The detailed content of the novel narrative

Novel is a kind of narrative literature, and it is very important for writers to choose the best narrative angle when creating. The choice and determination of narrative perspective is not only a matter of skill and artistic form, but also closely related to the content of the work and the overall thinking adopted by the writer to express this content. The narrative perspective of the novel is the narrative subject determined according to the writer's subjective intention, and it is the observation point and foothold chosen to reflect life.

(B) the relationship between perspective and people

When it comes to perspective, it inevitably involves people, and the determination of perspective is closely related to people, so that narrative perspective and narrator are often confused in current novel theory. In fact, the perspective is related to people but not equal. For example, the narrative tone is generally the third person, but the third person is not a fixed perspective. Even in the same novel, the third person may still be borne by many narrative perspectives. Some works use the first person for credibility and intimacy, such as diaries and letters. In this kind of works, the narrative perspective is a fixed first person. However, the first person is not a fixed perspective in many contemporary novels. For example, in Han Shaogong's Return and Su Tong's A Stranger's Father and Son, there are at least two "I" perspectives.

(C) the classification and person of narrative perspective

There are many classifications of narrative perspectives. The restrictive classification from the perspective of horizon is adopted here. Narrative perspectives can be roughly divided into three types, namely omniscient narrative, restricted narrative and purely objective narrative.

In omniscient narrative, the narrator is omnipresent and omniscient, and has the right to know and tell secrets that no one in the book can know, so this perspective is also called "omniscient and omnipotent narrative". The first person "I" here is an implied author and does not appear in the plot of the work. What usually appears in works is the object described by the author, not the third person; The characteristics of restricted narrative are: the narrator knows as much as the characters know, and the narrator has no right to describe what the characters don't know. The narrator can take turns as the narrator, which limits the narrator from appearing in the first person or observing the narrative objectively in the third person without appearing directly; In pure objective narration, the narrator only describes what the characters see and hear, without making subjective evaluation or analyzing the psychology of the characters. The author here does not appear in the work, which is more "implicit". The person who often appears in the works is the third person, which is still the object of description and narration by the author.

The second person does not involve the above three angles. At present, there are novels written in the second person at home and abroad. For example, there is a passage in Aragon's novel: "He met Roman on the road and asked him why he didn't leave without saying goodbye yesterday. Roman shrugged and walked on. This guy's mad at me. Hey, your boy is really-he stopped talking at once and felt no need to explain, so he looked at Roman's back, whistled softly and went straight to work in the workshop. " This is the third person, and the second person said that it appeared in his conversation with Roman, referring to Roman. The second person said that it is difficult to appear as a narrator in novels, so this perspective is rarely adopted by writers.

Second, the choice of perspective and the writer's artistic conception

The choice of perspective largely determines the success or failure of the work. The above three narrative perspectives have their own advantages and disadvantages. When choosing a perspective, the author should act cautiously according to the content of the work and the overall artistic conception, so as to maximize the role of the perspective. The following is an analysis of the characteristics of this perspective:

(A) omniscient perspective is convenient to show a broad life scene and social picture, and freely analyze the psychology of many characters. Its disadvantage is that the credibility of this omniscient narrative is questionable. For example, in Henya Wolf's book To the Lighthouse, Mrs. Ramsey's age and appearance are described as follows: "She sighed, she is over 500 years old. Maybe she will handle things better-her husband, money and his books. " The credibility of this kind of description and analysis that goes deep into the inner world of the characters is really doubtful. Many Chinese and foreign ancient novels adopt this narrative perspective, such as Sanyan, Erpai and One Thousand and One Nights. In the May 4th new literature novels, in order to avoid this narrative defect, we should design novels according to historical facts, insert popular anecdotes of celebrities, introduce news and reports published in newspapers, or lead stories by buying books and picking up notes, with the aim of increasing the credibility and "authority" of novels.

