The Image Narrative Study In Alfred Tennyson’s Poetry

Alfred Lord Tennyson is the Poet Laureate in Victorian England,also considered as an important poet in the history of literature.His poems are the treasure of personal specialties in literature,with the exquisite sentiments in lyrics and the extensive magnificence in narratives.Many a character in his poems is well recognized through his blending pencil drawing the occasional melancholy brimming over with enthusiasm,realized by the medley of lyrics and narratives.The dissertation focuses on the study of image narrative in Tennyson’s poetry,with two levels of image study and narratology study targeting at theoretical framework in image narrative,of which the concept is expounded connotatively and denotatively through Tennyson’s characteristics in his works as the researching objective.The introduction of deep structure in narrative is considered as the paradigm of poetic image in narration,by which the structural features are demonstrated in the layer of language and above as the distinctive features to other literary genres.The former is the substantial features,while the latter is achieved in the image of poetry,as the basic element in the deep structure of narrative.Besides,the previous study of image provides the aesthetic perspective for the image narrative,thus makes two theoretical support of it.The dissertation is divided into four chapters,with its preceding introduction and final conclusion.The introduction reviews the experience Tennyson’s poetry making and features of Victorian.His poet status is well recognized in the history of English literature.Many a unique character is portrayed by him,among which come from the precursors’works.He parallels the events and the characters in his work with the specified era features.It is through his peculiar art process tinged classicism in his poetry as the spiritual contribution to the Victorian.Contemporary researches are categorized,both foreign and domestic,within which the critical turn is marked in the 70’s last century.The cause for it is probed into accurately.The domestic centralizes on the diffusion of his works translation.Many scholars gradually wrote some articles on some related topics from the extraltextual perspectives in recent years,causing the insufficient studies on his text.The structural characteristic in his works is confirmed through the previous study,especially the foreign research.Thus,it provides the base for the dissertation,by giving a definite narratological orientation.Chapter One deals with the foundation and scheme of image narrative.Two aspects of development of narratology are analyzed both foreign and domestic.The literature is organized and conclude on narrative levels,narrative grammar,cross-generic narrative,cognitive narrative,and rhetoric narrative.The current paradigm is insufficient for the study of poetry.The reason for that lies in the over-reduction and over-abstraction of the functional division,which makes the theory ineffectively apply itself to poetry study.Many domestic scholars showed the direction for the poetic narrative study,which is to seek for the narrative factor.The poetic image has the function of such narrative factor through analysis,and the theoretical base is definite for image as the narrative factor.It has the features of semiotic,structural,and functional,which is proved by the previous image study.It resists the drawbacks of over-reduction and over-abstraction from the previous study.The concept of image narrative is defined as the process in which image as the narrative factor is functioned in a higher level of a structure to acquire independent sense from and above the text as a self-governed expressive sign.Many a character image is in Tennyson’s poetry,by which such process would be interpreted.He demonstrates a merging technique in his poetic composing,thus makes the process of image narrative clear.Such merging technique makes a medley of event and character,content and form,antiquity and modernity,precursors and self,which grands a narrative system centered on character image.The center of character image is strictly emphasized in this system.The researching strategy is then clear,that is from the textual to the extratextual,realized by three ways:fabula,discourse,and narrating.Chapter Two is compatible with the first way that is from the text to the fabula,or story,or source material.The definition of figure and the character are made firstly.The former is an abstract features while the latter is concrete being.The two are in the relation of homology.The further argument on homology would prove the foundation of reality and aesthetics.Starting from the characters in the text,by categorizing them into 3 types:group characters in lyrical short poems,all-in-one character in lyrical long poem,and separate characters in the long narrative poems.It reflects the change of Tennyson’s composing idea.Thus,the aesthetic foundation is clearly proven.From the other perspective,the turn form text to fabula,the analysis of figures in Tennyson’s world of experience.The reason of the traits of character is analyzed from two aspects:psychological and ideological.The former is realized by the facters of interpersonal relationship,the latter is the idea and political stand.Thus,the foundation of reality is clear.Based on the two foundations,there is identical narratological sense on the study on Tennyson’s narrative image.Chapter Three is compatible with the second way of discourse.It mainly discusses the mechanism of image generation in the text.It is based on the theory of discourse in narratology and probes into the mechanism by centering on the text.Narrative discourse cannot go without the plot building in the text,and building plot in the text bases on the action as its minimum element.In the process of poetry narration,Tennyson planed the plot by the voice of character as the medium,which is the measure categorizing the images in the text.Thus,the characters exist in two different action modes:speech act and motion act.These two acts build the plot of his poems,which makes the narrative interaction and communication possible.Then it analyzes the narrative communication carried on through the recessive voice,dominant voice and poet’s voice,which makes a interactive and retrospective communication.The recessive voice and the poet’s voice forms an inner narrative communication,while the dominant voice and the poet’s voice forms an outer narrative communication.The former is consisted of poet’s soliloquy and monologue;the latter is consisted of conversation among characters and poet.Both are spoken and non-spoken demonstration.Through such process,character images finally are generated in the text via the character image narrative communication.Chapter Four bases on the narrating as an behavior,which analyzes how image are set free from text and finally are acquired its independent expression in speech communication.In such process,the aesthetic experience of the observer is strongly emphasized.At this part,six elements of speech communication mainly focus on the information carrier as image itself and the addressee as the observer,or between the aesthetic subject and object.The place of observer is notable within.Image shows its aesthetic properties through the speech communication.Starting from Kant’s 3^rdcritique,the third way of researching is clearly shown,which image is analyzed in the process of communication from the aesthetic perspective.Thus,the image separates itself from text and independently aesthetically expresses itself.Through two kinds of images:hero image and beauty image,further analyses are made to explain how the image communicative momentum will be gained among heroes and beauties via the perspective of contemplative aesthetics,in which the joy and enjoyment would be achieved from so called vision.Hero image would grant the observer its sublimity and beauty the original beauty,as the antiquity and pure beauty alternatively dominants the poet minds.All are demonstrated by the sensory world of Tennyson,and stimulates the observers’imagination,which contributes the independence of image as way of beauty.The last part is the Conclusion.It analyzes the strategy and the result of researching.Through the image narrative study of Tennyson,it shows his narrative structure and poetry composition theory.And it gives synthetically summary of the image narrative theory and its influence on Tennyson’s poetry,which contributes new perspective in understanding his poems,and shows duo significance of narrative study in its structure and level.Some insufficient study and research are also stated out and make a further research design and clear orientation.