A Study Of Narrative Features Of William Somerset Maugham's Fiction

William Somerset Maugham is an unique writer of modern Britain, who stood in the intersection of the tradition and modernity. His fiction shows the features of both realism and modernism. That is , his short stories and former novels are obviously characteristic of realism, while his late novels show more modern flavor in the narrative techniques and topics of the novels. This thesis analyzes the characteristics of narration in Maugham's fiction by applying the theory of narratology. The whole thesis can be divided into five parts. Excepting the head and the tail, the other three parts are the main body of this paper .Chapter One is the preface to this thesis. In this chapter ,I have made an introduction of Maugham' life story and his fiction, then I have expounded his ideal of literature in order to form up a comparison to the following parts. Finally , I point the situation of Chinese acception to Maugham's fiction and point out the reasons why I wrote this thesis from the angle of narratology.Chapter Two is "the discussion of narration", which is divided into three sections. In the first section , I have analyzed the peculiarity of the point of view in Maugham' late novels. In the second part, I have analyzed the sorts of narrators in Maugham's novels by adopting Genette's theory. In the last section ,I have combined Genette's another theory of the functions of narrator with Maugham' novels ,and then I have elaborated the narrators' five functions in Maugham' novels .Chapter Three is "the discussion of plot ", it explores the features of the plot in Maugham' novels. This part is also divided into three sections. Firstly, I have clarified the confusion about the concept of "plot "for further discussion. Then ,I have studied the modes of Maugham's novels with the examples of his three representative novels. Therefore I make a conclusion that the spiritual exploration into his three protagonists embodies the writer's search for and thought of the significance of the life indifferent stages of his career. In the third section , I have analyzed the dramatic features of Maugham's short stories.Chapter Four is "the discussion of figure". Applying the theories of "functional characters" and "mental characters ", I have analyzed the characters in Maugham's fiction and their features.The last chapter is the summary of Maugham's features of writing . At last, I point out that from the narrative features of Maugham' fiction, we can see both the unavoidable limitation and unique values of Maugham' writing .