From Modernist To Postmodernist Narration

In literature world, there has been a debate about the relationship between modernism and postmodernism. The dispute also lies in: which school does literary work belong to—modernism or postmodernism? The thesis pays heed to the style of literature and selects two works in two different times. The novel is a sort of narrative literature. Narration is the feature of a novel. With the help of Narratology, the thesis explains the profound kinship between modernism and postmodernism, showing that postmodernism is the outcome of the development of modernism.The whole thesis focuses on the two novels. Passos develops the modernist writing skill. His The 42nd Parallel is collected in the trilogy of U.S.A. Doctorow plays an important role in postmodernist literature. Ragtime wins the National Book Critics Circle Award. Doctorow innovates the traditional authenticity. He becomes a representative of postmodernist writers. Although the two works are in different times, they share many similarities. Blended with the writers'background, under the guidance of narration, and by way of contrast, the thesis tries to probe into different narrative strategies of the two novels, which shows that the relationship between postmodernism and modernism are inherited and developed. So they are by no means the same or the opposite.The thesis is divided into five parts. Part 1 is a general introduction to the two authors, their works and their position in American literature. Part 2 introduces modernism, postmodernism and their relationship. It also concentrates on the Narratology and characteristics of narration in modernist and postmodernist literature. Part 3 analyzes the similarities in order to state that they have a close relationship with each other. Part 4 analyzes their differences in narration to show the innovation of postmodernism. The last part makes the conclusion that modernism is the foundation of postmodernism from the perspective of novel, the most representative in literature. They are both mutually related and differential and the distinction between the two will be conducive to understanding literary works, and helpful to get technique preparation for following the trend of literature at a time when modernist and postmodernist works are full of the market with narrative techniques unceasingly changing.