A Research Of Female Narrative Subject On The Turn Of The Screw

Henry James is the founder of western modernism literature and the classical writer internationally known. He left a wealth of literature books with diligent work in his more than fifty years of writing career. He was called "the most intelligent person of the generation" and "the greatest American novelist". The foreign research on James is basically in sync with his creation, while the domestic research gradually becomes the focus of attention since the late nineteen twenties. Nowadays, James research has become an important learning.This thesis chooses the novel The Turn of the Screw, which is the only one that takes the first person as narrative perspective in all novels of James. It aims at analyzing the female narrative subject, and discusses the survival circumstances of female being marginalized and objectified and the lack of self-identity in the patriarchal culture of the social and historical context. The gender perspective is crucial entrance for the female characters in narrative fiction texts. Therefore, the combination of feminism and narrative will open up a new vision of feminist narratology, which revolts and questions the gender politics and social ideology the text behind by narrative forms and skills. This thesis is in the longitude of narrative and in the weft of feminism, which investigates gender politics how to cut to the form level of narrative text in social and historical context, shaping the "secondary male" for enjoy.The thesis is composed of five parts:The introduction introduces Henry James’s biography and works, the study at home and abroad and interprets the significance of the topic and innovation briefly, then gives necessary definition on narrative subject, unreliable narration and other related terms.The first chapter presents the narrative subject to unreliable narrator claims, and describes and demonstrates the uncertainty. The unreliable performance of narrative subject firstly manifests in inadequate reports:the discourse and story layer fracture; text information delay and even in the presence of incomplete narrative; paradox between self-narrative and self-experience. The uncertainty of narrative subject also occurs in her unconscious, the author thus digs out the hidden "real" meaning behind the unreliable narration.The second chapter discusses the aphasia passive situation of narrative subject, and explores the reasons and performance of forming aphasia. First of all, the manor and tower in text is fortress and symbol of hierarchy and patriarchy, the man of the house established narrative authority in the way of retreat; Second, the narrative structure of the frame novel lawfully deprived of the discourse right of the narrative subject; Finally, a series of violations of common sense further resolve the authority of the narrative subject, the novel is therefore reduced to the speech authority and the expression of desire under patriarchy.The third chapter focuses on reflection to the women’s survival situation. First of all, the author gained a deeper aesthetic feelings with the help of Ariadne color line, namely the ghost, that James reserved in the paper; Secondly, the paper analyzes the embarrassing situation of women and choking living space in Victorian era dominated by the patriarchal; Finally, it discusses that James really know what women think and need, the cares to women should cause our deep reflection or not.The epilogue partly puts forward a meaningful narrative strategy--father’s absence that James follows in the background of character. Father’s absence creates an illusion of deconstructing the patriarchal, irony to expose the female gender characteristics of weakness, takes the reader into a feminist reading of imagination. James loves and is skilled in portraying women, the paradox between his ideal starting point and attitude to women and the reality causes us to think about noble conscience.