Booth Narrative Rhetoric Studies

Wayne C. Booth is one of the most important and influential critics in the western world,As a pluralistic scholar of teacher, literary critic and rhetor, he has many theories that related toliterature criticism, rhetoric and education. This dissertation mainly works on Booth’s rhetoricaltheory, and combining narrative with rhetoric is an obvious feature of Booth’s theory. It branchesout the range of narrative theory, and adds vitality into the literature criticism. Booth’s rhetoricaltheory of narrative mainly materialized in his famous work The Rhetoric of Fiction, makes anembedded study on the relation among authors, narrators, texts and readers, which is orientatedon rhetorical relation by Booth. There are also some contents in The Company We Keep: AnEthics of Fiction, A Rhetoric of Irony, The Rhetoric of Rhetoric. This dissertation will probe intoBooth’s rhetorical theory of narrative from the work of The Rhetoric of Fiction, in order tocoordinate his theory and make preparations for us to assimilate the soul of the western literaturetheory better, and promote the development of our literature theory.This dissertation consists of four parts:The preface mainly talks about the current situation of Booth’s rhetorical theory of narrative.The scholars domestic or foreign focused on some certain aspects of Booth’s theory, such as the“implied author”, narrative point of view, rhetoric point of view and the like. There is a lack ofsystemic, comprehensive investigation about Booth’s theory. Interpretating Booth’s rhetoricaltheory of narrative integratedly according to my comprehension is the conception of thisdissertation.The first part discusses the theoretical source.and creation background of Booth’s rhetoricaltheory of narrative. As a literary theorist edified by the“Chicago Critics”, Booth’s theory had itsineluctable print; Aristotle’s poetics tradition, such as the purifying theory, imitation of life,moralization and the like, all produced potential effect to Booth’s theory; Synchronously, theNew Criticism, Formalism and Structuralism also have a profound impact on Booth’s rhetoricaltheory of narrative.The second part is a core part of this dissertation, which mainly discusses the basic contentof Booth’s rhetorical theory of narrative. The“implied author”, who implied in the work as an integrated image, is the feature of Booth’s theory. He or her is different from the real author andthe characters in fictions. Comprehending the conception drastically is quite helpful for solvingsome realistic problems. The selection of narrative point of view, the control of the distance,irony and metaphor are all included in Booth’s literary writing skills. Booth animadverted on thetraditional narrative point of view, brought forward the theory of dramatic narrator andundramatic narrator. The former can be divided into reliable narrator and unreliable narrator.Different selection of the narrative point of view will produce different reading effects. Boothabsorbed Bullough’s“Psychological Distance”into his rhetorical theory of narrative, andclaimed that the distance among the author, narrator and the reader could be adjusted to achievedifferent purposes. The measures include reading hearts and commenting directly. Anotherfeature of Booth’s theory is the care of moral. In Booth’s opinion, it’s the author’s responsibilityto create good books for readers.The third part mainly analyses the meaning and limitation of Booth’s rhetorical theory ofnarrative. It may contribute to the Literature Criticism and Fiction Writing. On the other hand, italso has some limitations like the neglect of readers’activity and the scarcity of integrality.In conclusion, Booth’s rhetorical theory of narrative has far-reaching effects in the literaturefield, though it has limitations. It has broken the close, static pattern of the traditional literaturetheory, built up the dynamic system among the author, text, narrator and the reader, and also hasprofound influences in conquering the maladies of literature field. The“implied author”,selection of narrative point of view, control of the distance and the care of moral in Booth’stheory all produce directive significance in the Literary Criticism and Fiction Writing.