Types of the Author’s Narrative in Modern English Prose
Introduction
Nowadays an increasing interest is attached to the different types of narratives. The analysis of the types of author’s narrative in the works of modern English novelists allows us to penetrate into the inner world of the author and to define the language structures that are used to create the text itself. The types of the author’s narratives have not yet been exhausted in linguistic studies.
The urgency of the author’s narrative has been accentuated in the publications of well-known researchers. Among them we should mention V.A. Kyharenko (9, 21), I. R. Galperin (18, 4) and B. Shklovskij (16). In our research we have used the classification suggested by this scholar. The works of such critics have been useful for our research: K.A. Shahova (14, 15), V.V. Ivasheva (8), G.V. Anikin (1, 2), J.V. Pokalchyk (12), M. Mendelson (10), T.N. Denisova (5, 6). A noted contribution into this problem has been made by such foreign researchers as F. W. Bateson (17), Irene Rima Makaryk (22), Andrew Haggerty (19), Charles J. Shields (24).
The aim of our research is to study the types of the author’s narrative which greatly influence the structure of novels.
The concrete tasks of the investigation are the following:
1. to analyze the types of the author’s narratives in various works of modern fiction;
2. to find examples of modern literary process and to analyze their features;
3. to define the specific use of language units in different types of novels;
The object of the investigation is the author’s point of view in the course of creating the text of the novel and different types of the author’s narrative in it.
The material of our investigation are the selected novels of John Anthony Burgess Wilson (27), Harper Lee (20), Jerome David Salinger (23), John Robert Fowles (28), Winston Groom (30) and the comparison of these novels with an example of the traditional author’s narrative in the novels of John Galsworthy (29).
The urgency of the research emanates from the necessity of further investigations of the types of the author’s narratives in modern English prose, as the contemporary literary process is greatly influenced by the development and the use of various types of the author's narrative.
The scientific novelty follows from the absence of special studies of the types of the author’s narratives in the framework of modern English prose.
In the course of the investigation the following methods of research have been used: biographical method, comparative-historical method and narrative method.
Chapter I
Modern English literature. The most renowned novelists of the period
The most important part of the culture of any nation is literature which opens the world of tradition, national mentality and life for us.
The English literature belongs to the most powerful ones in the world. Speaking about the literature of Great Britain, we could not but mention such famous writers, poets as William Shakespeare, Jonathan Swift, George Gordon Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Walter Scott, Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde, Bernard Shaw and many others. It is hard to imagine the world of literature without these names, without the heroes of our favorite novels, without those good thoughts and feelings that seize upon us while reading the novels, plays and poems of English writers. According to Anikin: “The English literature is one of the richest literatures of the world which gave us such names as Chaucer, Shakespeare, Defoe, Byron, Dickens, Shaw and many other novelists, playwrights, poets. Their works, which reflect the peculiarities of their time and convey the thoughts and feelings of their contemporaries, are all associated with a particular period. But heritages of national cultures do not lose their importance for the following ages and generations as well. The ideological and artistic value of the works of great writers is enormous”. (1, 4)
The English literature has had a long history of development, inherent to any national literature. It reached its peak in the XIX century, during the formation and development of Romanticism. Such representatives of the national literature as Wordsworth and Coleridge proclaimed the new principles of literary art among the firsts.
Romanticism was gradually replaced by realism which was spread in the second half of the XIX century. The representatives of this literary trend (Dickens, Thackeray) tried to depict a detailed picture of an individual and society, explored the connection between different phenomena.
In the late XIX century the works of romanticism reappeared. It was due to the writers’ tragic perception of life that led them to seek for emotional balance in the abstract dimension without social problems of the environment. These writers (Collins, Stevenson, Conan Doyle) were called “neoromantics”
The new XX century was marked by new trends in the development of English literature. After the end of the Victorian era, which prohibited an open display of physiological scenes, in England writers of a new trend became popular. They were called naturalists (S. Maugham) and they continued the development of realism (A. Cronin).
Between the two World Wars British and Irish writers made significant contributions to the literary process. R. Fox, C. Caldwell, R. Casey, were active participants of political, national and literary movements.
Speaking about the English literature of the XX century, we are bound to mention the famous novelist, playwright, master of social novels, J. Galsworthy, whose trilogy “The Forsyte Saga” is known all around the world. G. Wells, D. Joyce, R. Aldington and many other writers can be added to the list of English writers. They tell about themselves a lot in their works as well. K.A Shahova writes: “While considering the literature of England for the last decade of the twentieth century, it is safe to say that although in its development there were periods of stagnation, when only a few works were outstanding. But the English literature, of course, had outstanding talents. It created very notable works that have played an important role in the development of not only their country’s but Europe’s and the world’s culture”(14, 5). So, we can say that the literature of the United Kingdom is extremely rich and various. Its role should not be neglected in the culture of mankind.
The American literature has a significant role in English literature. T.N Denisova described this period as follows: “The novels of the USA in the 70-80’s are very colorful. Mostly mass culture prevails. The literature itself is either strongly psychological or political”. (6, 340)
If the novels of American writers are dominated by political themes, their British colleagues are “fighting” against mass culture. Anikin expressed such thoughts about the period: “Realistic novel is developing in the fight against the literature of “masscult” and “pop-art”, against sensational bestsellers and adventure books, against utopian books, anti-communist detectives and Freudian psychological writings”. (1, 304)
After such a characteristic of the English literature in the XX-XI century, we would like to analyze the creative activity of such novelists, as John Anthony Burgess Wilson, Harper Lee, Jerome David Salinger, John Robert Fowles, Winston Groom.
An extremely talented writer of modern prose is Nelle Harper Lee. She has written only one novel – “To Kill a Mockingbird” (1960). By the end of the 1950’s, Lee worked as an official at an airline. Later she decided to devote her life to literature. As a result, Nelle quitted her job and began to work on her novel. In 1957, she gave the manuscript of the novel to the publishing house Lipinkot. There the editor said that the book consisted of a series of short stories and advised her to rewrite the text. In 1960 the novel was published. It immediately became very popular among readers. In a year the writer was awarded the Pulitzer prize. In 1999 the book was ranked as “The best novel of the century”. Nelle spoke about the success of her novel in the following way: “I have never expected any success of the Mockingbird. I hoped that the critics would “kill” it quickly and mercifully, but at the same time I thought that somebody may like it so as to inspire confidence in me. I hoped for a little, but got everything and, to some extent, it was as frightening as a quick merciful death” (25).
“To Kill a Mockingbird” – is an almost autobiographical novel based on the childhood memories of the writer. The narrator is a mischievous girl, who lives in a provincial town during the times of the Great Depression. While growing up she is gradually becoming aware of the darker aspects of human nature. She and her brother, Jim, are involved in the world of racial prejudice, deception, narrow-mindedness, ignorance and hatred. This novel is undoubtedly one of the masterpieces of world literature.
The purpose of this book is to remind the world about American reality. Yet Lee showed that in her country not only bad Americans with racial prejudices were living, but also those Americans who were on the side of justice and fairness, who were not condemning people of other races. This novel forces the reader to think about such problems as racism and its social origins.
After the success of “To Kill a Mockingbird” Lee again started working on new novels, but each time she was not satisfied with the result and refused to publish them. As a result, except that single novel she published only a few essays.
