From Narrative Space To Third Space: The Art Of Space Narrative In A Mercy

Tony Morrison is the only African-American female writer who gains the NobelPrize for Literature. Her works are all with high emotion, poetic concision, and famousfor her sharp observation of African-American life. Morrison’s novels contain rich blackcultural traits; the theme is profound; the characters are rich and full, and the language isincisive yet humorous. In her ninth novel A Mercy, the using of space narrative hasbroken the traditional time oriented narrative structure. And the novel embodiesMorrison’ approbation on the characters’ cultural identities—being in third space.The novel mainly represents how the women characters overcome difficulties andsurvive on a farm. The background of this novel is complicated, with a variety ofcultures and religions interwoven. The diverse identities of the characters, the uniquewriting style, the elaborate arrangement of chapters and multi-perspective conversiontechniques have formed the significant space narrative features. Based on GabrielZoran’s theory of space narrative, this thesis analyses the art of space narrative in AMercy. It explores the art of space narrative in the context of post-colonialism, as wellas the highlights of the narrative modes to construct the third space.The thesis can be divided into five parts. The first part briefly introducesMorrison’s life, the space narrative theory and third space theory, as well as the researchpurpose of this thesis. The second part studies the characteristics of the novel in terms ofthe vertical space narrative, the fluidity of the location, the vagueness of time, and theuncertainty of characters’ psychological activity. The third part discusses three mainfemale characters’ spatial characteristics from the aspects of a horizontal level. They are:Rebecca’s independent religious space, Sorrow’s sad space, and Lina’s masculine space.The fourth part analyzes the function of Morrison’s writing strategies in constructing the third space. The ambiguous images, the multiple narrative perspectives, the complexidentities of characters and the hybridity of the language have formed the novel’scultural position. The conclusion points out the embodiment of the third space in thenovel, such as sophistication of different characters’ identities, multiculturalcombination and so on. The epilogue points out that Morrison’s novel A Mercy hasspecial artistic values on space narrative, and explains the character’s cultural position.The combination of these two theories provides a new point to interpret the text.