On The Astrological Narrative Of Eleanor Catton’s The Luminaries

Set against the backdrop of New Zealand’s nineteenth-century gold rush,New Zealand writer Eleanor Catton’s novel The Luminaries combines narrative and astrology to tell a series of seemingly coincidental events and investigations that took place in the small town of Hokitika.On the basis of clarifying the development and connotation of astrological narrative,this paper discusses the astrological narrative of The Luminaries from two aspects: character setting and narrative structure,and then analyzes the significance of national identity and cultural inheritance of The Luminaries astrological narrative.The main body of the paper is divided into the following three parts.The first part focuses on character settings to analyze the astrological narrative characteristics of the novel.The two aspects of character division and character dynamic relationship are explained with the academic knowledge of astrology,in which the character division focuses on constellation characters,planetary characters and sun and moon characters,and the character dynamic relationship is manifested in the three aspects of character map,ruler,exalt,detri and fall of the planetary and phase.Such a character setting is closely related to the theme of the novel,that is,the relationship between the character’s established fate and personal will.The second part discusses the structural characteristics of astrological narratives from the two aspects of novel structure and cyclic mode.Firstly,from the two dimensions of the collage of astrological charts and the mixing of multiple genres,the important role of the novel’s star-cluster narrative structure in reflecting the fragmented characteristics of life is explored.Secondly,through the analysis of the length setting of the novel simulating the full moon to the new moon and the plot design of the moon phase cycle and the golden flow,the characteristics of the moon phase cycle mode in the novel are explored.The third part will focus on exploring the significance of national identity and cultural inheritance in the astrological narrative.The astrological narrative character formed in the novel presents New Zealand’s deep stargazing cultural tradition;At the same time,the way astrological narrative combines narrative and astrology plays an important role in breaking the concept of "anthropocentrism" and constructing a multicultural space.