Another prominent novelist of this period is Anthony Burgess. He was an English writer and literary critic (researched literature, especially the works of Shakespeare and Joyce), he was also interested in literary translation and journalism. K.A. Shahova expressed such opinion about the work of this writer: “No game of fantasy, composition, effective eloquence and unexpected comic motivations can conceal the attitude of A. Burgess to history ...” (14, 54)
His first novel was published in 1949. Ten years later a brain tumor was discovered and according to the doctor’s opinion, he had to live no more than a year. After the medical diagnosis was not justified, Burgess turned away from the depiction of modern life and wrote several novels with elements of anti-utopia. It allowed him to lay stress on the problem of choosing between good and evil. This problem is most urgently raised in the “A Clockwork Orange” (1962), a novel, which was popular after the film adaptation of S. Kubrick (1971). With continuing the tradition of futuristic literature and experimenting with language Anthony Burgess created a novel which is recognized by modern literature. The smart, rude, charismatic anti-hero, Alex, is the leader of a street gang. He preaches violence as the highest art of life, for him it is a kind of pleasure. He becomes one of the victims of violence through the newest state program. “A Clockwork Orange” is a literary paradox of the XX century. Can we save the world from evil by depriving someone of the freedom to make decisions and turn him into a mechanism? This question is set by the author in the novel. Burgess points to the indissoluble connection of violence and totalitarianism.
Burgess wrote novels not only under his own name but under different pseudonyms, which his wife offered him. Once he wrote a review for the newspaper Yorkshire Post about his own novel “Inside Mr. Enderby” (1963). He also sent letters to the Daily Mail under the pen name “Muhammad Ali”.
The novel “A Clockwork Orange” presents a bleak picture of society terrorized by street gangs and incompetently governed by hypocritical and self-serving officials. Through Alex's story, Burgess explores themes of free will, violence, and state-controlled behavior in a blackly humorous and subtly satirical style.
A major theme of “A Clockwork Orange” is the ability of the individual to make moral choices. Burgess presents a society that experiments with radical behavior modification techniques on criminals to eliminate socially unwanted behavior; his argument is that it is morally and ethically preferable for the state to allow its citizens the choice between good and evil than it is for the state to destroy the capacity for choice. A side effect of Alex's conditioning is that, because classical music accompanied the films he watched during the Ludovico Treatment, he can no longer listen to Beethoven without getting sick. While this is a negligible by-product from the point of view of the government, it illustrates Burgess's point that destroying the ability to choose evil also destroys the capacity to choose good. The novel also juxtaposes the violence committed by Alex and his gang members with the violence committed by the state in the name of justice and security.
We should pay attention to the work of the prominent writer, Jerome David Salinger as well. He was an American writer, a classic of the American Literature in the XX century. His best known work is “The catcher in the rye” (1951). It should be noted that this work is the only novel written by the author. The book was banned in several countries and in some states of the USA. The reason for that was the depressiveness and vulgar vocabulary of the novel. But nowadays in many American schools it is included into the list of recommended literature.
According to J.V. Pokalchyk: “Jerome David Salinger's novel “The catcher in the rye” (1951) immediately became one of the favorite books of the American youth. It quickly gained popularity in many foreign countries as well. To this book a lot of critical researches have been devoted”.
(12, 97)
The interpretation of this novel’s main idea is strongly controversial. Some critics describe the main character, Holden Caulfield, as a very negative one, others think that he is purely positive.
The problems of the book are very serious and deep. As J.V. Pokalchyk noted: “... The problem of Salinger’s novel is much deeper than an individual problem of a young man like Holden Caulfield. It is the problem of social and moral life of the American society. It is no accident that Holden rebels against “the highest” ideals of modern America – success in society and secure life. Not accidentally turns Holden to his childhood. He denies “adulthood” and sees in it the moral degradation of man”.
Salinger sharply accentuates the portrayal of Holden with a symbolic structure of language, motif, episode, and character; and when the complex patterns are discovered, the effect is to concentrate our scrutiny on a masterpiece that moves effortlessly on the colloquial surface and at the same time uncovers a psychological drama of unrelenting terror and final beauty.
We could not but mention the work of Winston Groom, the author of the famous novel “Forrest Gump” (1986). In 1985 the author began working on his novel. A year later he managed to publish it. But until 1994, when the novel was first filmed, the book did not have great success. This masterpiece of the English literature is described by J. Tkachyk: “... Winston Groom and his Forrest Gump, which looks at the American society of the 60-90's through the eyes of an idiot, determines the degree of humanity and rationality in our life”. (13, 187). We can state that Groom’s novel about a mooncalf is original. Although William Faulkner in 1929, wrote a novel where the narrator was a mentally ill man, he did not raise in it such problems as Groom in his “Forrest Gump”.
In the book the author strongly criticizes the defects of contemporary American society through the image of Forrest. J. Tkachyk expressed his opinion about the protagonist as follows: “... Forrest shows his own point of view on the American society from which you can feel the attitude of this society and culture to an idiot”. (13, 181-182). John Robert Fowles is one of those few writers who emerged in England in the 1960’s. Fowles published six novels, written in completely different style, a collection of novels and short stories “The ebony tower” (1974), a collection of “Poems” (1973), a number of excellent translations from French, screenplays, literary-critical articles, many other books and articles which do not belong to belles lettres style. The first published novel of Fowles, “The Collector” (1963), brought him success and deprived of having to earn his living as a teacher. He was awarded a prestigious literary prize for his book “The French Lieutenant's Woman” (1969). According to many critics it is the best work of Fowles. It is both an experimental and historical novel that takes the reader to a perfectly recreated Victorian world, but not allows them to forget about what they are – human beings who are separated from that epoch by a great historical distance. About this extraordinary novel K.A. Shahova wrote: “Fowles pointed out that referring to the events of a hundred years ago, to the 60’s of the XIX century, he experimented. His aim was to create not only an epic but an artistic distance between the depicted and the contemporary lives” (14, 380).
In the novel the one of the main characters, Sarah, scorned by the Victorian Society from which she had escaped, ceased to bother the identity-seeking Charles. Although Fowles went so far as to provide for this as an ending, he did not realistically think that it would come to be. Fowles did not see himself so much writing a novel as he did relating a series of events that he was witnessing. He used his role as an author and as a character, and posed questions and evoked decisions, to present his twentieth-century views on the era of Queen Victoria. Charles, the protagonist, was his medium for this presentation.
Another well-known English writer is J.R.R. Tolkien. He was one of the greatest writers and scholars of the twentieth century. Generations of readers have been enthralled by his most famous creations: “The Hobbit”, “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Silmarillion”. Scholars, meanwhile, have debated about the true greatness of these popular novels. Many others found the books – and in particular “The Lord of the Rings” – to be masterpieces.
“The Lord of the Rings” was, in many ways, the culmination of a life’s work for Tolkien. When the first volume of the “trilogy”, “The Fellowship of the Ring” was released in 1954, Tolkien had already spent the last 15 years working on the book.
In conclusion we can state that the literary life of England and America of the last century was especially lively and full of energy, new ideas that raised socially important questions. Modern prose is extremely varied and ambiguous. The creative achievements of these writers belong to the most important part of world literature. Novels of the above mentioned novelists are not only interesting from the standpoint of our research, but they describe problems with which our society is concerned nowadays.
The literature, written at modern time appeared when traditional religious and moral values have all been vanished. The literature of that time explains the bases of human behavior. At the same time, writers have conveyed their feelings about senselessness, hopelessness, and despair in life.
Chapter II
Types of the author’s narrative in modern English prose
In literary criticism fiction is defined as rhythmically not organized speech; a literary work or many of them written in prose. The creator of any literary work is the author. The author in literature is an artist who expresses himself in his work. He organizes it, expresses an emotional and semantic unity.
