A Narrative And Stylistic Analysis Of A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man

Narratology and stylistics are two theories that play a significant role in the modern literary criticism of the western novel. They are closely related and share the common ground to some extent both in their basic stands and in their objects of research. More importantly, there is a supplementary and reciprocal relationship between the"discourse"in terms of narratology and"style"in terms of stylistics. By taking the two into account simultaneously, a relatively comprehensive study of the formal techniques of the novel will be made. It is noteworthy that the discourse in narratology and the style in stylistics overlap with each other at least in terms of point of view and modes of speech. The present thesis is intended to explore point of view, modes of speech, and mind style together with their interaction from an interdisciplinary orientation, i.e. narratologically and stylistically. Technically speaking, Chapter One presents the studies of point of view in the fields of both narratology and stylistics, and confirms the method of conducting a stylistic analysis of point of view within the framework of narratology. Besides, Chapter One attempts to clarify the relationship between point of view and voice. Chapter Two explores the classification, characteristics and functions of various modes of speech. In addition, it is suggested that the stylistic analysis of different modes of speech is well carried out by taking into account those notions in narratology, i.e. flow of narration, the distance between the modes of speech and the reader, etc. Chapter Three discourses on the definition and categorization of mind style and Chapter Four concerns the interaction of point of view, modes of speech and mind style.In a summary, in the analysis of James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, the thesis aims to select and adopt some analytical methods in narratology and those in stylistics in an eclectic and harmonious way. Technically speaking, the stylistic analysis of James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is conducted generally within the framework of narratology by using suitably some notions in its field. In light of this, the language features demonstrated in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man are described, analyzed and interpreted in order to get a comparatively comprehensive understanding of the psychological development and the spiritual pilgrimage of the main character Stephen Dedalus, as well as the theme of the novel.