An Interpretation Of Ragtime From The Perspective Of Musical Narrative

Ragtime,written in 1975,is the fourth masterpiece of well-known American writer E.L.Doctorow,which is also one of his representatives.The title of the novel“Ragtime”not only refers to Ragtime music,but also implies the story background,called“Ragtime Era”,which is named after the prevalence of Ragtime music in the first two decades of 20^thcentury in America.This fiction mainly describes the lives of three families from different classes and races in New York:the white family in the upper class,black Ragtime pianist Coalhouse Walker and his family,and Jewish immigrant family in the slum.In the ups and downs of those characters’fates,Doctorow intentionally intersperses the lives of historical people and real events from American history into the novel,thus making historical characters and events and fictional characters and plots influence each other in the novel.Finally,the lives of three families intersect with each other.The narration of story in Ragtime is similar to the characteristics of popular Ragtime music at that time.The repeated music accompaniment of the left hand symbolizes the unchanging social problems in America,such as class conflicts and racial discrimination,while the ever-changing syncopation cadence of the right hand represents the rapid development of America,with new problems appearing all the time.Doctorow smartly applies the characteristics of Ragtime music to the narrative content,rhythm,voice and structure of Ragtime,succeeding in turning the novel Ragtime into a highly musicalized text with more aesthetic value.The previous studies of Ragtime mainly focused on new historicism and postmodernism.However,this thesis pays attention to the musical narrative strategy of the novel and employs relevant classical narratology theories and the method of close reading to compare similarities between the fiction and Ragtime music,intending to explore the musicality of narrative in Ragtime and the reason for the emergence of musicality in this novel.This thesis is composed of six parts.Chapter One mainly introduces Doctorow’s life,research of Ragtime at home and abroad,historical background of Ragtime music,musical narrative theory.Chapter Two to Chapter Five analyzes the integration of Ragtime musical elements into the novel from the aspects of narrative content,rhythm,voice,and structure.In terms of narrative content,the thesis analyzes how the novel presents the image of a black Ragtime musician and examines the role of the piano and Ragtime music as imagery in the novel.With regard to narrative rhythm,this thesis focuses on discourse and story of this novel.The former discusses the use of rhetorical devices and inherent sentences to create a kind of disjointed effect of narrative which is similar to the music’s syncopation and staccato,while the latter focuses on the narrative speed of novel,which ultimately creates similar rhythm to Ragtime music.As to narrative voice,this thesis analyzes Doctorow’s use of polyphony to present various independent voices appearing in the novel,including voices from historical characters,fictional characters,the white,the black,the Jew and the uncertain narrator.The employment of these narrative voices in the novel is similar to the harmony and counterpoint of Ragtime music.Like a piece of harmonious music,multiple voices are perfectly blended and presented in the novel.Regarding narrative structure,the analysis mainly focused on the novel’s borrowing of Ragtime music structure.Doctorow has already divided Ragtime into four parts,which correspond to four-part music composition respectively,including prelude,exposition,development and coda.Each section has a separate theme,which is developed step by step and gives readers constant surprise.The last part concludes that it is because similarities and comparability between literature and music exist that the musicalization of novel is formed,and the musicality of narrative in the novel appears.