V.A. Kyharenko writes about the role of the author in fiction in the following way: “A work of creative prose is never homogeneous as to the form and essence of the information it carries. Both very much depend on the viewpoint of the addresser, as the author and his personages may offer different angles of perception of the same object. Naturally, it is the author who organizes this effect of polyphony, but we, the readers, while reading the text, identify various views with various personages, not attributing them directly to the writer. The latter's views and emotions are most explicitly expressed in the author's speech (or the author's narrative)”. (21, 72)
In any literary text the words of the author and that of the characters may be differentiated. The last of them can be presented in the form of a dialogue or in the form of inner speech. Therefore, in order to understand the novel in a whole we have to gain a deeper knowledge of the types of the author’s narrative. The classification of the types and means of expression in a piece of artistic writing has been worked out by V.A. Kyharenko in the “The interpretation of the text”. It gives us the following classification: “An artistic text is heterogeneous by its nature, in it four types of expression are distinguished – the author's narrative (AN), dialogical speech (DS), internal speech (IS), entrusted speech (ES) and represented speech (RS)”. (9, 133)
The story may be told in such a way that we are given the impression of witnessing the events as they happen – we see the actions and hear the conversations, but we never enter directly into the minds of any of the characters. In this case the reader is guided by the observer-author. The observer-author merely records the speech and actions of the characters without analyzing them. Examples of traditional storytelling are the novels of John Galsworthy.
; if this is a novel, it cannot be a novel in the modern sense of the word” (28)
This type of expression can be called reasoning, and in it the author expresses his point of view. Fowles used such lexical markers as this, these, that. With these means the writer refers to past events, situations. According to V.A. Kyharenko: “The leading role in shaping the concept of a novel is played by the author’s evaluation of objects, events, that make up its artistic reality. The evaluating element is always present in language because while examining objects of the surrounding reality, we express our attitude to them and evaluate them” (9, 134).
Here we should mention the novel of J.R.R. Tolkien. This novel presented in the traditional author’s narrative. But attention should be drawn to the content of the book. Tolkien in his novel creates out of the void a complete and fully realized world. He weaves his spell around us, suspends all disbelief, and gives us our own modern-day adventure and discovery quest. In many ways it is escapism from real life.
J.R.R. Tolkien's writing has fascinated readers and scholars throughout this age. His styles were not nearly as popular as some of those which come far before him. Celtic and Britonnic tales include awed their audiences and likewise included elements of romance, warriors, and magical settings. Histories and legends from this period in fact influence many of Tolkien's modern plots and twists. For us the most interesting feature of the novel is that the narration was about a fictitious world, a world which has never existed: “Boromir strode up and down, speaking ever more loudly: Almost he seemed to have forgotten Frodo, while his talk dwelt on walls and weapons, and the mustering of men; and he drew plans for great alliances and glorious victories to be; and he cast down Mordor, and became himself a mighty king, benevolent and wise. Suddenly he stopped and waved his arms. “And they tell us to throw it away!' he cried. `I do not say destroy it. That might be well, if reason could show any hope of doing so. It does not. The only plan that is proposed to us is that a halfling should walk blindly into Mordor and offer the Enemy every chance of recapturing it for himself. Folly!” or “Frodo then drew the elf-blade from its sheath. To his dismay the edges gleamed dimly in the night. `Orcs! ' he said. `Not very near, and yet too near, it seems’. `I feared as much,' said Aragorn. `But maybe they are not on this side of the River. The light of Sting is faint, and it may point to no more than spies of Mordor roaming on the slopes of Amon Lhaw. I have never heard before of Orcs upon Amon Hen. Yet who were drawing near to the grey hill-country of the Emyn Muil, the southern march of Wilderland”. (26)
We should not confuse the author's narrative with the cases of entrusted narration, when the writer of the narration refuses to tell the story. This entrusted narrator is both a witness and a participant of the events. He tells the story through the prism of his own feelings and beliefs. The phenomena of entrusted narration appeared in literature a long time ago. The writers of the nineteenth century also turned to this means of narration. About the entrusted narration Kyharenko wrote in the following way: “In contemporary prose, in an effort to make his writing more plausible, to impress the reader with the effect of authenticity of the described events, the writer entrusts some fictitious character (who might also participate in the narrated events) with the task of storytelling. The writer himself thus hides behind the figure of the narrator, presents all the events of the story from the latter's viewpoint and only sporadically emerges in the narrative with his own considerations, which may reinforce or contradict those expressed by the narrator...The structure of the entrusted narrative is much more complicated than that of the author's narrative proper, because instead of one commanding, organizing image of the author, we have the hierarchy places himself in the position of the main character and tells of things that only the main character saw and felt. When a minor character, who participates in the actions, narrates the story, the events are described through the perception of his character. The author places himself in the position of a minor character and gives this character’s version of the events and personages.
When the author shifts the responsibility of telling the story to the first person narrator, he actually provides his reader with two versions of one and the same story:
1) the explicitly expressed subjective version (the narrator’s version) 2) the implied objective version, which the skilled reader is expected to derive.
The narrator in these novels may be an adult, a child, a teenager, a mentally ill person.
There are several advantages of this method: 1) The first person narrative is a very effective means of revealing the personality of the character who narrates. The narrator tells what he thinks and feels, and the reader easily understands his motives, his nature. 2) This narrative method increases the credibility of the story. The narrator’s statements are backed by the narrator’s presence in the described events. 3) The story told by the first person narrator is more confiding. The narrator often uses the informal tone, addresses the reader directly and establishes a personal relationship with him. The reader is treated by the first person narrator trustfully.
Here we should mention the novel of Harper Lee “To Kill a Mockingbird”. Before analyzing the novel we would like to quote V. Pokalchyk: “It is notable that in the novels where the writer creates the main character as a teenager or a child who is not familiar with all aspects of life the paints are much softer, there is much singleness of the character’s soul, though the attitude towards “adult” is life still predominantly negative”. (12, 97)
Unlike the main character of Salinger, who perfectly revealed the inner world of a teenager from a bourgeois family, the Finch brother and sister are children with a completely healthy psyche. They lost their mother in their early childhood, nevertheless their father is bringing them up perfectly well. They are the embodiments of perfect American citizens.
Scout and her brother, Jem, learn the principles of racial justice and social tolerance from their father, whose just and compassionate acts include an unpopular defense of a black man falsely accused of raping a white girl. They also develop tolerance and the strength to follow their convictions in their acquaintance and eventual friendship with a recluse who has been demonized by the community.
Criticism of its tendency to sermonize has been matched by praise of its insight and stylistic effectiveness. It became a memorable film in 1962 and was filmed again in 1997.
From the point of view of our research, this novel is very interesting because the story is told on behalf of the eight years old daughter of Finch. It is evident that the book has great artistic value. Scout tells her story in her childish, undeveloped language. In the analysis of the novel this stylistic feature plays an essential role: “Jem says I was. He read in a book where I was a bullfinch instead of a Finch. Jem says my name's really Jean Louise Bullfinch, that I got swapped when I was born and I'm really a – (30); “He never drink a drop in his life - name, yes he did. He said he drank some one time and didn't like it” (20, 62)
We understand that the story teller is an underage from such grammatical and stylistic mistakes as: “... Simon made a pile practicing medicine, but in this pursuit he was unhappy lest he be tempted into doing what he knew ...” (20, 14); “It was customary for the men in the family to remain on Simon's homestead ...” (20, 14); “They persisted in pleading Not Guilty to first-degree murder ...” (20, 15); “He played the character parts formerly thrust upon me ...” (20, 19); “But there came a day when Atticus told us he'd wear us out if we made any noise in the yard ...” (20, 23); “He made me start off on the wrong foot”. (20, 36)
The book has memoirs character, as its protagonist recollects her childhood. For example: “I said if he wanted to take a broad view of the thing? It really began with Andrew Jackson. If General Jackson hadn't run the Creeks up the creek, Simon Finch would never have paddled up the Alabama, and where would we be if he hadn't”. (20, 13) or: “... it occurred to me that I would be starting to school in a week. I never looked forward more to anything in my life. Hours of wintertime had found me in the treehouse, looking over at the schoolyard, spying on multitudes of children through a two-power telescope Jem had given me, learning their names, following Jem's red jacket through wriggling circles of blind man's buff” (20, 27).
