Narratological Study Of Fitzgerald’s Tender Is The Night

The creation of Tender Is the Night, best embodiment of the tragic fate in the JazzAge, lasted for nine years. As soon as it was published, it went through variouscomments from critics. Some held negative views because of its time order and theexcessive autobiographical writing. Some held positive views. For a long time afterits publication the novel has not been well acclaimed because of its theme, narrativetechniques and time order. It has encountered many unfavorable criticisms. Itsunchronological narrative technique is most severely attacked because it is difficultfor the readers to understand.Through careful study, the reader may discover that Tender Is the Night bears its ownwriting style and narrative techniques. This thesis intends to analyze the novel fromthe perspective of “narratology”. It analyzes the novel mainly from the perspective ofnarrative time, narrative focalization and narrator which are the important conceptsin Genette’s narratology. It holds that the novel’s great success mainly attributes tothe employment of the unique narratological features. The narrative techniques helpto embody the theme. Unchronological order and shift of time make the events in thenovel powerful. Besides, Fitzgerald employs different focalizations to strengthen theevents and to reveal the characters’ thoughts frankly. These features make thenarrative more objective. The acceptance of the novel took several decades and it isproved that Tender Is the Night is a great work in American and the world literature.