An Analysis Of The Narrative Features In All The King's Men

As a classic work in the history of American literature, All the King's Men has been popular with critics in its abundant connotation and profound artistic charm. The novel establishes Robert Penn Warren's stellar rank among the contemporary writers and displays Warren's superb artistic accomplishments. It has been critically well-received since the publication in 1946. Related critical essays and academic discussions generally cover the aspects including the political and historical themes, the unique narrative perspective, the problem of evil, the philosophical search for self-knowledge and Southern nostalgia, etc. However, it is worthy of noticing that related research in China is still at the exploratory stage. Most of the domestic studies are confined to the analysis of salvation, self-knowledge and images of the novel; while research on the narrative features is quite weak. However, Warren's application of narrative techniques is unique in the novel. Therefore, by virtue of related narrative theories mainly proposed by Gerard Genette and Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan, this thesis is intended to present a detailed and systematic analysis of narrative features in All the King's Men, attempting to interpret the novel in terms of narrative techniques which have positive effect on plot development, theme construction and characterization, providing some fresh perspectives for comprehension of the novel.This thesis is composed of five parts. The introduction part offers a general evaluation of Warren's literary achievements and his irreplaceable status in literary history as well as literature review about the studies on All the King's Men. The main body includes three chapters as summarized in the following.Chapter One discusses Warren's application of narrative perspective in All the King's Men. In order to illustrate its narrative characteristics, some terms are borrowed from narratology, such as reliable narrator, implied author and the shortening of distance. In the novel, Warren chiefly employs first-person perspective to shorten the distance between the narrator and the reader. Since the narrator is standing at a time later than what he narrates, there occurs a split between the narrating self and the experiencing self. Upon the discussion of Jack Burden, the chapter further explores the question of reliability of the narrator. Besides, a distinctive feature in Warren's narrative technique lies in his occasional violation of the first-person perspective and shifting to second-person and third-person perspectives, and the arising effect is further explored in the chapter.Chapter Two respectively expounds the narrative level and order of the novel. On the one hand, this chapter deals with the analysis of three narrative levels (the extradiegetic level, the diegetic level and the metadiegetic level) in All the King's Men based on related narrative theories put forward by Gerard Genette, emphatically elaborating the thematic function of the metadiegetic level, which is a "tale within tale"—the dramatic story of Cass Mastern. Deliberating on the two stories of Jack Burden and Cass Mastern in different levels, the chapter analyzes their resemblance in the themes about sin, interrelatedness of men and events as well as the acknowledgement of responsibility. Thus Cass's story serves to intensify the theme of the novel. On the other, this chapter is devoted to analyze the narrative order of the novel. Warren deliberately breaks the chronological order by nonlinear narrative, and alternately adopts analepsis and prolepsis. Different instances and functions of analepsis and prolepsis are studied.Chapter Three concentrates on Warren's narrative strategies in the presentation of characterization. In accordance with Rimmon-Kenan's theory of characterization, this chapter mainly portrays how the vividness and immediacy of direct speech function both in presenting characters'personalities and in displaying the dramatic changes of the characters. In addition, the characterizing capacities of analogous names—"All the King's Men" and "Jack Burden"—are carefully analyzed. Particularly, taking water image and Anne's floating image as examples, the present author introduces imagery narrative as a vehicle to present characters.The conclusion part is a summary of Warren's achievements and innovations of narrative techniques applied in All the King's Men, which are displayed by Warren's skilled manipulation of narrative perspective, narrative level and order and characterization.Based on related narrative theory, this thesis supplies a tentatively systematic analysis of Warren's narrative techniques in All the King's Men, with a hope of a full appreciation of the subtlety of narrative style in the novel. Still, Warren's narrative strategies deserve more attention and further study.