It is complicated to tell a story on behalf of a little girl about the business of adults, social problems of America. But Harper Lee has the necessary skill of a writer to deal with this problem successfully.
We would like to use another example, where a story is told from the first person narrative, on behalf of a teenager. The novel is Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye”. J. Pokalchyk wrote about this novel: “The main character of Salinger’s novel is Holden Caulfield, a sixteen years old teenager. He tells about a few days from his life and about America. The story is presented from the point of view of a sensitive teenager” (12, 98).
In the novel Holden is depicted as an unhappy, disappointed and very lonely human being. He even does not want to study because he sees in society only hypocrisy. Caulfield is very close to suicide – he does not know how and why to live. He decides rather to remain “immature” than to conform to this society.
Holden’s speech is characteristic because he uses the vocabulary of ignorant people: “It was icy as hell and I damn near fell down” (23, 31); “Partly because I have a lousy vocabulary and partly because I act quite young for my age sometimes” (23, 34); “Looking down at the game and freezing my ass off” (23, 30); “You take somebody old as hell” (23, 32); “Then just for the hell of it ...” (23, 172); “Why the hell do you have to say that?”(23, 174); “... I didn't feel so damn dizzy any more” (23, 205); “Fuck you” (23, 204); “She ran and bought her ticket and got back on the goddam carrousel just in time” (23, 212).
He makes lots of grammatical mistakes: “He started going into this nodding routine” (23, 33); “Old Spencer started nodding” (23, 34); “I wanted to get the hell out of the room. I could feel a terrific lecture coming on” (23, 35); “He started handling my exam paper like it was a turd or something” (23, 36); “I was beginning to sort of hate him” (23, 36); “I have to admit it” (23, 48); “I couldn't get her off my mind” (23, 55); “Just to stop lying” (23, 76); “I couldn't brush my teeth because I didn't have any toothbrush with me” (23, 193).
Now we would like to analyze the speech of Holden in details:
a) the regular use of such parasitic words and phrases as all (how my parents were occupied and all, it was December and all, right in the pocket and all, they're nice and all), stuff (goddam checkups and stuff, tickets and stuff), crap (starches and crap, and all that crap), sort of (you felt sort of sorry for her, she was sort of deaf, I was beginning to sort of hate him);
b) grammatical mistakes: the use of personal forms of verbs after on account of, that requires a gerund (on account of four subject, on account of it was Sunday); the use of irregular verbs (I'd woke him up, she's been laying here all night); not proper use of personal pronouns (DB took Phoebe and I, told Allie and I, I woke he and his wife up, kept telling Stradlater and I); violation of syntactic rules (I don't like that type language, except Alice had a cold, he started handling my exam paper, I have to admit it);
c) the use of slang (to shoot the bull, to chew the rag, to shoot the crap, to shoot the breeze, to chew the fat, to give somebody a buzz, damn near sent a telegram, I damn near broke my knee) ;
d) the regular use of such epithets as phony - phony (phony bastard, phony smile, phony handshake, a phony kind of friendly), lousy - bad (lousy teeth, lousy manners, lousy childhood, lousy movie), terrific - wonderful (terrific book, terrific sentence, terrific legs, terrific guy);
e.) emphatic intensifier hell (touchy as hell, old as hell, sad as hell, beautiful as hell, playful as hell);
f.) the wrong use and formation of adjectives (unhairy, grippy, Christmasy, pimply, wrinkly, fisty).
The novel of Anthony Burgess' “The Clockwork orange” is equally interesting for our research. The title of the novel comes from a phrase once common among Cockney in London. They called everything unusual “crooked as a clockwork orange”. The origin of the title is somewhat dubious as Burgess lived in Malaysia for seven years and in the Malayan language the word “orang” means “man”, in English orange means a fruit.
The novel consists of three parts. In the first the author depicts the horrifying world of the protagonist, Alex. In the second part he gets into prison. But even there he cannot change. He remains as aggressive as he was
“Boy, thou uproarious shark of heaven,
Slaughter of Elysium,
Hearts on fire, aroused, enraptured,
We will tolchock you on the rot and kick your grahzny vonny bum”. (27)
The third part ends with the mentioning that after so many events Alex decides not to continue living in such conditions – he becomes an adult.
The author was proficient in many languages : Russian, German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese and his native English. This knowledge helped him to create an artificial language “nadsat”, spoken by the characters. So we would like to draw the attention to the most extraordinary feature of the novel – the character speaks an artificial language. The most characteristic features of the book are:
a) It is written in “nadsat”, where some words have Russian origin and they are written in English. Some are even distorted versions of actually Russian words: “There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie, and Dim. Dim being really dim, and we sat in the Korova Milkbar making up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening, a flip dark chill winter bastard though dry”; “He had no licence for selling liquor, but there was no law yet against prodding some of the new veshches which they used to put into the old moloko…”; “It was nice sitting there in the warm, eating, and I found I was very hungry, so that after the fry I had to eat lomtick after lomtick of kleb and butter spread with strawberry jam out of a bolshy great pot”; “Alex gave me their eemyas”; (27) b) different grammatical mistakes: “The Korova Milkbar was a milk-plus mesto, and you may, O my brothers, have forgotten what these mestos were like, things changing so skorry these days and everybody very quick to forget, newspapers not being read much neither”; “An old man of your age, brother” I said, and I started to rip up the book I'd got, and the others did the same with the ones they had. Dim and Pete doing a tug-of-war with The Rhombohedral System”; (27)
c) the frequent use of the parasitic word like: “There were three devotchkas sitting at the counter all together, but there were four of us malchicks and it was usually like one for all and all for one”; “They kept looking our way and I nearly felt like saying the three of us (out of the corner of my rot, that is) should go off for a bit of pol and leave poor old Dim behind, because it would be just a matter of kupetting Dim a demi-litre of white but this time with a dollop of synthemesc in it, but that wouldn't really have been playing like the game”; “He had a like gentleman's goloss and spoke in a very weary sort of a way, and he nodded with a like droogy smile at one very big fat bastard”; “I take it up now, and this is the real weepy and like tragic part of the story beginning, my brothers and only friends, in Staja (State Jail, that is) Number 84F”; “We had four of these lomticks of like Prison Religion that morning, but the charles said no more to me about this Ludovico's Technique, whatever it was, O my brothers”; (27)
d) in the novel repeatedly occurs the repetition of certain words: “Then the lights started cracking like atomics and the boot or finger-nail or, as it might be, a bit of dirt on your trouser-bottom turned into a big big big big mesto, bigger ...”; “One of the three ptitsas at the counter, the one with the green wig, kept pushing her belly out and pulling it in in in time to what they called the music”; (27) e) the use of a noun instead of a verb: “You naughty old veck, you,” I said, and then we began to filly about with him”; “All the teens usage them”. (27) Another well known novel of modern prose is “Forrest Gump” written by Winston Groom. The main character and the narrator of the work is Forrest, a mentally ill man. On the very first page he says about himself: “LET ME SAY THIS: BEIN A IDIOT IS NO BOX OF CHOCOLATES”. (30)
