A Study Of Narrating Arts In Christa Wolf’s Novel Stadt Der Engel Oder The Overcoat Of Dr. Freud

Christa Wolf (1929-2011) is one of the most renowned female writers in Germany. She is adept at drawing materials from personal experiences and social incidents, which seem to be unnoticeable but actually reveal important social issues, such as the bureaucratic practices in German Democratic Republic, the spiritual destruction the Nazi has done to people and so on. Therefore, her works are extremely critical. They are at the same time strongly autobiographic, with high authenticity, which are worth the effort to delve into.Stadt der Engel oder The Overcoat of Dr. Freud is the last novel in Wolf’s lifetime. It is regarded as her "apologia" for herself, for the fact that the novel contains the "secret incident of informant", which had done damage to the image of Wolf. The book has triggered heated discussion among readers since its publication. Based on a combined study of classical narratology and post-classical narratology, the thesis analyzes Stadt der Engel in terms of its multifaceted narrating styles and the relationships between different themes of the novel.The thesis is divided into three parts:the introduction, main body of the thesis, and conclusion.In the introductory part, Wolf’s experiences in her lifetime are introduced. In addition, it also talks about the present study in academic field, the purpose of the study.The first chapter talks about the theoretical background and Wolf’s multifaceted narrating styles.The second and third chapters are the analysis of the novel. The second chapter talks about the different narrating tactics:interchangeable narrative person, multi-layered narrating time and space, indeterminate narration and collage. Meanwhile, the relationship between narrating styles and the themes of the novel is analyzed. The third chapter focuses on various rhetoric devices like symbols, intertextuality and metaphors in the novel, displaying their relationship with Wolf’s writing.The fourth chapter elaborates on the alienation effect engendered by these narrating arts from three aspects:the first is the alienation effect engendered by interchangeable narrating perspective; the second is engendered by non-Aristotelian plot; the third is by using symbols and images. Then the thesis concludes that there are two reasons why the writer uses various narrating tactics:one is for the writer to write and reflect on herself objectively, and the other is for the readers to give up preconceptions when reading. Readers are urged to think initiatively, and have objective opinions on her archive incidents, personal history as well as the whole German history.The conclusion summarizes the thesis on a full scale. With different narrating arts reappear the writer objectively the changes of German in the last decades, the "secret incident of informant" brings about her psychological wounds, the public misread her and the progress of her self-healing, which reflects the writer wants herself and the others would appraise the history objectively.