Narrative Judgments In Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close

Jonathan Safran Foer is one of the representatives of third-generation American Jewish novelists who has published four novels and three non-fiction works.As a descendant of Holocaust survivors,he has always been concerned with the theme of Holocaust.He has written two novels about the Holocaust,Everything is illuminated(2002)and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close(2005).Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is an innovative post-Holocaust novel published in 2005.Set against the backgrounds of the 9/11 attack and the Dresden bombing in World War II,the novel narrates the traumatic experiences of three generations of the Schell family.The novel combines two interlocking storylines:Oscar's search for the secret of the key after his father's death in the 9/11 attack and his grandparents' letters and diaries about their experiences in World War II,narrated by three characters alternately.Based on James Phelan's rhetorical theory of narrative,this thesis attempts to explore how the author makes use of textual resources to communicate with the audience.Phelan argues that narrative progression triggers narrative judgment,and narrative judgment,in turn,promotes narrative progression.Phelan's narrative judgment includes interpretive judgments,ethical judgments and aesthetic judgments made by the characters,the narrators,the implied author,and the audiences.This thesis analyzes how the three narrators' narration generates the dynamics of narrative progression,prompts readerly judgment,guides his ethical judgment and invites him to make aesthetic judgment of the narrative strategies of the novel.The thesis consists of five parts:The Introduction introduces Jonathan Safran Foer and the novel,the research status of the novel,theoretical framework,the structure and significance of the thesis.Chapter One focuses on the different interpretive judgments made by the three narrators and the audience on the relationships between the characters and their traumatic past.It analyzes how the dynamics,namely,the introduction,complication and resolution of the “instability” and “tension” in the three narrators' narration promote the narrative progression and evoke the audience's evocation and resolution.Through analysis,the chapter demonstrates that the unreliable narration,manifested in the narrators' interpretive misjudgment of their relationships with their family and of their traumatic experiences,stimulates the audience's interest,misleads his judgment and guides him back to a more fair judgment.Chapter Two analyzes the responses made by the narrators,the implied author and the audience to the questions: Is surviving a traumatic event when others perished morally wrong? How should the survivors cope with their survivor guilt? Through narrating their stories,Oscar,Grandpa and Grandma finally bring themselves to confront their survivor guilt that keeps them from living a normal life and gradually works toward recuperation.Portraying them as sympathetic figures who suffer from self-blame,aphasia and amnesia,Foer guides the audience to empathize with their traumatic loss and moral torment and condemn the atrocities of war and terrorism.Chapter Three focuses on the aesthetic representation and the aesthetic judgment.The chapter analyzes how the narrative structures and narrative techniques(multiple narrative voices,blanks,image narrative,repeated narrative)promote the narrative progression,strengthen the interpretive judgment and ethical judgment,and speak the“unspeakable trauma”,thus guiding the audience to judge the overall quality of the narrative.Phelan's rhetorical theory of narrative proves an effective theoretical tool in analyzing the narrative progression,ethics and aesthetics of the novel.His narrative judgment theory helps us understand the multilayered communication between the narrators,the implied author,and the audiences,and the mutual influences of the three narrative judgments.It can be concluded that the implied author uses a variety of traumatic narrative styles,introduces a variety of instabilities and tensions into the narrative,and presents the ethical choices to the audience,thereby enriching his reading experience.As a writer who is skillful in employing innovative narrative techniques,Foer rejects mere aestheticization of the Holocaust and the 9/11 attack,but uses the narrative strategies to speak the unspeakable trauma.Tracing the characters' traumas to its origins,Foer condemns war and terrorism as culprits for the survivors' misery,and suggests that it is unfair to shift the blame from the real culprits onto the victims themselves.The survivors should break free of their self-destructive guilt and shame and take a positive therapeutic approach to work through their trauma.Although Foer encourages the survivors to speak out their trauma,he does not impose the task of witness-bearing onto them.Instead,he imposes upon himself the moral responsibility to speak the unspeakable trauma for the survivors and to transform their narrative of suffering and shame into narratives of witnessing.