An Analysis of Narrative Perspective in To Kill a Mockingbird_英语论文

摘要

叙述视角是读者观察小说情节发展的角度。儿童视角是叙述视角的重要分支，它通常采用儿童叙事者天真的口吻展现成人世界的冷酷和悲剧。自1960年第一次发布以来，《杀死一只知更鸟》就大受欢迎，奠定了哈珀在美国文学界的地位。书中，哈珀把叙事的任务交予年仅六岁的小女孩斯科特。跟随她的目光，读者彷佛置身于作者回忆的20世纪30年代的美国南部，和她一起经历这一特定历史时期。本文分析作者采用儿童叙述视角的动机，探索儿童视角独特的叙事特征及其美学价值，及其如何呼应小说公平、正义之主题。

关键词:《杀死一只知更鸟》 哈珀·李  儿童视角  叙述视角

Abstract

Narrative perspective is the position from which readers observe how the story develops. As an important branch of narrative perspective, children’s perspective applies a children narrator to display the cruelty and tragedy of the adult’s world in an innocent tone. To Kill a Mockingbird, first published in 1960, became widely popular and established Harper’s position in American literature. In the book, Harper gives the task of narration to a six-year-old girl Scout. Following her innocent eyes, readers place themselves into Southern America in 1930s, experiencing this particular historical period together with her. This thesis analyses the unique narrative perspective adopted in To Kill a Mockingbird, firstly to probe into the motivation of the author’s using children’s perspective, and secondly to explore the features of children’s perspective and its literary aesthetics, as well as in what way it echoes the theme of equality and justice in the novel.

Key words: To Kill a Mockingbird  Harper Lee  children’s perspective narrative perspective 

Contents

Chapter One  Introduction 1

1.1  An Introduction to Harper Lee and To Kill a Mockingbird 1

1.2  Purpose of the Thesis 2

1.3  Structure of the Thesis 2

Chapter Two  Literature Review 3

2.1  Previous Studies on To Kill a Mockingbird 3

2.1.1 Previous Studies at Home 3

2.1.2 Previous Studies Abroad 4

2.2  Summary 5

Chapter Three  Theoretical Framework 6

3.1  An Introduction to Narrative Perspective & Point of View 6

3.2  Definition of Children’s Perspective and its Disciplines 7

3.3  Summary 9

Chapter Four  An Analysis of To Kill a Mockingbird from Children’s Perspective 10

4.1  Motivation of Using Children’s Perspective 10

4.1.1 Inspiration from Childhood 10

4.1.2 Call for Equality and Justice 11

4.2  Features of Children’s Perspective in To Kill a Mockingbird 12

4.2.1 Limited Narration 12

4.2.2 Prose-style Narration 14

4.3  Children’s Perspective and the Theme of Justice and Equality 16

4.3.1 Social Pressure 16

4.3.2 Children’s Simplicity 18

4.3.3 Father’s Guidance 20

4.4  Summary 23

Chapter Five  Conclusion 24

5.1  Major Finding 24

5.2  Limitations 25

Bibliography

Acknowledgements