On The Unnatural Narrative Logic Of Caryl Churchill's Cloud Nine And Top Girls

Caryl Churchill(193 8-)is a famous contemporary British dramatist.Her dramas feature strikingly anti-mimetic and impossible elements.Unnatural narratives in her dramas violate the real world's paradigm,which transcends readers'cognitive frame and results in the effect of defamiliarization.However,unnatural narratives have just emerged,which has not been fully applied to dramatic texts so far.The previous research is insufficient and unsystematic.Based on the unnatural narrative theory of Jan Alber,Brain Richardson,Monica Fludernik and other narratologists,this thesis focuses on the unnatural narrative logic in Cloud Nine(1979)and Top Girls(1982)which win the Broadway Obie Awards.This thesis consists of six chapters.Chapter I is an introduction to Caryl Churchill's life and the main content of Cloud Nine and Top Girls.It also explains the purpose and significance of the study.Chapter ? is literature review of the previous criticism of Churchill and her works in China and abroad.The innovation point is that unnatural narratology provides a new perspective for appreciating Churchill's dramas.Chapter III,the theoretical framework,introduces the unnatural narrative theory.Chapter IV and chapter V analyze the unnatural narrative logic in the two dramas from the aspects of anti-mimetic characters,unnatural temporalities and spaces.Chapter IV analyzes the appearance of the dead,the women of different eras,the multiple roles played by one actress,the dinner beyond time and space,and the nonlinear time series in Top Girls.The two chapters interpret the unnatural narrative logic by employing various reading strategies.Through analysis,the thesis finally finds that unnatural narrative logic shows the role's alienation,time and space disorder,plot contradiction and other postmodern characteristics in Churchill's dramas,which brings readers an estranging reading experience.In terms of themes and social significance,unnatural narrative logic reveals the British social reality in the late 20th century.The society is not completely liberated,and the binary oppositions between men and women,blacks and whites are gradually deconstructed.The female's social status is improved,while their success still requires great sacrifice.What's more,unnatural narratology highlights the fictionality of dramatic literature and enhances the effect of defamiliarization.It stimulates people's thinking on gender,politics,colonization and other social issues,and helps to understand the profound connotations in dramas.