The French Lieutenant’s Woman:Narrative Difference Between Novel And Film

This thesis analyzes the narrative difference between the novel and its adaptation of The French Lieutenant’s Woman in the narrative content, narrative strategies and artistic effect, and discusses the theoretical and technical support to reaching the conversion. The main body includes four parts. Chapter I is about the narrative content of the basic form, analyzing the differences between the novel and the film on plots and characters. Chapter II is about the narrative strategy, discussing on the narrative form and narrative viewpoint. ChapterⅢ is to explore the deep differences by describing artistic effects. Chapter IV discusses how the narrative characteristics of meta-fiction influence on film adaptation, and the conversion of the two narrative media.Based on the narratology theory, the theory of film-adaptation and postmodernism theory and so on, this thesis carries on comparative analysis to the novel The French Lieutenant’s Woman and the movie of the same name, and discusses how the narrative mode of meta-fiction as the main type of Postmodernist novels subvert the traditional novels. As the adaptation, with the filming narrative structure and strategy, it reflected this point in the movie. For further questioning, this thesis explores the art effect before and after the adaptation from novel to film.The thesis focuses the narrative difference from novel to film, and the meta-fiction postmodernist narrative characteristics and artistic effect, as well as how the film adaptation make innovation based on the original. While previous studies have mostly focused on the study of novel text, or researched on the adaptation script or movie, but a comparative study on the novel and the film is still a minority. Therefore, there is a certain academic significance for meta-fiction film adaptation studies.