From time to time, this perspective also acts as an intermediary and plays a regulatory role in the process of jumping, changing and overlapping other perspectives. The more we limit the diversity of perspectives, the more we need an omniscient perspective to illuminate and direct, which can show the writer's artistic talent in portraying characters and controlling subjects. Mr. Liang Qichao once said that omniscient narration is convenient to describe "the history of a society". It is precisely because of this feature that grand works generally adopt this omniscient narrative. Tolstoy described the social situation in Russia from this angle in his works. No wonder Lenin called him "a mirror of the Russian revolution". The social aspects reflected in his War and Peace, Anna karenin and Resurrection are all very grand, so the macroscopic observation and revelation belong to the omniscient perspective. As Zhang Delin said in "The Art of Perspective": "Every part of the novel is like every member of the symphony orchestra, and the' omniscient and omnipotent' writer is the chief conductor of this symphony orchestra. Without him, you can't play beautiful music." The "omniscient and omnipotent writer" mentioned here is also an omniscient perspective.

(2) Restricted narration only allows the perspective figures to exercise omniscient rights, and the author has no right to go beyond the perspective of the perspective figures. Because of this limitation, this choice of perspective can especially reflect the author's artistic talent. Lu Xun's choice of the little boy as a limited perspective in Kong Yiji is quite ingenious. This little buddy is young, inexperienced and a little childish. What he saw in Kong Yiji was much more accurate than others. The degenerate people trained by the feudal imperial examination system, although pedantic and incompetent, can't afford to support themselves, but they are kind in nature. In his contemptible and ridiculous words and deeds, some human feelings are revealed from time to time, which has its own pitiful and lovely side. Others despise Kong Yiji, and the boy at least sympathizes with his tragic ending. This is the true intention of Lu Xun's description of Kong Yiji. If you choose the shopkeeper, the drinker or anyone else as the narrative perspective, the effect will be completely different. It can be seen how closely the writer's artistic conception is related to the choice of characters' perspectives.

If the author finds that one perspective cannot perfectly represent the observed object, he can choose two or three perspectives to describe the event process from different angles. In Red and Black, Stendhal changes the narrative perspective from time to time, enriching the image of Julien: in the eyes of Madame de Reina, Julien is simple and pitiful; In Della's eyes, he is mature and natural and unrestrained. In the multi-angle observation, it embodies complex and rich images. The first half of Lu Xun's Divorce focuses on the sympathy of fellow villagers and the hidden worry of loving menstruation's father. Naturally, it is more appropriate to take Zhuang as the perspective, and the second half directly describes the two sides of the conflict, and then turns to the perspective of loving aunt. The two perspectives get two completely different scenes and impressions, reflecting two seemingly different but essentially similar mentalities, so that divorce events can be expressed in three dimensions. Tai Jingnong's "Auditorium" is simply divided into three natural paragraphs. The first paragraph is from the perspective of Wang Er, the second paragraph is from the perspective of Wang Sister-in-law, and the third paragraph is from the perspective of Wang Er's father, showing the shadows cast on the hearts of three family members from three different angles. With the increasing proficiency of writers' creative skills, the advantages of this perspective are also obvious. This advantage is credible and convincing, but the disadvantage is of course inevitable, that is, the angle of view is strictly limited and cannot be crossed. Otherwise, this credibility will disappear. Therefore, when many writers choose this perspective, they often use narrative characters to communicate with people, read newspapers and participate in various social activities to expand their narrative horizons, thus increasing the volume of novels.

There are first person and third person in the restricted narrative.

