Memory,History And Text Time:a Study On The Time Narrative In “Neapolitan Novels”

Elena Ferrante is an Italian contemporary anonymous female author.Her novel "Neapolitan Novels" disrupts and reorganizes linear time,which makes the text present a complex time structure.This thesis takes time as the research object,adopts the strategy of text close reading and interdisciplinary research,uses narratology,history,sociology,and other related theories to explore the time problem in the "Neapolitan Novels",and analyzes the construction and narrative effect of narrative time,historical time and memory time in the novel.This dissertation is divided into four parts:The introduction mainly introduces the research status of Elena Ferrante and her "Neapolitan Novels",analyzing the essential concepts involved in this paper.Literature is the art of time,and all narrative works can be studied from the perspective of time.Narrative time includes two aspects: narrative time and story time.Moreover,their relationship is presented as time sequence,time distance,and frequency.Time appears with social history,reflecting the past.Memory is the product of a human’s experience,which can be reconstructed according to the needs of reality,establish close contact with members of society,and help people explore and establish their identity.The first chapter analyzes the text’s misaligned timing,deformed time length,and diversified narrative frequencies.Ferrante uses the methods of overall retrospective,partial flashbacks,and timelessness to disrupt and reorganize the narrative timing,use scenes,pauses,summarize and omit to effectively control the narrative rhythm and promote the story process in an orderly way.Highlight the critical plot of the novel through a repeated narration of a single event,use generalized narration to simplify the discourse,and use multiple narratives to make events confusing.The second chapter analyzes the historical time in the novel.Ferrante subtly combines authentic history with fictional stories.The circular time structure at the beginning and end of the text,the phenomenon of cyclical transgression,and the similarity of characters’ fates make historical time present cyclical characteristics.The changes in spatial objects,social customs,and the fate of characters in different eras reflect the transformation of historical time.With time,the characters’ personalities change,and the causal relationship of time promotes the rational development of the plot.Major historical events are woven into the characters’ daily lives,exposing many social problems under the symptoms of the times and enriching the novel’s theme.Chapter three explores memory and time in fiction.Memory allows time to travel freely,but it also fragment the narrative.Time is externalized through the narrator’s life experience,and environmental changes,seasonal changes,and festivals become the markers of time,recording the passage of time.Memory is spatial.Space and spatial objects carry memory,which makes memory can be interpreted and constructed by associating with places.Memory writing reshapes the past based on the current purposes,telling the memory to help the narrator heal the trauma and complete the construction of self-identity.In the process of identity recognition,reflect on the reconstruction work in Italy after World War II,reflect on the variation of human nature and the deformity of family relationships in the changing times,reflect on the women’s movement in the tide of the times,and offer suggestions for breaking the plight of women.