| John Fowles is one of the most popular English writers in the world. He is a productive writer whose masterpiece is The French Lieutenant’s Woman. The story is not only famous for its attraction of plot but also the writing skills. The previous criticism is mainly about studies of feminism, historical perspective and interpretations of existentialism. It is rare that the novel is studied in narratology. Narratology is a new literary theory emerging in the1960th, which represents the direction of the modern literary development. The paper uses the theory of narratology to analyze the narrative rhythm and narrative situation to appreciate the novel in a new perspective.The thesis is divided into four parts. The first part introduces John Fowles’life and literary contributions, the origin and the development of narratology. The second chapter uses time interval theory of narratology and the polyphony by Bakhtin to study the novel. Compared with other novels, the rhythm of this novel is not only on the time aspect but also on the space aspect. The third chapter studies the narrative situation of the story. Narrative person, narrative focalization and narrative ways are three important parts of narrative situation. The novel uses the first and the third person author narrative situation. The story uses the internal focalization and the narrative way of showing instead of telling the story.The last chapter is the conclusion. The thesis is mainly based on the important time interval, polyphony and narrative situation theory. As the story develops, the reader gradually enters the hero and the heroin’s inner world and gradually understands their contradictions inside,---their insistence of the old traditions and the pursuit of freedom. The narration technique makes the story very charming and the depiction of characters is also very penetrating, which is helpful to deepen the theme of the story. John Fowles is deserved to be the contemporary literary master. |
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