An Analysis Of The Narrative Time And Space In A Visit From The Goon Squad

Jennifer Egan is a famous post-modern writer in America.She combined the traditional narrative skills with innovations,which made her works very imaginative and creative.Egan's experimental fiction in 2010,A Visit from the Goon Squad won her the Pulitzer Prize.In the fiction,Egan used “the goon” to refer to time.All the characters in the novel went through a lot of struggles and sufferings with time passing.Through the characters' experiences,the author expressed her idea that time is a violent thug that shows no mercy to anyone.It cruelly robbed people of their youth,family,love and dream.This thesis studies the unique features of the narrative time and space in A Visit from the Goon Squad by using the narrative time and space theories in narratology.Gerard Genette's theory is applied to analyze the narrative time from three aspects: the non-chronological narrative order,the unequal narrative duration and the different narrative frequency.Through the flexible application of the narrative time skills,Egan revealed the characters' fate and their different attitudes towards time.Besides,time and space are interdependent and inseparable.In regard to the narrative space,the theories of Gaston Bachelard,Mieke Bal,Henry James and Mike Crang are applied to analyze the physical space,the psychological space and the cultural space.The changes of the space push forward the development of the plot and witness the changes and growth of the characters.At last,combined with the earlier two parts,the thesis studies the relation between the time and space from the spatiality of narrative time and the temporality of narrative space.The narrative time is spatialized because of its fragmented and circular characteristics.And the narrative space is temporalized because it is dynamic and can be used as time-marker.The narrative time and space are interrelated to deepen the theme and shape the characters.The study of the fiction's narrative time and space can help us understand more comprehensively and more deeply about the fiction and Egan's sentimental feelings of the unpredictable fate.The thesis consists of six parts: the first part is a brief introduction of the author,the fiction,and the literature review;the second part is the theoretical basis;the third part studies the narrative time in the fiction from three aspects: order,duration and frequency;the fourth part studies the narrative space in the fiction from three aspects: the physical space,the psychological space and the cultural space;the fifth part studies the relation between the narrative time and narrative space from the spatiality of the narrative time and the temporality of the narrative space;and the last part is the conclusion.This part summarizes the ideas of the thesis,the limitations of the research as well as the trend of the further study.