Break Of Structure And Consolation Of Mind

Willa Cather was a successful American female writer. In her nearly forty years ofwriting, she published20novels, three collections of stories, two collections of poems and anumber of critics on performing art as well as many other writings. Her career as a creativewriter can be roughly divided into three periods (De Roche2006:33). The Professor’s Housewas among her middle works, a transitional one and one of her representatives. In recentyears, with the revival of the studies on her, deeper meanings behind her simple words arebeing found. Although the theme has nothing to do with her fame-winning plains trilogy,The Professor’s House is still worth studying considering its cutting-edge structure to its eraand its connection between the structure and the author s mind and her social context.Narratology, born in1960s in France, experienced its post-classic turn at the turning of1970s to80s. Logically, this could be seen as a turn from temporal to spatial dimension.Spatial narrative is not the negative to temporal narrative, but an improvement of it.Inspired by Bakhtin s concept of chronotope, Susan Stanford Friedman convertedKristeva s coordinate into her own spatializing narrative framework, a within-text analysis onthe horizontal axis and intertexuality of the text with other works and its social context on thevertical axis. Classic narratology is a structuralism one, focusing on text only. Post-classicnarratology, however, breaks the boundary and bridges texts and their outside world.The thesis first briefly introduces Willa Cather s life and The Professor’s House, andthen the framework of spatializing narrative and related theories. Based on Susan S.Friedman s framework of spatializing narrative, by the narratological analysis of TheProfessor’s House on the two axes mentioned above, the thesis concludes that the splitstructure the author intentionally used is to release some inner break, and Tom Outland sstory to comfort the broken heart and indicate light of hope.