On The Narrative Art Of Let The Great World Spin

Colum McCann is a famous Irish writer whose work has been published in 35 languages. One of his most popular work Let the Great World Spin won the 2009 U.S. National Book Award for Fiction and the 2011 International Dublin Literary Award, one of the most lucrative literary prizes in the world. It was also named Amazon.com’s “Book of the Year” in 2010 when the Chinese version was published. Based on the geographical background of Dublin and New York, the narrative space of Let the World Spin shifts from Dublin to New York. The novel shows characteristics of contemporary narrative works.Through applying to the theory of narratology and by taking the method of close-reading and induction, this essay is meant to analyze the narrative art of the novel Let the Great World Spin from narrative structure, narrator and narrative ways. A complex narrative structure, multiple narrators, the disorder of narrative time together with a converting narrative space which contains profound meaning show its unique narrative art. The essay can be divided into three chapters to discuss the narrative structure, narrator, narrative time and narrative space in detail. Chapter one is to analyze both incidents and characters from the story level, to make it clear of what the novel is about, to clarify main story lines and the relationship among them, and to illustrate how all the incidents are linked together and what effects it causes. Besides, this chapter classifies various characters into different groups, explains their functions and the ways of creating characters. Chapter two focuses on narrators of the novel from the discourse level. It is aimed at categorizing narrators from aspects of narration, narrative level and narrative perspective, clarifying the relationship between the narrator and the narratee as well as the relationship between different narrative levels and related narrators, discussing the conversion process of narrative perspectives, and further analyzing characteristics of narrators and the narrative impact exerted by invention, unreliability and speech mode. Chapter three is to analyze narrative time and narrative space, to intemperate the disorder of narrative time and the rhythm of narration from respects of order, duration and frequency, to classify various spacial types and to explain their transformation and profound meanings. Through a comprehensive analysis of elements from both story and discourse level, this essay can fill the gap of a thorough and systematic study on the narrative art of Let the Great World Spin and broaden the space for future study on this novel. Meanwhile it can finally draw a conclusion that Let the Great World Spin is a narrative masterpiece which includes the characteristics of complex linear, diversity, disorder and conversion.