On The Death Narration Of Travels In The Scriptorium

Paul Auster,a famous contemporary American novelist,is called one of the most unique voices in contemporary literature.He has published more than 50 works including novels,essays,autobiographies and plays.In 2017,his 4321 was listed on the short list of The Man Booker Prize of 2017.Auster has been studied by critics because of the obvious post-modern factors in his works.Throughout his novels,such factors as changeable characters,style of sternness and the maze-like narrative are the most conspicuous features.For a long time,scholars pay more attention to the uncertainties,intertextuality,metafiction strategies and other post-modern writing techniques presented in his works,while the narrative analysis of his work is seldom mentioned.Based on narratology,this thesis analyses his novel Travels in the Scriptorium,which provides a different perspective for the study of the novel and reveals the author's thinking towards human dignity behind his narrative.The main body of this thesis is divided into three parts.It tells how Auster uses different narrative strategies to complete the death narration in his work.The first part is shaping of narrative objects.According to the classification and shaping methods of characters proposed by Edward Morgan Forster,Rimmon Kenan and other literary critics,the thesis analyses how Auster uses different shaping skills to create the characters.The second part interprets the novel through different narrative perspectives proposed by structuralist critics.The third part analyzes how the author's unique narrative structure of “China box”leads to the different forms of death in the novel,discusses why the author uses such narrative structure to describe death,and points out the practical significance that the author conveys through the novel.Auster's works not only reflect the early life of himself,but also show that the experiences and insights he obtained from the early life have created his labyrinthical narrative features.His words condense his unique thinking and perception towards life.The author states the tragedy of his characters with unique narrative strategies.The seemingly ruthless narration is actually full of the author's humanistic concern towards the human dignity.