An Analysis Of The Novel Jazz From The Perspective Of Feminist Narratology

As one of the most influential African-American female writers in contemporary American literature,Toni Morrison has been explaining the history and destiny of black people in her own way.Since 1970,Morrison has been writing for black people.She has been experimenting with creative techniques to enrich the image of black people,to appeal and advocate for the protection of national culture and to rebuild the consciousness of black people.In particular,as a female writer,Morrison has shown the special survival situation of black women with the intense emotion and exquisite technique of writing.In her description,the racial and gender discrimination faced by black women has been fully and profoundly presented and each of her works also reveals sympathy and reflection for black women.In her works,she actively encourages black women to fight bravely,and integrates the nature of the black woman?s kindness and the troubled destiny in her own creation,fully displaying the feminist writing consciousness of black women writers,and from the women?s position,she explains how to eliminate the central position of the white mainstream culture and awaken the necessity of national consciousness and reconstructing national identity.Jazz was Morrison?s novel in 1992.Based on the immigrant tide of black people in the early 20 th century,the novel narrates the changes and discomfort of the black people from the southern plantation to the northern metropolis.In particular,the confusion and bewilderment of black women in the face of the new environment and the understanding of love make the whole novel full of the bitterness and optimism of black feminism in the new era.Morrison adopted Jazz as the novel?s name,with the narration of different female characters as the main narrative form,not only embodies the unique understanding of American blacks to music and narration,but also shows the influence and significance of female narrative to feminist creation.Although female narrative is only a form of narration,this form enables women to have the right to speak,which is both a symbol of status and power for groups and individuals who have been silent.In 1980 s,Susan Sniader Lanser first put forward the viewpoint that narrative works can be combined narrative form with feminist criticism in The Narrative Act: Point of View in Prose Fiction(1981).She ventured to explore the social gender significance of narrative and formed the basic rudiment of feminist narratology theory.The proposal of this theory has made a reasonable explanation for the creation forms of many previous works,especially the works of black female writers,which has been well interpreted and understood under the support of this theory.Inspired by the feminist narratology,Morrison?s Jazz can also be interpreted from a newer perspective,for example,the intervention of female narrative strategy to the novel creation,and the relationship between the narrative mode,technique and meaning can be discussed in this paper.Despite the fact that the feminist narratology has only been developed for more than 30 years,this theory has played a positive role in promoting both narratology and female criticism.With the in-depth creation and exploration of the text,the feminist narratology will also present different development prospect and research potential,and make corresponding understanding and inspiration to more works.This thesis is divided into three parts: introduction,four chapters and conclusion.The introduction firstly sketches out the creation background of the novel Jazz and current research status of Toni Morrison at home and abroad.Literature review appropriately accounts for the emergence,development and feature of feminist narratology,combined narratology theory which is now prevalent among the critics with the novel itself and points out the study purpose and significance of this thesis.The main body(four chapters)discusses and explores the modes,techniques and significance of female narrative respectively.The first chapter consists of two parts.First,it introduces different female narrators of the novel and the mysterious narrator “I” and tries to find different perspectives and voices of female narrative through this special kind of narrative form and the musicality caused by the female narrative.Then feminist narratology,as a new narratology theory,has its own narrative methods and characteristics.For example,from the perspective of style,psychology and language,Morrison adopts female rhetoric,female psychology and female discourse,which is very different from other narrative forms,especially for male ones.The second chapter discusses the narrative meaning of the novel Jazz from the theme.The main clue of the novel Jazz focuses on the mental confusion of black women facing the life of the metropolis and combined with their understanding and expression of marriage and love,the theme of the novel is how do the black women obtain a new life and self-reconstruction when they face to the shift of living environment from southern plantation to northern metropolitan.And,the female narrative form has fully supported for the theme of the novel.Morrison takes the female herself or other female as the narrator and expresses their own feelings from the perspective of female themselves.And this makes the form highly in accordance with the connotation.The third chapter discusses the novel plot from the perspective of female narrative.Female narrative shows women?s feelings of suspicion,anxiety,jealousy and resentment more directly and this has undoubtedly played an important role in promoting the plot development of the novel.Moreover,Morrison mixes the features of time and space into the narrative form.The dislocated narrative time and multidimensional narrative space make the plot development more consistent with the female psychological change process.Besides,it also provides a full possibility and openness for the plot.The fourth chapter investigates the character portraying in female narrative.Female narrative can also serve for the characters.Included male characters,all the characters in Jazz are commented fully from the female perspective.It plays a certain role in implying the character?s destiny.And by female narrative,it also can make the female character?s inner world more abundant,the characterization more realistic and exquisite.The conclusion part summarizes the narrative strategy of the novel,expounds the special effect of the narrative strategy on the connotation of the novel.Combined with the novel Jazz,it discusses the future and development of feminist narratology in depth.Feminist narratology may change according to the needs of different novels and it also provides an infinite study possibility for the development of feminist narratology itself.