Discussion On Images In Patric Modiano's Novel

Patric Modiano is an important writer in the contemporary era of the literary circles of France. As the mainstay of the School of New Fables, he is good at constructing in his novels the rich images to convey profound meanings. A general survey of over forty years' literary creation of Modiano clearly shows that Modiano has applied the same images to express the same themes. Therefore, this thesis is based on the images in Modiano's novels as the penetrating point to systemize and analyze the images, understand the deep themes implied in the images and experience the artistic glamour of Modiano's novels.This thesis is divided into three chapters.Chapter ?:Introduction. This chapter introduces the personal life of Modiano and the present researches on his novels at home and abroad. It points out the feasibility to study the images and the creative points of his novels. It has concisely systemized the development of the imagery concept of the western world, and defined the imagery concept.Chapter ?:Images and Their Connotation in Modiano's Novels. This chapter divides Modiano's novels into three categories:firstly, identity images, including sea-beach-people images, kaleidoscopic images and water vapor images. The sea-beach-people images symbolize those homeless persons with identity deleted; the kaleidoscopic images signify the multi-face persons with split identities while the water vapor images represent the existence nihility of persons under identity crisis. Through construction of the identity images, Modiano expressed his reflection on existence of persons under identity crisis. Secondly, memory and oblivion images, including:Yearbooks, newspapers, photos, and other such images of fixed time points, and cities, streets, buildings and other such images of fixed space points as well as the two-dimensional time-space fixed-point image: notebook, symbolizing the compound body of memory and oblivion. Through construction of the memory and oblivion images, Modiano expressed his reflection on existence of persons with memories deleted. Thirdly, the refuge images, including:cafe images, neutral-region images and occultist book images. The cafe images symbolize a momentary tranquil period; the neutral-region images stand for places for locating the happiness while the occultist book images signify the habitat for the heart and the soul. Modiano's construction of refuge images embodies the living and existing environment for the modem people. The author of this thesis analyzes the images of Modiano's novels, introduces relevant theories and deeply anatomizes the deep themes of his novels.Chapter ?:Causes for Production of Images in Modiano's Novels. This chapter has revealed in four aspects the causes for birth of images of Modiano's novels:the mysterious identity of the father, struggling between the dual identities, lingering shadow under World War ?, and influences from the social trend of thoughts of France.