A Study Of The Narrative Structure Of The Pulitzer Prize Feature Writing Works

In 1979,Jon D.Franklin,working in "Baltimore Sun Evening News",reported a brain surgery,"Mrs.Kelly's Monster",which was highly praised by the Pulitzer Prize Judges owing to its high quality and originality.Since then,the Feature Writing has been a hot topic between Journalism and academic circles.These days,researches on the Feature Writing works focus on their narrators,narrative perspectives and narrative strategies.However,there are few researches refering to their narrative structure.In contrast to researches on other artistic works,many scholars have already disscussed narrative structures of novels,dramas,and films.All of them express their own opinions,presenting a scene of blooming flowers.Therefore,I will try my best to explore the narrative structures of the Feature Writing works in this paper and discribe their own characteristics.Before I start my research,9 Feature Writing works would be chosen as a research sample.According to which,they are divided into two categories: one is on criminal cases,called crime-type feature;the other is about disaster,called disaster-type feature.Based on this,the research on the narrative structure of Pulitzer's Feature Writing works is divided into two parts: the study of the narrative structure of the crime-type feature and the narrative structure of the disaster-type feature.It is found that the narrative structure of the crime-type feature is a tree-like narrative structure;while the narrative structure of the disaster-type feature is where the disaster event is at the basis,other events accumulate as the cause-result(cause)-result chain.In crime-type feature,first of all,the core events are arranged by timporal sequence.It is the trunk of the big "tree";while catalytic events are used to supply some details in core events,arranged by the importance.When core events and catalytic events are arranged in order,the tree-like narrative structure will make the crime-type features more fanscinating,and form a "tree" with luxuriant foliage and spreading branches.Secondly,the disaster-type feature presents a narrative structure where a disaster event is the axis,other events surrounds the disaster event and form a causal chain model of “cause-result(cause)-result”,deeply thinking about the relationship between human beings and nature.The advantage of this narrative structure is to emphasize simple themes and sublimate themes.By contrasting these two kinds of narrative structures above,I find their significant differences.Firstly,the disaster-type features mainly base on disaster events,strengthening the theme of disasters;while the core events of crime-type features are chronologically narrative,which helps to understand the real criminal cases.Secondly,disaster-type features mainly reflected in the disaster incident as the axis,the traceability of causes and results,the order of causality,the sublimation theme,and the catalytic narrative of the crime-type feature supplement the core events.This often makes the narrative more vivid and interesting.Finally,from the perspective of narrative structure and meaning,the narrative of the disaster-type features is relatively simple,and their meanings are easy to grasp-when understanding the basic knowledge of disasters,it conveys the reporter's thinking on the relationship between human beings and nature;the tree-like narrative structure of the crime-type features construct the multi-narrative themes,all of which essentially express reporters' thinking on the relationship between human beings and society.In summary,the core events are chronologically narrative,the tree-like narrative structure in which the catalytic events are arranged according to the importance applies to the complex narratives;the disaster-type features adopt more than one narrative structures to enhance human care;Buut when the narrative structure can no longer be improved,you can try to use the form of media fusion,and rationally insert the media to enhance the audience's sense of use.