A Study Of Border Crossing Narratives In Olga Tokarczuk’s Novels

Olga Tokarczuk,winner of the 2018 Nobel Prize for Literature,is one of the most outstanding contemporary Polish writers and one of the most original and world-renowned writers.Due to her personal life experience and the influence of Polish national history and culture,she is very concerned with the issue of "crossing borders",which makes the theme of "crossing borders" an obvious meaning of her novels.In her novels,she consciously expresses the theme of "crossing borders" and uses fictional discourse to express her cultural aspirations and social concerns.The concept of “border” is a concept with rich connotation and continuous development.However,with the development of history and culture and the change of context,“border” has taken on a new connotation,and it is intended to emphasize the differences and oppositions between various elements within the cultural codes of gender,race,and species on top of the territorial boundaries.Tokarczuk believes that this kind of “border thinking”has confined and restrained the subject’s thinking and the benign development of society,so she tries to deconstruct the “border” by writing "across the border".Through her “border crossing” writing,she tries to deconstruct the dichotomous ideas embedded in “borders” and establish a new fictional discourse that subverts the old discourses of ethnicity,gender,and species,solves current social problems,and promotes the liberation and freedom of different subjects.In order to achieve this goal,she adopts a corresponding writing strategy.From the perspective of “border crossing”,this paper focuses on boundary poetics theory,ecofeminism theory,object narrative theory,Deleuze’s “becoming” and“nomadism”ideas,supplemented by ecological and feminist theories,and explores the author’s life experiences,historical and cultural contexts.From the author’s life experiences and historical and cultural contexts,the paper explores the textual expressions,writing meanings and narrative techniques of the author’s four long novels(Day House and Night House、Primeval and Other Times、Flight、Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead).The thesis consists of five parts: the introductory part firstly introduces and composes Tolkachuk’s life and works,then outlines the research on Tokarczuk by Chinese and foreign scholars,and finally defines the meaning and significance of the "border" narrative explored in this paper on the basis of the development of the concept of "border".Finally,the paper defines the meaning and significance of the narrative of "border crossing" based on the theory of "border crossing",i.e.,the dissolution of the meaning of geographical borders and the transcendence of the dichotomy implied by "borders".The first chapter summarizes the porousness,interculturality and variability of "border space",a common narrative space in Tokarczuk’s novels,which deconstructs the border view emphasizing "opposition and separation",creates a literary field for the subject to realize "geographical border crossing",and highlights the rejection of nationalist discourse behind the narrative performance of "geographical border crossing";then it analyzes the influence of "travel"as the main way for modern people to realize "geographical border crossing" on the construction of subjectivity and subject identity of the cross-border traveler.The third chapter discusses the specific manifestation of the "human and non-human border crossing" in the fictional text and the impact of this "geographical border crossing" on the construction of the subjectivity and subject identity of the traveler."Chapter 3discusses the specific manifestation of the "human-nonhuman border crossing" and the philosophical connotations and cultural demands behind this "border crossing".Chapter4 analyzes the "gender crossover" idea of Tokarczuk’s novels from the perspective of narratology,in order to realize the "crossover" theme in terms of content.The fourth chapter analyzes the narrative strategies adopted by Tolkachuk’s novels to realize the theme of " border crossing " in content,mainly in the form of a star cluster of fragmented narratives,a variety of textual forms,and a constantly changing narrative perspective of the novel.The concluding section summarizes the significance of Olga Tokarczuk’s novel’s border crossing narrative and reflects on the methodological shortcomings of this article.