Narrative Irony In Oscar Wilde’s Short Stories

Oscar Wilde is a major figure in the late 19^th-century English literature and society.Irony is one of the key features of the narrative strategies employed in his short stories,which is closely related to the prosperous but dangerous environment of the late Victorian era in which he lived,his complex and rebellious life experiences,and his attitude of pursuing the beauty of the moment and rebelling against the stereotypical morality of his time.This study adopts a narratological approach and draws on irony theory to examine Wilde’s short stories as an artistic whole,investigating the specific narrative strategies and the corresponding effects in them through close reading and exploring the author’s narrative appeals behind them.Critical interpretations of Wilde’s work are diverse and evolving,but their studies mainly focus on Wilde’s plays,his only full-length novel,and the two fairy tale collections,with few on Wilde’s short stories as a whole.In addition,studies on the phenomenon of irony at the narrative level in Wilde’s short stories are uncommon and lack systematicity.This certainly provides a good research opportunity for this study.Therefore,this thesis focuses on the narrative irony in Wilde’s short stories,examining three characteristic narrative strategies applied in these works:covert progression,spatial narrative,and authorial narrative voice,and argues that the narrative strategies in Wilde’s short stories make full use of the structural elements to design and construct ironic structures that reveal the implications of the texts and convey the author’s complex and profound insights into events and phenomena as well as his subtle attitudes.This thesis is divided into five chapters,each of which is introduced below.Chapter One reviews the domestic and foreign literature research on Wilde’s short story,briefly explains the significance of this study,outlines the research framework,and briefly introduces the concept of irony and its development.Chapter Two focuses on irony in covert progressions of Wilde’s short stories,arguing that covert progressions exist in many of Wilde’s short stories,all complementary to the plot development.They can be divided into two main categories:those that revolve around the irony of the foolishness of the protagonist,and those that focus on the irony of adults controlling and alienating children,exposing Wilde’s criticism and irony of the stereotypical,hypocritical,and harmful morality of the Victorian era.Chapter Three explores the irony in the spatial strategies of Wilde’s short stories,pointing out that there are two main spatial narrative modes that embody irony in Wilde’s short stories:diachronic spatial shifting and synchronic spatial juxtaposition,which reveal Wilde’s reflections on a variety of themes such as Victorian class conflict,colonial issues,and fate,reflecting his unique humanistic concerns.Chapter Four probes into irony in the authorial narrative voice of Wilde’s short stories and reveals that the author’s narrative voice in works is characterized by both romantic irony and postmodern irony.The authorial intrusion is the main manifestation of his romantic ironic features,showing Wilde’s awareness and practice of the ironic position he occupies as a writer,as well as expanding the implications and richness of his work.Its postmodern ironic overtones are mainly manifested in multiplicity,ambiguity,and meaninglessness,reflecting Wilde’s notion of cosmic irony and his perception of the transience of the world.Chapter Five is the conclusion.It further emphasizes the significance of studying narrative irony in Wilde’s short stories.The richness of subjects,depth of themes,as well as subtlety of the narrative techniques,render Wilde’s short stories essentially a small yet integral world,and therefore research of these fictions as a whole is of unique value for comprehending Wilde.Wilde’s masterful narrative art interacts with his ironic reflections on the contradictions and paradoxes ubiquitous in life and the difficulties and complexities of real society to form an organic whole,which is of great value and deserves constant study.