On The Autobiographical Narrative Of Sebastian Barry’s On Canaan’s Side

The literary creation of contemporary Irish writer Sebastian Barry mostly derives from the anecdotes of his family,which boasts a strong reality-referential nature.On Canaan’s Side is a new work in The Dunne Family series written by Barry.The novel narrates the vicissitudes in the whole life of Lily Dunne,who is the youngest daughter in the Dunne family.Taking autobiographical narrative for research object,Barry’s On Canaan’s Side is studied in this paper.In the novel,Barry learns from the classic form of autobiography to found an autobiographical narrative of confession,testimonio and cure,which are made to be the external rendering of psychological changing progress of the narrator.The immigration experiences,identity confusion and psychological changes are related to the encounter of Barry himself and his other family members on the one hand,on the other hand,it refers to the specific realistic social situation.However,as Barry repeatedly emphasized,On Canaan’s Side is an autobiographical narrative rather than an autobiography,which shared “ structural truth” with autobiography,and expresses a thought that the fundamental objective of traumatic memory is not accuse but cure.While giving people humanistic care,Barry may provide people with a helpful reference to recognize society and history via the personal narrative that dissociates from mainstream historical discourse.The introduction mainly introduces the research circumstance of Sebastian Barry’s On Canaan’s Side both at home and abroad,besides,the research ideas and analytical methods for the paper are explained in this part.The principal part of the thesis is divided into four chapters.Chapter One researches the theoretical development progress from narrative in autobiography to autobiographical narrative on the basis of the clear distinction on these two theories.Then,the paper discusses forming reasons and features of Sebastian Barry’s autobiographical narrative.Chapter Two sees about the start point of “confession” in On Canaan’s Side,probing into the confession narrative model in the novel.Because “confession” is the first mental phase after the narrator experiences traumatic events,which facilitates formation of the core value of narrative,that is,the formation of the cohesive ego.Chapter Three mainly dissects the multiple-tune of “testimonio” and the featureof “speakerly text”.The transformation from“confession” to“testifying”is a significant sign that shows victims enter the next mental phase,at that time,the special status of narrator and“testifying”strategy make the autobiographical narrative form a rhetoric in political tone.The final chapter probes into the final goal of the autobiographical narrative in On Canaan’s Side,that is,to reach the objective of “cure” through the narrative of traumatic memories.The chapter mainly analyzes the“self-disclosure”phenomenon in the work.Through the comparison with the different presentation of unreliability in Sebastian Barry’s The Secret Scripture,the chapter reveals the final objective of curing trauma based on linking up the former two mental phases,thereby the humanity function of autobiographical narrative is highlighted.The conclusion is a summary of the thesis,it concisely states the main points of this paper and further points out the significance of the autobiographical narrative of On Canaan’s Side.