Narrative Analysis On Joseph Conrad's Fiction

As a Polish-English novelist at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, Joseph Conrad plays a key role in the history of the English literary based on with profound themes, wide background, and consummate narrative methods shown in his fictional texts. For a deeper cognition to Conrad's literary works, the thesis intends to discuss Conrad's narrative art based on narrative theory.The thesis includes three parts: introductory part, main body and conclusion. The introductory part relates briefly about Conrad's life experience, the current Conrad study both at home and abroad, the purpose of this thesis, the approaches to be employed, and some problems that need dealing with in this thesis. The main body is composed of five chapters. Chapter One is to investigate Conrad's innovation of narrative methods: his position of"Inward point of view", the introduction of Marlow into his series, and his experimentation of"Time shift". Chapter Two is to put Conrad in a historical background and investigate his attitudes towards of colonization and expansion, taking Heart of Darkness as an analytical text. In the Third Chapter, the time sequence and its aesthetic value in Conrad's fiction are to be covered on the base of the theory of anachrony. Chapter Four is to put Conrad study within the multicultural background and analyses his bewilderment, the uncertainty and symbolism of his narrative language. Chapter Five is to discuss Conrad's narrative art,making a case study of Lord Jim. The thesis intends to deal with Conrad's diverse and original narrative techniques such as multiple points of view, unique narrative structure, narrative voices, narrative distance and impressionism shown in the novel. In the last part of the thesis, the conclusion is drawn, placing an extra emphasis on Conrad's peculiar position in world's literary history.