Who Owns The Story:A Feminist Narratological Analysis Of Trust Exercise

Susan Choi,a female writer of ethnic minority,has been favored by various literary awards since the start of her writing career.Her fifth novel,Trust Exercise,was even the winner of National Book Award for Fiction in 2019.The book consists of three parts,revolving around three different heroines.The three stories are at once connected but inconsistent with one another,involving the theme of sexual consent.By adopting different types of narrative voice,narrative focalization and narrative discourse,Choi vividly presents how the elder men abuse the power of trust to hurt young women and truly depicts what the poor female victims suffer.Well-known for its unique narrative arrangements and exquisite psychological descriptions,the book arouses readers’ great interest to examine its narrative structure as well as to explore its multiple meaning.Through the analysis of Trust Exercise from the perspective of feminist narratology,the thesis argues that Choi emphatically deconstructs the patriarchal discourse and constructs the female authority through the creative employment of narrative voice,narrative focalization and narrative discourse.The use of different voices highlights the nasty image of the elder men with authority and the agony of the female victims.The multiple focalizations facilitate the investigation of the essential culprit of the sexual abuse and therefore subvert the male hegemony.The varied narrative discourses further contribute to the revelation of awakening of the female consciousness and the construction of female narrative authority.In Trust Exercise,Choi successfully achieves the female ownership of HER story.