A Study Of The Dual Narrative Progressions In On Chesil Beach

As one of the most influential writers in contemporary British literature,Ian Mc Ewan uses his unique narrative skills to tell a romantic story and highlights the interpersonal conflicts and the conflicts between individuals and the English society in the 1960s.Taking On Chesil Beach as its central concern,this thesis tries to have a close reading of the dual narrative progression in light of Phalen’s theories about narrative progression and the concept of covert progression by Shen Dan.It mainly investigates the representation of the overt and covert narrative movements and their relations;then it further explores the implied author’s real intention to construct the dual narrative progression.It finds out that firstly,the overt narrative progression of the novel is promoted by the synthesis of instabilities caused by conflicts in the marriage and separation of the two protagonists and tensions created by readers’ different interpretations.Secondly,the characters’ images are opposite to those constructed in the overt progression,behind which the undercurrent flow has been formed.The covert narrative progression represents the personal anxiety of identity under the constraints of that time.Finally,the dual narrative progression complements the novel’s themes presented in the overt narrative progression.The overt narrative progression focuses on the conflicts between people,while the covert narrative progression highlights the conflicts between people and society.Implicitly,through the ingenious conception of dual narrative progressions,the implied author hides the direct conflicts between people and society under the narrative margins and trivial details in the overt progression and satirizes the alienated interpersonal relationships and contradictory character psychology under social pressure.It makes readers with different horizons of expectations obtain the information they expect and levels the deep meaning to the implied readers.