A Study On Cormac Mccarthy’’s The Road Based On Western Classical Narratology

Winning the Pulitzer Prize in 2007, The Road, the famous contemporary American novelist and dramatist Cormac McCarthy’s masterpiece, is an imaginary story about how a man and his son survive in the ruins after 911 Event. After being published, the novel has raised much concern from both abroad and China. However, most scholars’ research is from the perspective of its theme and culture. Few people pay close attention to its form. Based on the background, this thesis focuses on its form—the narrative strategy of The Road on the basis of western classical narratology to explore its narrative features and the significance of them. The thesis tries to figure out the study about the author and The Road from both abroad and China to locate the research gap. Explaining the western classical narratology, it analyzes The Road from the perspectives of story and narrative discourse, including the plot structure, characterization, the story space, discourse time, narrative perspective and manifestation of the character’s utterance, with illustration method mainly. Finally, the thesis draws a conclusion that all narrative features contribute to creating charactres, deepening themes of The Road and adding much literary tension to the novel.