Rendering The Ordinary Surprising

Ann Beattie has been universally acknowledged as one of the most original and important writers in contemporary American literature. Yet, to date, no comprehensive study has appeared in China to analyze the creative vision underlying Beattie's fictive universe or to consider Beattie's relevance to the contemporary literary period.This thesis focuses on the study of Ann Beattie's repeating themes and writing skills in relation to Beattie's most successful novel Picturing Will. Of central concern here is Beattie's literary neorealism. And the final purpose of this study is to draw out a rather clear outline of Ann Beattie's neorealism and to identify some distinguished features of Beattie's writing through close reading and careful analysis.The thesis is made up of four chapters: introduction, theoretical perceptive, detailed analysis and conclusion. After presenting a short introduction to Ann Beattie's life and literary career, the first chapter gives out a survey of the general critical responses to Ann Beattie as well as the special critical responses received by Picturing Will, pointing out that there has not been a systematic and thorough study of the novel with reference to literary neorealism. Chapter two is devoted to the illumination of the theoretical perspective. In addition to deliberating many crucial elements of neorealism-its emergence and definition, its association with and difference from traditional realism, and its four major types-considering Ann Beattie's highly unique minimalist writing style, this chapter also offers a further explication of minimalism dealing with what is minimalism and then minimalist fiction, and the characteristics of minimalist neorealism.Chapter three, i.e. the chapter of detailed analysis, falls into two sections. In the first part, the author makes a careful exploration of Picturing Will's major themes. This consists of two questions: parenting in contemporary society and the contradiction between mothering and career. These thematic issues typically exemplify neorealism's close connection with traditional realism-a renewed interest in realistic subject matters and the emphasis on the depiction of daily life experienced by extremly ordinary people set in absolutely objective surroundings. In the second part, the author attempts to examine many remarkable traits of Ann Beattie's writing technique. This discussion concentrates on two aspects: Ann Beattie's absolutely objective narrative style and her typical minimalist emphasis on revealing details. Discontinuous narrative and multiple points of view, two other skills employed in Picturing Will, are also paid attention to. It is her artful digest of all these innovative and borrowed skills that forms Beattie's consummate neorealistic style shining in the novel.Based on all the analysis made in the previous chapters, the final chapter draws the conclusion that both in its major themes as well as in its writing techniques, the novel Picturing Will distinctly demonstrates most of the particular features of neorealism. Furthermore, the author affirms that Ann Beattie, as the leading figure of the neorealist movement in contemporary American literature and, as an accomplished and highly praised writer in her own right, is worthy of extended critical analysis and explication.