Covert Progression Embodied In A Pair Of Silk Stockings By Kate Chopin: Undercurrent Behind The Overt Plot

Starting from Aristotle, researchers have focused their attention on the plot development of literary works. In recent years, contemporary scholars begin to investigate the narrative progression. What these critics deal with is the single narrative dynamic which revolves around the unstable factors in the plot development. Actually, there exist dual narrative dynamics in many fictional narratives, i.e. covert progression and the overt plot. The former runs parallel to the latter, strengthening the thematic importance. The covert progression runs in tension with the plot development, supplementing or subverting it in thematic presentation.The present study aims to discuss the covert progression underlying the overt plot development in a fiction.Under the guidance of Covert Progression Theory by Shen D., the narrative dynamics are interpreted in the beginning, body part and the ending of A Pair of Silk Stockings. Contrastive analysis method is adopted in the interpretation of the covert progression and the overt plot in each section. At the beginning of the fiction, words like “some-”, “little”, “unexpected” shows that environmental change and accidental events determine an individual's action and psychology. In the body part of the fiction, the conspicuous consumption Mrs. Sommers conducts is indicative of a narrative undercurrent centered on naturalism behind the plot development featured by feminism and consumerism. At the ending of the fiction, Mrs. Sommers' poignant hope implies that an individual is influenced by the physical environment.This dissertation is made up of five chapters. In the first chapter, the background, significance and methodology of the study are introduced. In the second chapter, the literature review is summarized, including narratology at home and abroad, the difference between covert progression and “Second Story” and “Covert Plot”, as well as an overview of the studies on A Pair of Silk Stockings. In the third chapter, the theoretical framework of the research, concerning the covert progression and its categories, is provided. In the fourth chapter, an introduction of the plot and the outline of the covert progression in the fiction are illustrated. Also, contrastive analysis on the covert progression embodied in the beginning, body part and the ending of the fiction is conducted. A conclusion of the study is made in the fifth chapter, and possible future efforts are suggested.The research findings suggest that there exists covert progression underlying the overt plot development in A Pair of Silk Stockings. The covert progression and the overt plot relate to each other and produce massive contradictory tension, which helps to depict a lively, changing character and deepen the semantic density and thematic significance. In the future studies on fictional narratives, researchers may lay stress on the overt plot; meanwhile, more efforts have to be paid to detect whether there exists covert progression underlying the overt plot. This study will help break the chain of overt plot-development oriented perspectives and deepen understanding of thematic significance.