Narrative Stylistic Analysis Of Morrison’s A Mercy

Toni Morrison is the first Africa-American female writer who won the NobelPrize. In2008, Morrison’s latest work A Mercy was published and became the focusof the literary circle. This thesis takes narrative stylistics as the theoretical basis toanalyze A Mercy from the overlaps of Narratology and Stylistics, namely point ofview and mode of speech presentation. Using descriptive analysis, the study focuseson the narrative discourse in A Mercy and explores the special stylistic effects.Under the guidance of narrative stylistics, the thesis has some findings in twoaspects:(1) on narrative level, this thesis centers on the analysis of different pointsof view in A Mercy and their stylistic effects, including the first-person narrationfrom Florens’s internal point of view, the third-person narration from Jacob’sinternal point of view and the narrator’s external point of view. Besides, the study ofthe stylistic effects caused by the shifts of point of view and the choice of languageare also introduced.(2) on speech level, this thesis studies characters’ various modesof speech presentation and their stylistic effects. Two different forms of free directspeech and their different stylistic functions are mainly discussed. Moreover, fivemodes of speech presentation consist of direct and indirect speech, free direct andfree indirect speech, and narrative report of speech acts. Through the combination ofthem, the thesis investigates their stylistic significances in portraying characters anddeepening the themes of the novel.In short, with Narratology and Stylistics, the author tires to study the narrativefeatures and stylistic functions on point of view and mode of speech presentation,which broaden the ways of the analysis of literary works theoretically. In practice, ithelps readers have a full test of the narrative strategies and the style of A Mercy sothat they can have a more comprehensive appreciation of the novel.