Dream Narrative In Raymond Carver’s Short Stories

Raymond Carver is one of the most important short story writers in modern American literary history.He has always been accepted and discussed as a realistic writer.However,there exists something surrealistic in his story world.Many of Carver’s stories employ the framework of dream,including "Kindling," "Elephant," and "The Compartment" and so on.Some critics have noticed the dreamy sense in Carver’s story world,but no further study has been done upon this interesting aspect of Carver’s writing,which can be labeled as"dream narrative."Taking "The Compartment" as an example,this thesis studies Carver’s writing from the perspective of dream narrative and holds that the world presented in the story is an impressionistic world where imagery plays a leading role while sound seldom appears.The time and space of the story also indicate its features of dream narrative.Through review of dream narrative and its functions in the history of western literature,this thesis holds that in "The Compartment," Carver blurs the boundary between dream and reality,as a result of which,readers’ traditional cognition of "what is reality" is challenged.The open ending achieved by dream narrative corresponds with Carver’s viewpoints on writing and his understanding of a writer’s social responsibility:a writer does not write to express himself or to provide readers with answers,but to communicate.Dream writing,as a strategy of narrative,is an effective way to reveal social problems of a certain age.Carver’s works of dream narrative reveal modern American people’s tendency of escaping from reality.The Americans of the late 20th century suffer from disillusion of American dream,class stratification and identity crisis.Dream for them is not only a "short-cut" to escape from the harsh reality,but also a unique artistic object of paradox formed by the confrontation of personal wish and social system.