Spatial Narrative In Let The Great World Spin

Let the Great World Spin,a representative fiction of the famous Irish American writer Colum McCann,is featured by its profound themes as well as distinctive narrative style.Renowned as a lyrical tapestry of New York City experience,the novel has been explored by both foreign and domestic scholars from multiple aspects such as narratology and trauma theory,but few has discussed the relation between its spatial narrative skills and themes.As the founder of spatial form theory,Joseph Frank didn’t give a clear definition of the space in his theory though,his notions can be developed into three different levels of space in a progressive order.The first refers to the physical space constructed in the text which takes responsibility of narration;the second refers to the structural space achieved by the arrangement of different events in different spaces;the third refers to the perceptional space reflected in readers’ minds by reflexive references.Based on Joseph Frank’s theory,this thesis focuses on the three levels of space respectively in Let the Great World Spin.The first chapter emphasizes on narrative spaces which function as alternative references in its narrative structure.The chosen spaces,the streets,the subway and the New York City,not only disrupt the narrative time,but also serve as promotions to the plot development.The second chapter mainly focuses on the structural space by analyzing different narrative methods,such as multiple-story narration,unchronological narrative sequence and juxtaposition in achieving a unified aesthetic spatial form.The third chapter pays more attention to the aesthetic and sculptural understanding of spaces formed in readers’ reading progress by analyzing the functions of reflexive references in this novel.By discussing three levels of spaces,this thesis is of some significance for readers to better understand the relation between its narrative skills and themes in this fiction.