An Intertextual Narrative Study Of Middlemarch

George Eliot was the leader of literary circle in the later Victorians and one of thegreatest writers of England. Her work is full of profound thoughts about humanity andlife. While she paid attention to the content, she also concerned on the form of novel.More than that, she had explored some new way to write a novel. Middlemarch is themost popular novel of Georg Eliot. It was high praised by the critic since published.In the text, George Eliot used the intertextual narrative strategy to construct the novel.This strategy attracted the reader to read and explain it. On the basis of Narratologyand Intertextuality, This dissertation attempts to excavate the intertextuality ofMiddlemarch, and explicit how those intertextual elements involve in the narration.Then discuss the functions of intertextual narrative strategy and effects it created.This dissertation consists of five parts. The introduction part will introduce theIntertextuality and its impact on narration. Then analyse the research background,research value of Middlemarch, and the innovation point of this paper. Chapter onemake the main text the entry point, dig out the intertextual elements and analysis theintertextuality in the main text. Chapter two based on Genette’s paratext theory, takingthe paratext that have intertextual quality as the object, analysis how the prelude,epigraph, finale established intertextual relationship with the text. Chapter three is thefocal point of this thesis. This part aim to explicit the functions of intertextualnarrative strategy and the effects it created in text and paratext, and analysis thesimilarities and differences. The finale part summaries the intertextual narrativestrategy George Eliot adopted in Middlemarch. The usage of intertextual narrativestrategy reveals that George Eliot had remarkable narrative capability.