J. Tkachyk wrote about this novel: “In the novel a mentally ill main character symbolizes the unresolved contradictions of the American society… In the novel Forrest is similar to Shakespeare's clown. Moreover, the modus on evil is ironical. The naive perception of Forrest ridiculed all the basic concepts on which the American society rests” (13, 187-188). Basically, Groom uses the same device as Mark Twain in “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” – a first-person narrator who is at once seemingly naive. Hence there is great irony in Gump's many triumphs against the odds. In this rewriting of the American dream, anyone can succeed - even an absolute idiot. In terms of our research in the text you can find many features that are uncharacteristic of prose: a.) grammatical deviations from the English literary language in the storytelling of the protagonist: 1.) not correct use of articles: “LET ME SAY THIS: BEIN A IDIOT IS NO BOX OF CHOCOLATES”; “I been a idiot since I was born”; “Then one day a event happen that changed all that too”; “I'm closer to bein a imbecile or maybe even a moron, but personally”; “It was a hour or two before we arrived ...”; “I follow them to a office”; (30) 2.) not correct use of tenses: “I been a idiot since I was born”; “I can think things pretty good, but when I got to try sayin or writin them, it kinda come out like jello or something”; “When I was born, my mama name me Forrest ...”; “My mama was there, an so was the guy in the car an two other people what look like goons-who I guess was present in case I was to start something” , “It was a hour or two before we arrived, an the bus didn't have no toilet, an I had drank two Slurpees fore we lef”; “Nex thing I know, two men come an tell me to get up an I follow them to a office. A few minutes later, four policemen arrive an axe me to come with them”; “It seem like I done frightened off the gooks an they hightail it back to wherever they live”; (30) 3.) not proper use of pronouns: “... the ones with they eyes too close together ... what look like Chinamen an drool a lot an play with theyselfs”; “or whatever he calls hissef ...”; “somebody put out the word that a idiot got hissef on the All State Football team”; “it was 1968 an they was all sorts of”; “They was a door that lead to a big office where there's a older man”; (30) 4.) the use of adjectives instead of adverbs: “My mama is a real fine person”; “In the summer afternoons, when it was real hot ...”; 5.) the use of was instead of were and vice versa: “Now nex year wadn't too eventful, cept somebody put out the word that a idiot got hissef on the All State Football team an a bunch of letters start comin in from all round the country”; “The fact that I were too dumb to play college football did not seem to impress the United States Army none”; “It were my last year at highschool an in the springtime everbody else graduated”; “... it was in 1968 an they was all sorts of shit fixin to hoppen ...”; “a man an a lady called Bonnie an Clyde that robbed banks an they was some interestin other people in it also”; (30) b) the use of the parasitic word a bunch: a bunch of times, a bunch of kids, a bunch of his friends, an a bunch of letters start comin; c) a lot of spelling mistakes: “But what that did for me, knockin that boy upside the head, put a definate new light on my football playin”; “Probly the only thing I do know bout, but I done read up on em” ; “or whatever he calls hissef, he operate a gun store in town an once, when I was maybe twelve year ole ...”; (30) d) the use of too long, incomprehensible sentences: “I'm closer to bein a imbecile or maybe even a moron, but personally, I'd rather think of mysef as like a halfwit, or somethin-an not no idiot-cause when people think of a idiot, more'n likely they be thinkin of one of them Mongolian idiots-the ones with they eyes too close together what look like Chinamen an drool a lot an play with theyselfs”; “At first, when I's growin up, she'd let me go out an play with everbody, but then she foun out they's teasing me an all, an one day a boy hit me in the back with a stick wile they was chasin me an it raised some fearsome welt”. (30) About another type of entrusted narration V.A. Kyharenko wrote: “It is a bit more difficult to separate the author from the narrator when the latter is not stated by the first person or by spoken language. The codified storytelling from the 3rd person singular is oriented at the norms of written language and we have to look for any signs of it very carefully ... The author's opinion can be expressed by irony, hyperbole, repetition and actualization of systematic words, etc.” (9, 147) This type of narration is called entrusted anonymous narrative. The author may narrate his story anonymously, analyzing and interpreting the character’s motives and feelings. The reader sees what is going on in the minds of all the characters. This type of narration is told by the omniscient (or analytic) author. The omniscient author reproduces the character’s thoughts and comments on their actions. In such cases the opinion of the author may coincide with the opinion of the narrator or vice versa. The examples of the first are the novels of S. Fitzgerald “The Great Gatsby”, Harper Lee “To Kill Mockingbird”, S. Maugham “The moon and the sixpence” and examples of the latter are – E. Caldwell “The evening on Saturday”, John Reed “Mac-American”. Using many points of view makes a novel more interesting, diverse.
We should mention another type of narration as well. This is the type when the narration is presented in the form of characters’ dialogues. On the choice of the characters depends the conflict. Kyharenko expressed such point of view about it: The narrative, both the author's and the entrusted, is not the only type of narration observed in creative prose. A very important place here is occupied by dialogue, where personages express their minds in the form of uttered speech. In their exchange of remarks the participants of the dialogue, while discussing other people and their actions, expose themselves too. So dialogue is one of the most significant forms of the personage's self-characterization, which allows the author to seemingly night?”
“Us?” I said, innocent. “Why, what happened?” “Stealing and roughing. Two hospitalizations. Where've you lot been this evening?”
“I don't go for that nasty tone,” I said. “I don't care much for these nasty insinuations. A very suspicious nature all this betokeneth, my little brothers.” “They've been in here all night, lads,” the old sharps started to creech out. “God bless them, there's no better lot of boys living for kindness and generosity. Been here all the time they have. Not seen them move we haven't.”
“We're only asking,” said the other young millicent. (27) Another example of such dialogues may be an extract from Salinger’s “The catcher in the Rye”: “Thank you for the compliment,” I said – suave as hell. “Holden Caulfield’s my name.” I should’ve given her a phony name, but I didn’t think of it. “Well, look, Mr. Cawffle. I’m not in the habit of making engagements in the middle of the night. I’m a working gal.” “Tomorrow’s Sunday,” I told her. “Well, anyway. I gotta get my beauty sleep. You know how it is.” (23, 83)
This effect is achieved not only by means of spoken phrases, but by the introduction of not correct grammatical forms, spelling mistakes. Such speech expressions must be repeated many times before they become characteristic for the character. It is interesting that sometimes in characters’ speech vulgarisms can be found. For example, in Theodore Dreiser’s “Genius” in the 1910's the character used a vulgarism: “A woman- figure came to close quarters, though he was not in any over sober state himself, recognised Corley's breath redolent of rotten cornjuice. Lord John Corley, some called him, and his genealogy came about in this wise. He was the eldest son of Inspector Corley of the G Division, lately deceased, who had married a certain Katherine Brophy, the daughter of a Louth farmer. His grandfather, Patrick Michael Corley, of New Ross, had married the widow of a publican there whose maiden name had been Katherine (also) Talbot”; or “Poor fellow! Quite a boy. Terrible. Really terrible. What dreams would he have, not seeing? Life a dream for him. Where is the justice being born that way? All those women and children excursion beanfeast burned and drowned in New York. Holocaust. Karma they call that transmigration for sins you did in a past life the reincarnation met him pike-hoses. Dear, dear, dear. Pity of course: but somehow you can't cotton on to them someway”. The technique of “stream of consciousness” is difficult both for the reader and for the author. (31)
The fourth and last type of narration is represented speech. This type is a mixture of the elements of direct and indirect speech. Kyharenko wrote about it as follows: “An example of represented speech is the following sentence: “And Daniel said, Yes, he knew he had a uncle down home who died like that” (J. Baldwin “If Beale Street Could Talk”). Here the words of Daniel are fully preserved: a not normative form of the article is possible only in direct response to a question. All traits of direct speech are present, except two things: 1) the words of the character do not contradict to the rule of tenses, 2) the one who speaks is marked by the pronoun of the 3rd person singular (compare directly the language: “And Daniel said: Yes, I know ...”). But the author's aim has been achieved”. (9, 174) Dialogical speech is mostly used in belles-lettres style. Dialogical speech is used to depict a character through his speech.
Writers who create inner monologues in literary works focus on the emotional and psychological processes that are taking place in the minds of one or more characters. Important character traits are revealed through an exploration of what is going on in the mind.
Represented speech is the form of utterance which conveys the actual words of the speaker through the mouth of the writer but retains the peculiarities of the speaker's mode of expression By various examples we have proved that modern writers of the English literature extensively use the different types of narratives.