First-person restricted narration is also called free perspective. This narrative perspective is not only credible, but also easy to be unified in the whole novel. This narrative perspective should be based on "I", consistent and can not be changed at will. I can't write anything that I haven't seen or seen. Even if the inner activities of people other than me are present, they can't be written directly. Their inner world can only obtain external forms through their own expressions, expressions and languages, and these external forms are indirectly set off by the feelings of "I" (such as Kong Yiji mentioned above). This is also its limitation. Therefore, novels with large scale, many characters and many clues are generally not suitable for using the first person. The advantage of this view is that it is much more convenient to express ideas directly, talk about them and write freely in Kan Kan. Structurally, because the narrative subject is always "I", the clues are relatively simple and concentrated, and the plot transformation is relatively free with "I" as the main line. This perspective is easy to integrate narrative, description with lyricism and discussion, and it is also easy to analyze the inner world of the narrator "I", so it is common in diary novels, autobiographical novels and confessional novels. For example, Sherwood Andehring's "I am Stupid" begins with a passage: "This incident has given me a great shock, and its intensity is unprecedented. Besides, it's all because I'm stupid. Even now, every time I think about it, I hate to cry, curse myself and kick myself hard. Maybe even now, after so many years, if I look contemptible because I said it, then I will still get a sense of satisfaction from it. " There is a passage in Ding Ling's masterpiece "Diary of Ms. Sha Fei": "I think maybe I'm crazy! If it's really crazy, I will. I think, at that point, I can always stop feeling the troubles of this life ... ". Rousseau's Confessions also belongs to this category.

The third-person narrative is more objective than the first-person narrative. The limitation is that the narrator unconsciously "offside"-in the strict third-person restricted narrative, there is one or two paragraphs of omniscient narrative. The most common flaw is that the author chooses A as the perspective figure, and suddenly jumps out to analyze B's inner activities, which destroys the unity of perspective, such as Ye Shengtao's The Patient and Zhang Ziping's Arbor Day. This kind of situation was quite common when vernacular novels in China were just emerging during the May 4th Movement. After 1980s, this perspective was successfully used, but it was different from the traditional usage. This "he" is no longer the indifferent and neutral third person in grammar textbooks, but bears the author's subjective feelings and evaluation. For example, it is not difficult to see the author's aesthetic intention and emotional color from the perspective of "He" in Su Tong's Guide to Completion Ceremony and Divorce and "Little Sister" in Liu Zhenyun's One Place, One Unit.

(3) In purely objective narration, the author not only does not make subjective evaluation, but also does not analyze the psychology of any characters. He just calmly records the characters' remarks and describes their external actions, and the rest is to let readers know their own tastes. This purely objective narrative method is more likely to produce a sense of truth and credibility than restricted narrative. As Liu Bannong said, "Words are invisible, and its beauty lies in words." During the two world wars, some novels by Dacher hammett and Hemingway used this narrative (such as Black Boy and Paradise Lost). /kloc-Many serious novelists in the 0/9th century also used this technique, such as Balzac's Donkey Skin and Insider of Contemporary History. In Uncle Bunce, the protagonist is described as a stranger with suspicious identity and has been followed for a long time, and the narrator tells it objectively and calmly like an outsider. Flaubert's Madame Bovary also used this method in the passage of renting a carriage. But this narrative angle is also difficult, which makes it easier for the author to insert his own subjective thoughts in this way. However, a well-handled writer, even with some subjective colors, is not easy for readers to detect. In Hardy's Tess of the D 'Urbervilles, when Tess first met Alec, the author described it this way: "He has a nearly black chest and two thick lips. Although he is red and slippery, his appearance is not good. In fact, he is only 2034 years old, but he has long had two black beards on his mouth. His beard was neatly trimmed and the tip of his nose was upturned. Although the outline of his whole body is a bit rough, there is a special power in his face and his rolling eyes. " Although the description here is Tess's observation standing there, it obviously adds the author's own subjective feelings.

Among the May 4th writers in China, only Lu Xun and Ling Shuhua really mastered the pure objective narrative technique. Lu Xun's Exposing the Public and Wandering are the representatives of pure objective narrative, from which the so-called "calmness", "sketching" and "interlude" can be explained. Soap is an excellent example of pure objective narrative, "without derogatory meaning, but revealing false feelings". After 1980s, some writers tried and succeeded in this narrative. For example, Su Tong's "Wives and Concubines in Groups" objectively looks at everything from the perspective of chanting lotus, but the author has retired.

The pure objective narration mentioned here is relative, because literature, as the author's subjective creation, will inevitably be branded with the author's subjective thoughts.

Third, the transformation and intersection of perspectives and the artistic capacity of the works.

