The Narrative Art Of Dreiser’s Naturalism

As one of pioneers in American naturalism, Theodore Dreiser’s naturalism differsenormously from traditional literature. It is not only because of the author’s innovative spirit,but also result from consciously absorbing from creative skills of naturalism.“Real sense”isregarded as a paramount principle in the naturalism, which includes outer objective reality andinner subjective reality. This paper will discuss the narrative art of Dreiser’s naturalism from theaspect of“real”which can be extended from three perspectives as follow: narrative discourse,narrative space, and narrative visual point.Chapter One：Unique narrative discourseImpersonal narration is a particular feature in narrative discourse of Dreiser’s naturalism. Itmeans that the narrator’s neutral attitude and objective tone as well as the“real sense”of theentire work can be achieved by using the narrative skills of“impersonal”and indirectquotations. A breakthrough from inclination of over disclosure on the author’s emotion intraditional novel is made by this kind of narrative discourse and it also brings objective andcalm characters into novel. Dreiser’s narration of impersonal is demonstrated on two aspects.One is the changes of narrative visual point, in which the narrator is hided and the distancebetween narrator and figures in the novel is adjusted to enhance its objectivity and real sense. Inthis situation, the narrator is so secluded that can be hardly perceived. The other is the plentifulindirect quotations. The joint combination of narrator’s discourses and characters’discoursesmake readers cannot find trace of the on-site narrator, who didn’t appear directly but is hidedbehind in the process of story.Chapter Two：Spatial structure of narrationSpatial structure is adopted in the Dreiser’s narration by which he abandons the closed andcomplete linear structure in traditional novel but splinters these linear physical moments intoinnumerable“occasional moments”. Then those concomitant but brilliant details make furthercontribute to create“real sense”in every line of novel. This kind of space mainly appears as a“situational space”, namely life situation. Like paintings, the cross sections of life are unfolded one by one with subsequent details which contained life elements. Necessities are replaced byendless accidents and the nature of life is illustrated objectively in the text.Chapter Three：Inward of narrative visual pointDreiser describes“biological human”from two aspects of physiology and psychology.He considers human as a carrier of nature, a baby from inheritance and a slave of environment.It is showed with a typological feature which is a passionate type of trait originated fromphysiology and psychology. Figures can be classified into two parts: one is“insect person”,such as Hurst wood and Clyde Griffith, who become sacrifice of personal desires. The other is“beast person”, such as Cowperwood, Sister Carrie and Eugene Witla, who are invinciblesupermen. The psychological analysis founded on the physical analysis make these two types oftrait realistic and concrete. The inner reality enveloped in the outer objective reality can beobtained by the changes of narrative visual point.