Narratological Study Of Alice Munro’s Who Do You Think You Are

Canada novelist Alice Munro is the winner of 2013 Nobel Prize in literature. She is awarded as "master of the contemporary short story". One of Munro’s major achievements in literature is her development of narrative art especially in the short story cycle. On the basis of classic theories of narratology, this thesis brings a further study on Munro’s narrative art from those points:narrative structure, narrative communication mode, narrative time and narrative space. All these studies help advance readers’ appreciation of Munro’s short story cycle. On that basis, this thesis mainly concentrates on three points. Firstly, according to narrative theory, it focuses on Munro’s narrative art by giving a careful research, and highlights Munro’s narrative features, that is, the disarrangement and the ambivalence. Based on the study, the causal relationship and coherence could be achieved by analysis. Secondly, the thesis also makes discussion on Munro’s narrative communication, and by means of linguistic discourse representation and narrative discourse analysis, it concludes that Munro’s narrative modes of communication is mutual and active, and with the implied author and narrator, Munro transmits her chunks of information to readers to make them understand and resonate with her. Thirdly, the narrative time and narrative space are also discussed. Munro’s narrative is not too much time-oriented, but space-oriented. In terms of the narrative space, it provides the possibility to break through the constraints of narrative time. And with the aid of space-shifting and juxtaposition in the narrative process, Munro intends to break the linear flow of time. Thus, based on the study of narrative structure, narrative communication and narrative time and space, this thesis has enriched the Munro’s study from the perspective of narratology by revealing her sophisticated techniques and the great narrative art.