Revisiting Paul Ricoeur ’s Narrative Theory

Paul Ricoeur is one of the highly influential French philosophers of the 20 th century.Against the background of psychoanalysis,linguistics,structuralism and deconstructionism,which question and criticize the subject,his philosophy of the subject tries to reconstruct the subject and regain the value of the subject in philosophical problems.By criticizing the “absolute subject“ and “no subject“ and using “reflection” as a tool,his research establishes a subject philosophy that is in between,and provides an opportunity for subject to be reborn.The subject philosophy runs through Paul Ricoeur ’s theoretical system,and narrative theory is no exception.The return of the subject makes the narrative text no longer just a text and a form,but a carrier for the reflection of the subject.Through an overall introduction and systematic analysis of Ricoeur ’s subject philosophy and narrative theory,I try to reexamine his narrative theory from the perspective of the subject philosophy.As a result,literary and philosophical issues in narrative meet in the text,which not only facilitates the development of the subject in philosophical issues,but also further promotes the development of narrative theory in literary theory.This study revolves around the subject philosophy and narrative theory.Firstly,the basic content and formation subject process are introduced in a compendium.Secondly,it is pointed out that narrative,as a key point in the study of Ricoeur ’s subject philosophy,prolongs the path of the subject’s understanding of itself.Narrative,as a link in this extended path,allows the subject to move away from direct philosophy in the text and toward a “detour”.Through an analysis of a series of questions about the quandaries of time and the identity of narrative,Paul Ricoeur identifies new quandaries arising from the consideration of narrative and time,chief among them the question of“narrative identity”.Then,after the introduction and analysis of “narrative identity”,it is emphasized that Paul Ricoeur completes a shift from the reshaping of time by narrative to the shaping of the subject itself.In the process of transformation,subjectivity emerges from the continuous reflection and knowledge of itself in the pluralistic other.Finally,in conjunction with the above research,it is found that Paul Ricoeur constructs a hermeneutic of the self through detours to the other that is strongly ontological and ethical.Analyzing the ontological and ethical aspects of this hermeneutic,linking narrative theory to the subject philosophical construction of Paul Ricoeur ’s.Discovering the reflexive and logical nature of its construction path,highlights the importance of the issue of narrativity in Paul Ricoeur ’s thought.