A Narrative And Stylistic Study On Violence In Beloved

With the rapid development of the narratology and the stylistics since the 1960s,the studies on novels through the analysis of the narrative techniques and the stylistics features began to come out continually.As literary criticism,the narratology and the stylistics can offer the literary researches a new way.The narratology and the stylistics can help the scholars understand the connotations of the novel through the analysis of the novels' content and language.Violent phenomena appear quite common in Beloved and it is impressive to the readers.Because the violent phenomena can be reflected in the characters' narrative discourses,the thesis will adopt the narratology and the stylistics to analyze the violent phenomena in Beloved.For one thing,the connotation of the violent phenomena can be explained diversely through the analysis of the characters' narration based on the alternative focalization modes.For another,the consequences of the violent phenomena can be presented in details through the analysis of the characters' narrative discourse based on the foregrounding theory and the speech presentation theory.Beloved offers the readers a miserable picture of American blacks',poor conditions under the slavery,in which the American blacks are enslaved by the whites and are forced to suffer a lot of violent phenomena.Based on Gerald Genette's focalization theory,the writer analyzes the violent phenomena and discusses their consequences on the characters in Beloved through the application of zero focalization,external focalization and internal focalization.Under the perspective of zero focalization,the writer of this thesis uses three stories in Beloved,including Paul D's miserable sufferings,two slave owners,respective attitudes towards their black slaves and Baby Suggs' memories of the past to reflect the racial discrimination and the ugly human nature of the whites.Under the perspective of external focalization,the writer of this thesis uses Sethe's two memories about Mrs.Garner to reflect the gender bias and the male-dominated ideology existing among the whites.Under the perspective of internal focalization,the writer of this thesis first uses the fixed characters' narrations,including Stamp Paid and Paul D to reflect the gender bias among the blacks and the racial discrimination as well as its consequences.Next,the writer of this thesis uses Sethe's and Denver's narrations to reflect the consequences of the racial discrimination on the black females.Then,the writer of this thesis uses the multiple narrations of the schoolteacher,Stamp Paid and Sethe about the violent event Sethe's infanticide to reflect the ugly human nature of the blacks,the racial discrimination and its consequences on the blacks.Based on Geoffrey Leech&Mick Short's stylistic theory,the violence's effects on the American blacks especially on their psychological levels can be seen through the analysis of the foregrounding features of the novel and the characteristics of the presentation speeches among the characters.Through the analysis of the application of the capitalized words,special marks and styles as well as the informal words,the foregrounding effects that Morrison shapes can be recognized and the consequences of the violent phenomena in Beloved can be reflected clearly.Through the analysis of the uses of direct speech,indirect speech,free direct speech,free indirect speech and the narrative report of the speech,the characters' various kinds of psychological activities can be clarified in order to reflect the racial discrimination and its huge bad consequences on the blacks.