On The Narrative Space In Humboldt's Gift

In the field of narrative research, rich and in-depth research achievement has been achieved in fictional narrative. During the development of narratology, researchers placed more stress on the analysis of narrative time than narrative space. Meanwhile, critics of narrative define the concept of narrative space inconsistently with their proposed spaces: abstract space, psychological space, geographical space, social space, cultural space, perspective space, textual space, open and close space and so on.Humboldt's Gift is one of the most outstanding works of American writer Saul Bellow (1915-2005), which wins the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1976 and contributes greatly to Saul Bellow's winning the Noble Prize in Literature the same year. The work is gradually described in the form of the reminiscences of the protagonist and narrator Citrine. The reminiscences are divided into two parts:the recent events and the past events recalled in the recent events.Since the two kinds of past times interleave and many scenes change, readers are made complicated and confused. The thesis firstly shows the coherence of the plot from the analysis of regional space. The novel depicts the contemporary American society in grand scale with complex contents and structures, and his identity of Jewish background assures the reflection of Jewish culture and ideology in the novel. Secondly, the thesis analyzes the fate of two artists from the perspective of social space and cultural space through discussing the life story of the heroes. In this novel, free associations are closely inter-related and the important event repeats many times. All of them embody the protagonist's mental state. Finally, this thesis deals with the flowing changes in the heroes' psychology when they undertake the spiritual exploration, via analyzing the different presenting manners of psychology.From the four perspectives of narrative space to analyze Humboldt's Gift, it can help readers develop a more comprehensive understanding of the content and demonstrate a clearer theme. As a new research perspective, narrative space is on the stage of being explored and narrative space theory is also in the process of being improved. This thesis, as an attempt, intends to elicit more valuable comments.