Abstract

Barn Burning, one of William Faulkner’s best short stories, is mainly about the choice of a ten-year-old boy who struggles in the inner conflict between the nature of justice and the pressure from his father who intends to solve all the problems through violence. This thesis analyzes the narrative features of Barn Burning in terms of the theory of point of view and temporal ordering. Its focus is on the exploration of the contributions that these techniques make to the characterization, the development of the plot and the expression of the theme of the novel. It is the multi-narrative points of view and temporal ordering that help the author achieve the emotional and aesthetic effect of the continuity and fluidity in narrative.

Key words:  Barn Burning, multiple points of view, temporal ordering 

摘 要

《烧马棚》是美国作家威廉•福克纳最优秀的短篇小说之一。它讲述的是一个十岁的孩子在面对父亲用暴力解决一切矛盾的处事原则时所做出的抉择。本文从叙事学技巧中的视角和时序这两个方面分析了小说《烧马棚》的叙事特征，探讨此种叙事技巧在小说人物刻画、情节发展以及主题的表达方面所起的作用，认为正是复合化的视角以及复杂的时序在小说中的巧妙运用，充分体现了小说中人物连绵而流动的情感与美学效果。

关键词：《烧马棚》； 视角； 时序

1. Introduction
William Faulkner (1897-1962), a Nobel Prize winner for literature, enjoys a high reputation in literature field of the twentieth century in America. As the southern writer Allen Tate mentioned in William Faulkner: 1897-1962, “Faulkner is one of the great models of international genre.” (Tate 12) And he thinks that Faulkner has been among the ranks of great writers, such as Stendhal and Flaubert. From the early 1920s to the outbreak of World War II, when Faulkner leaves for California, he publishes 13 novels and many short stories. Because of these works, Faulkner enjoys a high reputation in literature and is awarded the Nobel Prize. This prodigious output includes his most famous novels such as The Sound and the Fury (1929), As I Lay Dying (1930), Light in August (1932), and Absalom, Absalom! (1936).
 Faulkner was also a prolific writer of short stories. His first short story collection, These 13 (1931), includes many of his most famous stories, including Red Leaves, A Rose for Emily, That Evening Sun, and Dry September. Faulkner sets many of his short stories and novels in Yoknapatawpha County. This place is based on his hometown Lafayette County. Yoknapatawpha is Faulkner's "postage stamp", and is considered by critics as one of the most monumental fictional creations in the history of literature.