| Since the establishment of Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) by Halliday in 1960s, scholars both at home and abroad have applied it to many various styles of discourse analysis, such as news, advertising texts, and translation. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the analysis of literature by the means of SFG among scholars.This thesis attempts to employ functional grammar as the tool of analysis and Chronicle of A Blood Merchant as text which is a most successful fiction written by Yu Hua, a representative of "avant-garde" writers in contemporary China. Through a detailed analysis of the transitivity system, mood and modality system, thematisation and cohesion system, the features of the characters, their relations and black humor as well as the theme and structure in the novel are revealed. The thesis is structured within the frame of the three metafunctions. In terms of the ideational function, the main processes of the transitivity system are analyzed to explore the features of the two main characters and black humor in this novel. In respect of interpersonal function, mood and modality system are mainly involved in the analysis, from which the relationship among characters of different social backgrounds are revealed. Besides, the features of black humor are explained likewise through mood and modality analysis. As for the textural function, the thesis mainly analyzes it from the point of view of theme choices and cohesion devices. With thematic analysis, the logical structure of the novel becomes clear. Meanwhile, the cohesion analysis shows the characteristics of the language such as repetition in the text.In addition, the analysis in the thesis itself testifies that SFG is of great power of application and manipulation in literature study. It provides us with a better comprehension and appreciation of Chronicle of A Blood Merchant as well as a new platform and reference for other relevant literature study. |
PDF Full Text Request