A Study Of Spatial Narrative In Arrowsmith

Sinclair Lewis is the first American writer to win Novel Prize in literature. He is a novelist, literary critic and social commenter who initiates the original style of American novel. In Arrowsmith, for the first time in his works, Lewis chooses a medical worker as his protagonist in order to give strict criticism on glory-hunting and low creditability in medical field in the20th century America. This thesis, in light of the spatial narrative theory initiated by Joseph Frank, tries to analyze the artful spatial narrative techniques used in the novel on three levels:text space, story space and reader’s perceptional space. The aim of the thesis is to clarify the fact the narrative techniques used in the novel like juxtaposition and flashbacks are helpful to disclose hidden themes as well as provide artful appreciation to readers.The thesis is divided into five parts. The introduction part contains a brief introduction of Sinclair Lewis and Arrowsmith as well as its literature review at home and abroad. A brief explanation of the spatial narrative theory is also included in this chapter; Chapter one analyzes Lewis’intentional planning of breaking sequential narration and constructing the spatiality in the text space by the usage of juxtaposition and flashbacks; Chapter two mainly focuses on the story space including geographical space, social space and mental space, the consistent change of which signifies Martin’s final failure in his pursuit of true science; Chapter three mainly discusses reader’s perceptional space which is a reconstruction of real space by reader’s active participation in collecting narrative fragmentation and emotionally interacting with the author. Thus, this thesis draws a conclusion that by careful exploration of those various narrative spaces in Arrowsmith, one can easily find that those flexibly used techniques of spatial narrative are favorable for readers to get a better understanding of the whole story. Moreover, the artful employment of spatial narrative is one of the reasons why Arrowsmith won agreed praise at home and abroad. More importantly, this thesis provides a new perspective for researchers to do further exploration into Lewis’works as well as for readers to get a comprehensive understanding of the life of medical workers in20th century America.