The Narrative Strategy In The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn From A Bakhtinian Perspective

This thesis studies the narrative strategy of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn written by the American novelist Mark Twain on the basis of the theories of M. M. Bakhtin, specifically to say, polyphony, dialogue, and carnival. The polyphonic features of Huckleberry Finn are first and foremost shown in the independence of Huck's self-consciousness. Mark Twain mainly presents what the world is in the eyes of Huck as well as what Huck is in his own eyes. The reality of Huck, the world around him, and his daily life are all transferred from the authorial view to Huck's view. Everything is within Huck's self-consciousness which dominates the authorial view. Another polyphonic feature of the novel lies in that the seemingly disordered adventures of Huck on the Mississippi River are actually polyphonic variations on Shakespearean tragedies. Through the variation on Romeo and Juliet, the feud between the Shepherdson and the Grangerford exposes the backwardness of the South; the darkness of human nature that Huck feels during his journey on the Mississippi River is the variation on what King Lear suffers; the moral crisis confronted by the American society before and after the Civil War is the variation on Hamlet.In Huckleberry Finn, the narrative strategy of dialogue is demonstrated through the dialogic relationships in great dialogue and the discourse in microdialogue. The novel itself is a great dialogue in which Mark Twain takes a dialogic attitude to Huck and thus forms an equal dialogic relationship with him. The dialogue between the low comedy and the great tragedy is realized through the polyphonic variation on Shakespearean tragedies. The three Shakespearean tragedies are all degenerated to low comedies by the bad performances of the duke and the king. The literary authority of Shakespearean tragedies is subverted while the new force of the 19th century American native literature is affirmed. The dialogue between realism and romanticism is made manifest in the parody of romantic works in the realistic narration of the novel. The parody itself exposes the essential fictionality of realistic narrative: it is the imitation of reality. Besides great dialogue, the other form of dialogue is microdialogue, which is formed inside the discourse and self-consciousness of Huck. Different positions on slavery are expressed in the microdialogue.The narrative features of carnivalization in Huckleberry Finn are made manifest in the carnivalized genre of menippean satire and the carnivalization of the major characters, the"king,"the"duke,"Jim, and Huck. The novel is featured with the menippea and is saturated with the carnival sense of the world, i.e. the pathos of shifts and changes, of death and renewal. The carnivalized characters in Huckleberry Finn include the"king,"the"duke,"Jim and Huck. The king and the duke are basically two rapscallions whose identity is the antipode of the real king or duke. The"crowning"and"decrowning"of the king and the duke forms a new type of human relationship, in which social hierarchy is subverted. The humanity and dignity of Jim outshine his identity as a slave and turn it into one of his carnivalized masks. The slave identity of Jim thus loses its absolute seriousness and acquires a joyful relativity, which is subversive against slavery. Huck is carnivalized through his"death"and rebirth on the Mississippi River. The fake death of Huck mutes others'discourse to define him as a completed and finished image; reborn on every bend of the Mississippi River, Huck continues to develop all the time and becomes unfinalizable. The"crowning"and"decrowning"of the king and the duke, the carnivalized masks of Jim, and the unfinalizability of Huck are all saturated with the carnival sense of the world and express the author's pursuit of freedom.By studying the narrative strategy of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn on the basis of Bakhtin's theories of polyphony, dialogue, and carnival, this thesis arrives at the conclusion that the polyphonic narrative truthfully represents the American society before the Civil War; the strategy of dialogue echoes the call of Mark Twain's time for equality; through its carnivalized genre and characters, the novel is saturated with the carnival sense of the world and expresses the author's pursuit of freedom.