A Study Of Spatial Narrative In The History Of Love

Nicole Krauss(1974-)is a famous contemporary American writer.The History of Love is her second novel,in which she blurs the boundaries of time and space,juxtaposes stories of Jewish characters from different places and presents their multi-dimensional living spaces.Utilizing Gabriel Zoran’s spatial narrative,the thesis studies the topographical,chronotopic,and textual spaces in The History of Love.It explores the far-reaching impact of the Holocaust like the trauma that it causes to the Jewish immigrants,Jewish immigrants’ pursuit of love and their living conditions in the post-Holocaust era.Apart from the Introduction and Conclusion,this thesis consists of four chapters.The Introduction briefly introduces Nicole Krauss’ life experience,the main plots of The History of Love,literature review and the significance of this research.Chapter One introduces the development of spatial narrative and Zoran’s theory of narrative space at the vertical level.Influenced by the spatial turn,Joseph Frank,Seymour Chatman and William Mitchell introduce the concepts of spatial narrative respectively.Based on their studies,Zoran classifies narrative space into the vertical and horizontal levels,and further divides the narrative space at the vertical level into the topographical,chronotopic,and textual spaces.His theory is of highly practical use and theoretical values in the development of spatial narrative.Chapter Two analyzes the topographical spaces in The History of Love.Zoran emphasizes the oppositional relationship and metaphorical meaning of the topographical space.He states that the topographical space is based on a series of oppositional relationships like inside and outside,far and near,center and periphery,city and village,etc.In the novel,Slonim in Poland,Valparaiso in Chile and New York City in America are major topographical spaces which include several subspaces like the forest and apartment.The living area of Slonim,and its nearby forest and Valparaiso form the “center-periphery” relationship;Slonim,Valparaiso and New York City form the “far-near” relationship;the inside and outside of Leo’s apartment in New York City form the “inside-outside” relationship.These oppositional relationships in the topographical spaces metaphorically express the trauma of the protagonists Leo and Zvi when they experience and reexperience the traumatic events,and recover from the past trauma.Chapter Three discusses the chronotopic spaces in The History of Love.Zoran states that the chronotopic space is the structure imposed on space by events and movements,and he divides it into synchronic and diachronic relations.In the novel,little Alma’s motion and Charlotte’s rest form the synchronic relation.After the death of little Alma’s father David,little Alma switches over to different spaces to help her mother Charlotte find love,and she is in motion;Charlotte confines herself to a limited space and she is at rest.The diachronic relation is formed by three factors:“directions”,“powers” and “axes”.Leo’s movements form the diachronic relation.Love for his sweetheart Alma and his son Isaac gives Leo power and determines the directions of his movements.The two types of relations in the chronotopic space reveal the characters’ pursuit of romantic love,and love between parents and children,and the positive and negative effects of these two kinds of love on them.Chapter Four explores the textual spaces in The History of Love.Zoran holds that the structure of the textual space is influenced by three factors: the selectivity of language,the linearity of the text,and the perspectival structure.In the novel,through the selection of verbal materials,Krauss portrays the houses of different characters and reveals their love and loneliness in the houses.Writing techniques like the non-linear narrative and multiple-narrative perspective reconstruct fragmented and multi-dimensional living spaces of the Jewish immigrants,demonstrate their living conditions and reveal the far-reaching influence of the Holocaust on the Jewish survivors and their offspring in the post-Holocaust era.The Conclusion contends that by analyzing the topographical,chronotopic,and textual spaces in the novel,we can see the author’s reflections on the Holocaust which causes great trauma to the Jewish immigrants.Love gives them strength and makes them strong enough to live in the post-Holocaust era.The History of Love is an ingenious novel that arouses people’s attention to Jewish history and culture and reminds them of discovering the significance of love when facing the adversities.