An Interpretation Of Narrative Time In A Bend In The River

The winner of Nobel Prize for literature of2001V. S. Naipaul is an immigrant writer of Indian Origin fromthe Trinidad of West Indies. He is closely related to Indian, Trinidad, UK and European multinational cultures.He is a nomadic intellectual in literary world. His works mainly convey the message of the domination anddestruction of the Third World by the suzerain, especially to the African countries, as well as the conflicts andinteractions of heterogeneous cultures. His masterpiece A Bend in the River is a pessimistic novel about Africa.In this novel, the writer highlights the difficult situation between localization and generalization of an oldcontinent, and he reveals the theme of backwardness and restlessness of the Third World and helplessness andconfusion of the African people.Based on Genette’s narrative theory, this thesis studies the narrative time of Naipaul’s novel A Bend in theRiver. The theory of narrative time is getting more and more attention from literary critics. As the representativefigure of narratology, Genette developes a new way in the analysis of literary text, and he studies to dig deepertrait of the text. Among the researchers, he does a lot of studies of the narrative time of the literary text, puttingforward a set of concepts of narrative time, which analyzed the characteristic of narrative time, the narrativerhythm of order, duration and frequency in text. As one of the representative of modernist writers, Naipaulsubverted the traditional linear mode in narratology in his novel, and showed a set of new system that reflectsnarrative time and space. Time is the key to a novel, and it plays a pivotal role. Narrative time not onlyinfluences the development of the story, but the start, the climax and the end as well. The reasonable layout ofnarrative time is a shining point of a novel. Naipaul tried to let his works be understood in the change of timeand space. Therefore, this thesis intends to make an analysis in narrative time to explore how Naipaul used thesenarrative techniques to convey the theme of his work.This thesis includes five parts: Part One is a brief introduction to Naipaul and his A Bend in the River. PartTwo is the critical reception of Naipaul and A Bend in the River in past50years. Based on it the reason andsignificance of choosing the topic of this thesis is made. Part Three is the theory on which this thesis is based. Itintroduces some main concepts of narratology, then, introduces Genette’s theory and his narrative time.Part Four is the main body of the thesis. Firstly this thesis explores the non-linear narrative order of the text.Prolepsis and analepsis interspersed in the narration of past, present and future, the non-linear order not onlyrepresents the true inner thoughts of an individual, but also penetrates the spiritual journey in the narrative ofpast, present, and future. Secondly, this thesis analyzes the narrative duration of the text. Ellipsis, pause,summary and scene are cleverly arranged, which creates different rhythms in the novel and expresses the main thrust of the novel vividly. Finally, it is the interpretation of narrative frequency. Flexibility in the use of thesingle narrative, repeating narrative and iterative narrative makes the scene of the story clearer, and thus thereaders deeply understand the theme and significance of the novel. In the construction of the novel, Naipaul’sunique narrative not only contributes to the understanding of the theme and characters of the novel, but alsokeeps the writer retaining his attitude towards the Third World, especially Africa and its people to leave readersunlimited thinking and insights.Part Five is the conclusion based on the analysis made above. It is concluded that the theme of the novel isthat the restlessness and backwardness of the Third World as well as the confusion and helplessness of Africanpeople. Naipaul’s words stretch deeply into the dark world, and through the analysis and interpretation ofnarrative order, duration and frequency, readers cannot avoid the questions he raised: who should be responsiblefor the restlessness and backwardness of the Third World? Besides the former western colonial predations, arethere any businesses of their own? And who should be responsible for the current state of domestic colonizationof these areas?...