An Analysis Of Narrative Techniques In The Novel Providence

British novelist Anita Brookner has been hailed by The New York Times as “one of the finest novelists of her generation.” She has created thirteen works all her life,among which Providence is one of the representative works.She has won the Booker prize,the highest award in contemporary British novels for her fourth novel Hotel du Lac.Anita Brookner’s works are featured of British feminism literature of the 20 th century.The author pays attention to the formation of female psychology and consciousness under the social context.Presently,there are several domestic researchers from the perspective of modernism,post-modernism,cultural anxiety or image analysis of female intellectuals to analyze the novel Providence but seldom research from the point of narratology.From the perspective of narratology,my thesis mainly depends on Genette’s narrative theory to analyze the female protagonist and the plot of the novel in detail from the aspects of focalization and narrative discourses to show Anita’s superb narrative art.Through the analysis,we can dig out the deep thematical meaning.It is the cultural,identity and religion discrepancy that causes the tragic love story.Firstly,the thesis will analyze the switch of the two modes of focalization in the novel based on Genette’s theory,and then explore the narrative discourses through the various narrative structure and forms.When referencing to structure,polyphony and intertextuality are the prominent feature,and the O Henry’s Ending is another highlight of this novel,which will mainly be focused on in the third part of my thesis.The fourth part will analyze the narrative’s technique’s influences on readers and their effects on thematic development.These narrative technique’s analysis gives readers a different and special experience of reading and greatly enhance the artistic charm of the novel.Therefore,the novel Providence caters to the current love-themed novels,and Anita is also very popular with readers.Providence is a short story with various narrative skills.The author uses multiple narrative techniques to deepen the theme of the novel.It is a modern classic in terms of thought,content and form.