Conclusions In this research we have made an attempt to illustrate the different types of the author’s narrative, specifically in the novels of modern English and American writers. Narrative point of view in the creative writing of fiction describes the narrator's position in relation to the story being told. We have tried to show some peculiarities of their functioning. The narrative mode encompasses not only who tells the story, but also how the story is described or expressed The narrator may be a fictive person devised by the author as a stand-alone entity, or may even be a character. The narrator is considered participant if an actual character in the story, and nonparticipant if only an implied character, or a sort of omniscient or semi-omniscient being who does not take part in the story but only relates it to the audience. Ability to use the different points of view is one measure of a person's writing skill. After having analyzed the different types of the author’s narrative in modern English novels we can clearly identify the features of all of them. We have got acquainted with the author’s techniques of creating a complete picture of a novel. We have got more information about how the author helps the reader to become more familiar with the characters and events within the framework of the novel. While writing our research we have tried to show that the expression of an act of communication is an integral component of literature and is fully determined by the author’s skill.
The list of literature
1. Аникин Г.В. Английский роман 60-х годов XX века. – М.: Высшая школа, 1974 . – 360 с 2. Аникин Г.В., Михальская А.П. История английской литературы. – М.: 1982. – 287с 3. Арнольд И.В. Стилистика. Современный английский язык. – М.: Флинта, 2005. – 384с 4. Гальперин И.Р. Текст как объект лингвистического исследования. – М: Наука, 1981. – 139с 5. Денисова Т.Н. Історія американської літератури ХХ.ст. – К.: Основи, 2002. – 487с 6. Денисова Т.Н. Роман і романісти США. ХХ.ст. – К.: Наукова думка, 1993. – 362с 7. Єфімов Л.П. Стилістика англійської мови і дискурсивний аналіз. Учбово-методичний посібник. – Вінниця: Нова Книга, 2004. – 240с 8. Ивашева В. Английская литература ХХ века. – М., 1980. – 475с 9. Кухаренко В.А. Інтерпретація тексту. – Вінниця: Нова Книга, 2004. – 192с 10. Мендельсон М. Современная американская литература – М.: Правда, 1974. – 36с 11. Пелевина Н.Ф. Стилистический анализ художественного текста. – Л.: Просвещение, 1980. – 272с 12. Покальчук Ю Самотнє покоління – К.: 1972. – 273с 13. Ткачук Американські літературні студії в Україні. – К., 2004. – Випуск 1. Пуританська традиція у літературі США. – 260с 14. Шахова К. Література Англії ХХ століття. – К.: Либідь, 1994. – 398с 15. Шахова Проблемы новейшей литературы США. – К: Высшая школа, 2006. – 237с 16. Шкловський В. Про теорию прози. – М.: Федерация, 1985. – 265с 17. Bateson F.W. A guide to English literature. – L.: London Publishers, 1965. – 262p 18. Galperin I.R. Stylistics. – Moscow: Vysshaja skola, 1981. – 334p 19. Haggerty A. Harper Lee: “To kill a mockingbird”. – Mississippi: University of Mississippi, 2009. – 125p 20. Harper Lee To Kill a Mockingbird. – K.: Dnipro Publishers, 1977. – 340p 21. Kyharenko V.A. A Book of Practice in Stylistics. – Vinnytsia: Nova knyga, 2003. – 160p 22. Makaryk I.R.Encyclopedia of contemporary literary theory: approaches, scholars, terms. – Toronto: Toronto University Press, 1993. – 656p 23. Salinger J.D. The catcher in the rye. – M.: Progress Publishers, 1979. – 247p 24. Shields C.J. Mockingbird: A portrait of Harper Lee, N.Y.: Henry Holt, 2006. – 337p 25. http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ли,_Харпер 26. http://readlotronline.blogspot.com/ 27. http://www.e-reading.org.ua/bookreader.php/79514 28. http://www.e-reading.org.ua/book.=70358 29. http://www.readbookonline.net/title/14387/ 30. http://www.freebooks2u.com/classics/Forrest_Gump/13025.html 31. http://www.online-literature.com/james_joyce/ulysses/
Nowadays an increasing interest is attached to the different types of narratives. The analysis of the types of author’s narrative in the works of modern English novelists allows us to penetrate into the inner world of the author and to define the language structures that are used to create the text itself. The types of the author’s narratives have not yet been exhausted in linguistic studies.
The urgency of the author’s narrative has been accentuated in the publications of well-known researchers. Among them we should mention V.A. Kyharenko (9, 21), I. R. Galperin (18, 4) and B. Shklovskij (16). In our research we have used the classification suggested by this scholar. The works of such critics have been useful for our research: K.A. Shahova (14, 15), V.V. Ivasheva (8), G.V. Anikin (1, 2), J.V. Pokalchyk (12), M. Mendelson (10), T.N. Denisova (5, 6). A noted contribution into this problem has been made by such foreign researchers as F. W. Bateson (17), Irene Rima Makaryk (22), Andrew Haggerty (19), Charles J. Shields (24).
The aim of our research is to study the types of the author’s narrative which greatly influence the structure of novels.
The concrete tasks of the investigation are the following:
1. to analyze the types of the author’s narratives in various works of modern fiction;
2. to find examples of modern literary process and to analyze their features;
3. to define the specific use of language units in different types of novels;
The object of the investigation is the author’s point of view in the course of creating the text of the novel and different types of the author’s narrative in it.
The material of our investigation are the selected novels of John Anthony Burgess Wilson (27), Harper Lee (20), Jerome David Salinger (23), John Robert Fowles (28), Winston Groom (30) and the comparison of these novels with an example of the traditional author’s narrative in the novels of John Galsworthy (29).
The urgency of the research emanates from the necessity of further investigations of the types of the author’s narratives in modern English prose, as the contemporary literary process is greatly influenced by the development and the use of various types of the author's narrative.
The scientific novelty follows from the absence of special studies of the types of the author’s narratives in the framework of modern English prose.
In the course of the investigation the following methods of research have been used: biographical method, comparative-historical method and narrative method.
Chapter I
Modern English literature. The most renowned novelists of the period
The most important part of the culture of any nation is literature which opens the world of tradition, national mentality and life for us.
The English literature belongs to the most powerful ones in the world. Speaking about the literature of Great Britain, we could not but mention such famous writers, poets as William Shakespeare, Jonathan Swift, George Gordon Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Walter Scott, Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde, Bernard Shaw and many others. It is hard to imagine the world of literature without these names, without the heroes of our favorite novels, without those good thoughts and feelings that seize upon us while reading the novels, plays and poems of English writers. According to Anikin: “The English literature is one of the richest literatures of the world which gave us such names as Chaucer, Shakespeare, Defoe, Byron, Dickens, Shaw and many other novelists, playwrights, poets. Their works, which reflect the peculiarities of their time and convey the thoughts and feelings of their contemporaries, are all associated with a particular period. But heritages of national cultures do not lose their importance for the following ages and generations as well. The ideological and artistic value of the works of great writers is enormous”. (1, 4)
The English literature has had a long history of development, inherent to any national literature. It reached its peak in the XIX century, during the formation and development of Romanticism. Such representatives of the national literature as Wordsworth and Coleridge proclaimed the new principles of literary art among the firsts.
Romanticism was gradually replaced by realism which was spread in the second half of the XIX century. The representatives of this literary trend (Dickens, Thackeray) tried to depict a detailed picture of an individual and society, explored the connection between different phenomena.
In the late XIX century the works of romanticism reappeared. It was due to the writers’ tragic perception of life that led them to seek for emotional balance in the abstract dimension without social problems of the environment. These writers (Collins, Stevenson, Conan Doyle) were called “neoromantics”
The new XX century was marked by new trends in the development of English literature. After the end of the Victorian era, which prohibited an open display of physiological scenes, in England writers of a new trend became popular. They were called naturalists (S. Maugham) and they continued the development of realism (A. Cronin).
