontological,and methodological levels,and more of the strategic level.In the transformation process of modern and contemporary Chinese literary narrative mode can we find the counterparts of Sartre's ethic narration and ideological narration.In Chinese literature of the new era in particular,there is an indication of direct impact on Chinese writers from Sartre.His narrative theories have promoted the transformation of narrative modes of Chinese novels in the new era.