An Analysis Of V.S. Naipaul’s The Mystic Masseur Based On Metafunctions

V.S. Naipaul, a prolific Indian-English writer, has gotten conspicuousachievements in the literary world. Because his works have great literary values, hewon the Nobel Prize in Literature in2001. Academic circles pay much attention toNaipaul’s mature works and nearly no scholar does specific studies on his early works,especially The Mystic Masseur, one of his early works. Therefore, The Mystic Masseurhas great potential for the further study.Talking about how to write a novel, Naipaul pointed out the importance oflanguage forms. This idea is clearly revealed in The Mystic Masseur. M.A.K. Halliday,a typical representative of SFL (Systemic Functional Linguistics), applies theories ofSFL to analyzing literary works, which focuses on the language forms and wants tofind out the theme of novel. Based on SFL, this thesis wants to find out the theme ofThe Mystic Masseur from the perspective of metafunctions, namely, ideational function,interpersonal function and textual function.This thesis falls into five chapters. Chapter I to Chapter III are introduction,literature review and the research methods in this thesis. Chapter IV analyzes TheMystic Masseur from the perspective of metafunctions that include ideational function,interpersonal function and textual function to reveal the theme of this novel, namely,the state of dissociation, escape and fusion and perplexed. Meanwhile, it proves thechange of discourse power and last lexical repetition and symbolic repetition, makesThe Mystic Masseur coherent and also helps to reflect the theme. Chapter V draws aconclusion of this thesis, pointing out new findings. It also mentions some limitationsof this thesis and offers some suggestions for further studies.This thesis analyzes The Mystic Masseur from the perspective of metafunctionsand it is only a tentative approach to finding out the deep meaning in this novel. Thisthesis also displays the relationship between the theme and style, giving a piece ofevidence to enable readers to have a better understanding of artistic value of literaryworks.