Between the two World Wars British and Irish writers made significant contributions to the literary process. R. Fox, C. Caldwell, R. Casey, were active participants of political, national and literary movements.
Speaking about the English literature of the XX century, we are bound to mention the famous novelist, playwright, master of social novels, J. Galsworthy, whose trilogy “The Forsyte Saga” is known all around the world. G. Wells, D. Joyce, R. Aldington and many other writers can be added to the list of English writers. They tell about themselves a lot in their works as well. K.A Shahova writes: “While considering the literature of England for the last decade of the twentieth century, it is safe to say that although in its development there were periods of stagnation, when only a few works were outstanding. But the English literature, of course, had outstanding talents. It created very notable works that have played an important role in the development of not only their country’s but Europe’s and the world’s culture”(14, 5). So, we can say that the literature of the United Kingdom is extremely rich and various. Its role should not be neglected in the culture of mankind.
The American literature has a significant role in English literature. T.N Denisova described this period as follows: “The novels of the USA in the 70-80’s are very colorful. Mostly mass culture prevails. The literature itself is either strongly psychological or political”. (6, 340)
If the novels of American writers are dominated by political themes, their British colleagues are “fighting” against mass culture. Anikin expressed such thoughts about the period: “Realistic novel is developing in the fight against the literature of “masscult” and “pop-art”, against sensational bestsellers and adventure books, against utopian books, anti-communist detectives and Freudian psychological writings”. (1, 304)
After such a characteristic of the English literature in the XX-XI century, we would like to analyze the creative activity of such novelists, as John Anthony Burgess Wilson, Harper Lee, Jerome David Salinger, John Robert Fowles, Winston Groom.
An extremely talented writer of modern prose is Nelle Harper Lee. She has written only one novel – “To Kill a Mockingbird” (1960). By the end of the 1950’s, Lee worked as an official at an airline. Later she decided to devote her life to literature. As a result, Nelle quitted her job and began to work on her novel. In 1957, she gave the manuscript of the novel to the publishing house Lipinkot. There the editor said that the book consisted of a series of short stories and advised her to rewrite the text. In 1960 the novel was published. It immediately became very popular among readers. In a year the writer was awarded the Pulitzer prize. In 1999 the book was ranked as “The best novel of the century”. Nelle spoke about the success of her novel in the following way: “I have never expected any success of the Mockingbird. I hoped that the critics would “kill” it quickly and mercifully, but at the same time I thought that somebody may like it so as to inspire confidence in me. I hoped for a little, but got everything and, to some extent, it was as frightening as a quick merciful death” (25).
“To Kill a Mockingbird” – is an almost autobiographical novel based on the childhood memories of the writer. The narrator is a mischievous girl, who lives in a provincial town during the times of the Great Depression. While growing up she is gradually becoming aware of the darker aspects of human nature. She and her brother, Jim, are involved in the world of racial prejudice, deception, narrow-mindedness, ignorance and hatred. This novel is undoubtedly one of the masterpieces of world literature.
The purpose of this book is to remind the world about American reality. Yet Lee showed that in her country not only bad Americans with racial prejudices were living, but also those Americans who were on the side of justice and fairness, who were not condemning people of other races. This novel forces the reader to think about such problems as racism and its social origins.
After the success of “To Kill a Mockingbird” Lee again started working on new novels, but each time she was not satisfied with the result and refused to publish them. As a result, except that single novel she published only a few essays.
Another prominent novelist of this period is Anthony Burgess. He was an English writer and literary critic (researched literature, especially the works of Shakespeare and Joyce), he was also interested in literary translation and journalism. K.A. Shahova expressed such opinion about the work of this writer: “No game of fantasy, composition, effective eloquence and unexpected comic motivations can conceal the attitude of A. Burgess to history ...” (14, 54)
His first novel was published in 1949. Ten years later a brain tumor was discovered and according to the doctor’s opinion, he had to live no more than a year. After the medical diagnosis was not justified, Burgess turned away from the depiction of modern life and wrote several novels with elements of anti-utopia. It allowed him to lay stress on the problem of choosing between good and evil. This problem is most urgently raised in the “A Clockwork Orange” (1962), a novel, which was popular after the film adaptation of S. Kubrick (1971). With continuing the tradition of futuristic literature and experimenting with language Anthony Burgess created a novel which is recognized by modern literature. The smart, rude, charismatic anti-hero, Alex, is the leader of a street gang. He preaches violence as the highest art of life, for him it is a kind of pleasure. He becomes one of the victims of violence through the newest state program. “A Clockwork Orange” is a literary paradox of the XX century. Can we save the world from evil by depriving someone of the freedom to make decisions and turn him into a mechanism? This question is set by the author in the novel. Burgess points to the indissoluble connection of violence and totalitarianism.
Burgess wrote novels not only under his own name but under different pseudonyms, which his wife offered him. Once he wrote a review for the newspaper Yorkshire Post about his own novel “Inside Mr. Enderby” (1963). He also sent letters to the Daily Mail under the pen name “Muhammad Ali”.
The novel “A Clockwork Orange” presents a bleak picture of society terrorized by street gangs and incompetently governed by hypocritical and self-serving officials. Through Alex's story, Burgess explores themes of free will, violence, and state-controlled behavior in a blackly humorous and subtly satirical style.
A major theme of “A Clockwork Orange” is the ability of the individual to make moral choices. Burgess presents a society that experiments with radical behavior modification techniques on criminals to eliminate socially unwanted behavior; his argument is that it is morally and ethically preferable for the state to allow its citizens the choice between good and evil than it is for the state to destroy the capacity for choice. A side effect of Alex's conditioning is that, because classical music accompanied the films he watched during the Ludovico Treatment, he can no longer listen to Beethoven without getting sick. While this is a negligible by-product from the point of view of the government, it illustrates Burgess's point that destroying the ability to choose evil also destroys the capacity to choose good. The novel also juxtaposes the violence committed by Alex and his gang members with the violence committed by the state in the name of justice and security.
We should pay attention to the work of the prominent writer, Jerome David Salinger as well. He was an American writer, a classic of the American Literature in the XX century. His best known work is “The catcher in the rye” (1951). It should be noted that this work is the only novel written by the author. The book was banned in several countries and in some states of the USA. The reason for that was the depressiveness and vulgar vocabulary of the novel. But nowadays in many American schools it is included into the list of recommended literature.
According to J.V. Pokalchyk: “Jerome David Salinger's novel “The catcher in the rye” (1951) immediately became one of the favorite books of the American youth. It quickly gained popularity in many foreign countries as well. To this book a lot of critical researches have been devoted”.
(12, 97)
The interpretation of this novel’s main idea is strongly controversial. Some critics describe the main character, Holden Caulfield, as a very negative one, others think that he is purely positive.
The problems of the book are very serious and deep. As J.V. Pokalchyk noted: “... The problem of Salinger’s novel is much deeper than an individual problem of a young man like Holden Caulfield. It is the problem of social and moral life of the American society. It is no accident that Holden rebels against “the highest” ideals of modern America – success in society and secure life. Not accidentally turns Holden to his childhood. He denies “adulthood” and sees in it the moral degradation of man”.
Salinger sharply accentuates the portrayal of Holden with a symbolic structure of language, motif, episode, and character; and when the complex patterns are discovered, the effect is to concentrate our scrutiny on a masterpiece that moves effortlessly on the colloquial surface and at the same time uncovers a psychological drama of unrelenting terror and final beauty.