It was Bakhtin who first discovered polyphony in his works. When he studied Dostoevsky's works, he said: "These tones do not give way to each other and quarrel with each other. The author's voice can only be one of them. It quarrels with the voices of the characters in the works, and the characters in the works also quarrel with each other. " Just like all the characters in Crime and Punishment have a set of self-explanatory views, no one can convince anyone, and there is no clear ending in the end, and the author can't draw a conclusion.

Of course, as different narrative perspectives, omniscient perspective, restricted perspective and purely objective narrative perspective are by no means isolated and mutually exclusive. On the contrary, they are often intertwined and inseparable. Especially with the continuous development of novel art, the closed story arranged by writers with a beginning and an end and simple single-line development gradually decreases. It has become an irresistible trend to take revealing the inner world of characters as the main content, strengthen the subjective introversion of characters, pursue openness and diversification in artistic forms, and make bold breakthroughs in traditional artistic techniques. From the narrative perspective, it shows the change from a simple narrative perspective to a colorful and flexible perspective, from an omniscient perspective dominated by the author to a "polyphonic" novel with overlapping perspectives and diverse voices. This is a sign that the novel art is maturing.

The choice and transformation of perspective plays an important role in deepening the theme and increasing the artistic capacity of the work. In fact, such an attempt has been made in classic works. In this way, Andersen's The Emperor's New Clothes explored the ideological connotation of the work. The emperor swaggered in the parade in unparalleled luxury new clothes, and the onlookers in the street were full of praise. At this time, a child suddenly appeared, pointing to the emperor and saying, "He is naked, naked!" " "In a narrative perspective, let naive children tell the truth, has played a wonderful role, all of a sudden exposed the emperor's minions, dignitaries, bystanders hypocrisy, affectation, lying. In the third time of A Dream of Red Mansions, Daiyu entered Jia Fu. This time, many people appeared. It's really difficult to write this big scene well, and it's easy to lose sight of one thing and lose sight of another. Cao Xueqin used the method of changing narrative perspective here, and described the appearance characteristics of characters with mutual observation between characters. The important characters in Jia Mu and Jia Fu were written through Lin Daiyu's eyes and psychological feelings, while Daiyu's appearance and demeanor were observed through the eyes of Wang Xifeng and Jia Baoyu. In this way, the portrait of each character has certain objective characteristics, and it is also integrated with the emotional imprint of the narrative subject, becoming an organic whole with the unity of subject and object, which is very successful.

Polyphony in China's novels after 1980s is more complicated, which is not only the choice of a certain perspective throughout, but also the narration from multiple perspectives. Jin Fan's Open Love Letter and Wang Zhecheng's and Wen Xiaoyu's Tu all adopt three perspectives, while Chen Rong's Middle Age, Gao Xingjian's A Dove with Red Lips, Wei Junyi's Baptism and Zhang Chengzhi's River in the North all set more than two perspectives. The multiple perspectives of these works are intertwined and always in a state of flow and change. In The Temptation of Gangdise, there is also a split between the author and the narrator. Ma Yuan, the author, entered the novel directly and became the narrative object. Sometimes he is the narrator Ma Yuan, and sometimes he is written into a novel and becomes the narrative object. Sometimes, with the help of two fictional characters-Liang Yao and Gao Lu as his body double, three people can express themselves and show themselves respectively. We can't help being impressed by this unique skill. Su Tong used the method of robert browning's narrative poem "The Ring and the Book" (later quoted by the movie "Rashomon") in The House of Poppies, and introduced the reader "you" into the novel as an independent perspective, telling the same story from other perspectives.

Of course, there are many examples of writers using the traditional single narrative perspective in the new period, but they are not simply returning and following, but phoenix nirvana. After freshman year.

The openness and diversity of narrative perspectives are indeed the main theme of modern and contemporary novels. These works generally adopt this multi-angle polyphony to increase the artistic capacity of the works, reflecting all kinds of unpredictable phenomena and ideas in today's complex society. This multi-faceted and multi-angle perspective art exploration may not be so perfect, but it is undeniable that it is the mainstream of the development of novels today.