Knowing The Unknown-analysis Of Narrative Techniques In The Known World

In The Known World, the African American writer Edward P. Jones tells the storyof a slave named Henry Townsend after being purchased out of slavery by his fatherturned to be slaveholder himself.Jones’s delineation of the phenomena that black slaveholders have no difficulty infull participation in a system bent on the oppression of their own people received hugeamount of attention of the world. His unique narrative style plays an important role onthe expression of the theme. This thesis aimed to find the unknown facts that theauthor implied under the known world by analysis the special narrative techniquesJones used in it.Based on the theories of classical narratology, especially the Narrative Discoursewritten by Gerard Genette, this thesis focuses on the narrative levels, the order of time,focalization adopted in The Known World. In chapter one introduction part,contemporary study of narratology and the research achievements made on the knownworld from the perspective of narratology study would be introduced. In chapter two,narrative levels will be divided into three layers, each of them weaved together as theframe of the whole novel, showing the main plot and subordinate plots portrayed in thenovel. In chapter three, the nonlinear time sequence would lead a special role on theexpression of space, which reveals the unknown fact beneath the power control. Inchapter four, varied focalization would be discussed to observe the facts happened inthe novel with different perspective, thus we have a better understanding of the tragedyimplied in the unknown world. This thesis hopes to seek the unknown truth thatcontains moral critique from the analysis of narrative aspects.