On The Narrative Art Of Herzog

Saul Bellow is considered another most-famous novelist after Hemingway and Faulkner in the contemporary literary world of the United States of America. His works has very deep thought, the humanistic understanding and subtle analysis of contemporary culture is the most successful. His writing reflects the spiritual crisis of the intellectuals and conveys deep concerns about the human fate in the society. Herzog, his representative work, makes the most of his ideas and literary style as well. Ever since its appearance, Herzog has attracted many researchers whose work focuses upon the ideas expressed in the novel. As a matter of fact, there are a number of things in the novel that are worthy of further exploration. There are hardly any plots in the novel. Most of the novel is devoted to the hero's imagination and memory. In addition to that, the novel represents Herzog's chaotic life within such a short period of time as several days. In the novel, Bellow successfully created the character whose complex spiritual world is faithfully and profoundly represented. The question remains how his complex mind and confusing life is made clear in details. The question has to be answered in terms of narrative art of the novel, which is the aim of research in the current paper.There are three parts in my paper (the narrator and the narrative perspective, the characterization and the narrative time). The first part is about the narrator and the narrative point of view. In the "Herzog", Bellow selected a hidden narrator.The reader can closer the fiction and the Herzog's inner world which is reflected in the fiction is more real.The second part is about the characterization.Herzog is an anti-hero.When Bellow shaped this image, he found unique angle and many skills. And the readers can look at the image from various angles because of the unique mode of discourse. The third part is about the time in the fiction. In "Herzog", the time line disappeared, but it is also achieved very good results by the unusual time mode. The epilogue is about the preliminary research results.