A Study Of Spatial Narrative In Khaled Hosseini’s And The Mountains Echeod

Khaled Hosseini is an excellent Afghan-born American novelist, who has published three works so far: The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns and And the Mountains Echoed. All of the three works are thought highly of by critics and readers. As the third novel of Hosseini, And the Mountains Echoed is a tale revolving around characters spanning generations and traversing from Afghanistan to Paris, Greece and finally the United States, in which Hosseini presents his masterful narrative skills.Various researches on And the Mountains Echoed have been conducted since its publication. Yet no one is from the perspective of the spatial narrative. Spatial form first put forward by Joseph Frank in 1945 makes people’s attention to literary works shift from time dimension to space dimension. Space is no longer a static entity. Instead, it gets involved in the story and advances the plot. Through spatial narrative, temporal order is disrupted and linear narration is fragmented. By adopting spatial narrative as a paradigm, the thesis tries to analyze the types of spatial form and the techniques of spatial narrative in And the Mountains Echoed.Through a deep-going and all-round analysis, this thesis explores three types of spatial forms in And the Mountains Echoed, including physical spaces, social spaces and psychological spaces. First, physical spaces are represented by a small village Shadbagh and a big city Kabul, eastern Afghanistan and western Paris, the Greek Island, the United States for contrast to show different backgrounds and shape different characters. Second, social spaces are mainly structured with Mr. Wahdati’s House and Wazir Akbar Khan Hospital. Through analyzing the social relations between characters in the social spaces, the culture and history of Afghanistan and the human nature are clarified. Third, psychological spaces are reflected in diaspora Afghans’ psychological space and common Afghans’ psychological space which contribute to the manifestation of the themes. In order to realize spatiality, Khaled Hosseini makes full use of a variety of the techniques of spatial narrative, such as multiple points of view, montage and juxtaposition. These techniques are of great help to spatial narrative by breaking linear sequence, dissolving the time and cutting back and forth of narration.The interpretation of And the Mountains Echoed based on spatial narrative is from a brand new horizon, through which the narrative art of spatialization in the novel is demonstrated. It is spatial narrative that plays an important role in shaping characters, advancing plots, elucidating themes and achieving aesthetic effects. By applying the theory to And the Mountains Echoed, readers can have a deep understanding of both spatial narrative and the novel.