An Interpretation Of Narrative Space In A Bend In The River

Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul (1932-) is the high-profile immigration writer in the world. In 2001, he became the world renowned Nobel Prize winner. As one of Naipaul's masterpieces, A Bend in the River has got great attention and praises since its publication. A Bend in the River was rated in a list of 100 best novels in English in the twentieth century by Random House, a famous publishing house, in 1999.As a representative of modernist writers, Naipaul overthrows the traditional linear narrative pattern in A Bend in the River, and forms a new system of time and space. Modernist writers "try to make the readers understand their work in one moment from the space rather than the order" (Makaryk 629). So is Naipaul. His creative style tallies with spatial effect constructed by narrative space theory. The theory of narrative space plays a more and more important role in western literary criticism in the twentieth century. It relates to and influences major forms of modern criticism and theory. Joseph Frank is one of the most prominent contributors to the founding of the theory of narrative space. In his essay "Spatial Form in Modern Literature", Frank presents for the first time his general conception of the spatial form which begins the theory of narrative space. This thesis intends to demonstrate the narrative space in Naipaul's A Bend in the River based on Joseph Frank's theory of spatial form. It will dwell upon the physical space and the textual space that Naipaul establishes, the perceptional space stirred in the reader's mind, and the aesthetic significance spatialization creates. Thus the thesis tries to show the characteristics of the theory of narrative space and the irreplaceable role that spatial form plays in interpreting modern thinking.The thesis is divided into four chapters. Chapter 1 tries to examine the physical space Naipaul constructs in the novel from the geographical and social perspectives. It probes into the marginalization of physical spaces and its significance for the illustration of particular themes of the novel. Chapter 2 mainly analyzes the textual space focusing on the characteristics of painting and sculpture of the novel. Chapter 3 explores the perceptional space established in the reader's mind by analyzing the general effect of narrative spaces. Chapter 4 tends to embody the aesthetic significance of spatialization by analyzing defamiliarization of the process of reading and alteration of the role of language in A Bend in the River.Through above-mentioned detailed analysis, the thesis tries to expose the narrative space in A Bend in the River and the interplay of different forms of space, which is significant in understanding the trend of space development in modern fiction and the influence of form on content. This will help deepen the understanding of the characteristics, structure, artistic conception and art innovation of Naipaul's novels, and it will be also helpful for us to understand the culture connotation in A Bend in the River more.