We could not but mention the work of Winston Groom, the author of the famous novel “Forrest Gump” (1986). In 1985 the author began working on his novel. A year later he managed to publish it. But until 1994, when the novel was first filmed, the book did not have great success. This masterpiece of the English literature is described by J. Tkachyk: “... Winston Groom and his Forrest Gump, which looks at the American society of the 60-90's through the eyes of an idiot, determines the degree of humanity and rationality in our life”. (13, 187). We can state that Groom’s novel about a mooncalf is original. Although William Faulkner in 1929, wrote a novel where the narrator was a mentally ill man, he did not raise in it such problems as Groom in his “Forrest Gump”.
In the book the author strongly criticizes the defects of contemporary American society through the image of Forrest. J. Tkachyk expressed his opinion about the protagonist as follows: “... Forrest shows his own point of view on the American society from which you can feel the attitude of this society and culture to an idiot”. (13, 181-182). John Robert Fowles is one of those few writers who emerged in England in the 1960’s. Fowles published six novels, written in completely different style, a collection of novels and short stories “The ebony tower” (1974), a collection of “Poems” (1973), a number of excellent translations from French, screenplays, literary-critical articles, many other books and articles which do not belong to belles lettres style. The first published novel of Fowles, “The Collector” (1963), brought him success and deprived of having to earn his living as a teacher. He was awarded a prestigious literary prize for his book “The French Lieutenant's Woman” (1969). According to many critics it is the best work of Fowles. It is both an experimental and historical novel that takes the reader to a perfectly recreated Victorian world, but not allows them to forget about what they are – human beings who are separated from that epoch by a great historical distance. About this extraordinary novel K.A. Shahova wrote: “Fowles pointed out that referring to the events of a hundred years ago, to the 60’s of the XIX century, he experimented. His aim was to create not only an epic but an artistic distance between the depicted and the contemporary lives” (14, 380).
In the novel the one of the main characters, Sarah, scorned by the Victorian Society from which she had escaped, ceased to bother the identity-seeking Charles. Although Fowles went so far as to provide for this as an ending, he did not realistically think that it would come to be. Fowles did not see himself so much writing a novel as he did relating a series of events that he was witnessing. He used his role as an author and as a character, and posed questions and evoked decisions, to present his twentieth-century views on the era of Queen Victoria. Charles, the protagonist, was his medium for this presentation.
Another well-known English writer is J.R.R. Tolkien. He was one of the greatest writers and scholars of the twentieth century. Generations of readers have been enthralled by his most famous creations: “The Hobbit”, “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Silmarillion”. Scholars, meanwhile, have debated about the true greatness of these popular novels. Many others found the books – and in particular “The Lord of the Rings” – to be masterpieces.
“The Lord of the Rings” was, in many ways, the culmination of a life’s work for Tolkien. When the first volume of the “trilogy”, “The Fellowship of the Ring” was released in 1954, Tolkien had already spent the last 15 years working on the book.
In conclusion we can state that the literary life of England and America of the last century was especially lively and full of energy, new ideas that raised socially important questions. Modern prose is extremely varied and ambiguous. The creative achievements of these writers belong to the most important part of world literature. Novels of the above mentioned novelists are not only interesting from the standpoint of our research, but they describe problems with which our society is concerned nowadays.
The literature, written at modern time appeared when traditional religious and moral values have all been vanished. The literature of that time explains the bases of human behavior. At the same time, writers have conveyed their feelings about senselessness, hopelessness, and despair in life.
Chapter II
Types of the author’s narrative in modern English prose
In literary criticism fiction is defined as rhythmically not organized speech; a literary work or many of them written in prose. The creator of any literary work is the author. The author in literature is an artist who expresses himself in his work. He organizes it, expresses an emotional and semantic unity.
V.A. Kyharenko writes about the role of the author in fiction in the following way: “A work of creative prose is never homogeneous as to the form and essence of the information it carries. Both very much depend on the viewpoint of the addresser, as the author and his personages may offer different angles of perception of the same object. Naturally, it is the author who organizes this effect of polyphony, but we, the readers, while reading the text, identify various views with various personages, not attributing them directly to the writer. The latter's views and emotions are most explicitly expressed in the author's speech (or the author's narrative)”. (21, 72)
In any literary text the words of the author and that of the characters may be differentiated. The last of them can be presented in the form of a dialogue or in the form of inner speech. Therefore, in order to understand the novel in a whole we have to gain a deeper knowledge of the types of the author’s narrative. The classification of the types and means of expression in a piece of artistic writing has been worked out by V.A. Kyharenko in the “The interpretation of the text”. It gives us the following classification: “An artistic text is heterogeneous by its nature, in it four types of expression are distinguished – the author's narrative (AN), dialogical speech (DS), internal speech (IS), entrusted speech (ES) and represented speech (RS)”. (9, 133)
The story may be told in such a way that we are given the impression of witnessing the events as they happen – we see the actions and hear the conversations, but we never enter directly into the minds of any of the characters. In this case the reader is guided by the observer-author. The observer-author merely records the speech and actions of the characters without analyzing them. Examples of traditional storytelling are the novels of John Galsworthy.
; if this is a novel, it cannot be a novel in the modern sense of the word” (28)
This type of expression can be called reasoning, and in it the author expresses his point of view. Fowles used such lexical markers as this, these, that. With these means the writer refers to past events, situations. According to V.A. Kyharenko: “The leading role in shaping the concept of a novel is played by the author’s evaluation of objects, events, that make up its artistic reality. The evaluating element is always present in language because while examining objects of the surrounding reality, we express our attitude to them and evaluate them” (9, 134).
Here we should mention the novel of J.R.R. Tolkien. This novel presented in the traditional author’s narrative. But attention should be drawn to the content of the book. Tolkien in his novel creates out of the void a complete and fully realized world. He weaves his spell around us, suspends all disbelief, and gives us our own modern-day adventure and discovery quest. In many ways it is escapism from real life.
J.R.R. Tolkien's writing has fascinated readers and scholars throughout this age. His styles were not nearly as popular as some of those which come far before him. Celtic and Britonnic tales include awed their audiences and likewise included elements of romance, warriors, and magical settings. Histories and legends from this period in fact influence many of Tolkien's modern plots and twists. For us the most interesting feature of the novel is that the narration was about a fictitious world, a world which has never existed: “Boromir strode up and down, speaking ever more loudly: Almost he seemed to have forgotten Frodo, while his talk dwelt on walls and weapons, and the mustering of men; and he drew plans for great alliances and glorious victories to be; and he cast down Mordor, and became himself a mighty king, benevolent and wise. Suddenly he stopped and waved his arms. “And they tell us to throw it away!' he cried. `I do not say destroy it. That might be well, if reason could show any hope of doing so. It does not. The only plan that is proposed to us is that a halfling should walk blindly into Mordor and offer the Enemy every chance of recapturing it for himself. Folly!” or “Frodo then drew the elf-blade from its sheath. To his dismay the edges gleamed dimly in the night. `Orcs! ' he said. `Not very near, and yet too near, it seems’. `I feared as much,' said Aragorn. `But maybe they are not on this side of the River. The light of Sting is faint, and it may point to no more than spies of Mordor roaming on the slopes of Amon Lhaw. I have never heard before of Orcs upon Amon Hen. Yet who were drawing near to the grey hill-country of the Emyn Muil, the southern march of Wilderland”. (26)
We should not confuse the author's narrative with the cases of entrusted narration, when the writer of the narration refuses to tell the story. This entrusted narrator is both a witness and a participant of the events. He tells the story through the prism of his own feelings and beliefs. The phenomena of entrusted narration appeared in literature a long time ago. The writers of the nineteenth century also turned to this means of narration. About the entrusted narration Kyharenko wrote in the following way: “In contemporary prose, in an effort to make his writing more plausible, to impress the reader with the effect of authenticity of the described events, the writer entrusts some fictitious character (who might also participate in the narrated events) with the task of storytelling. The writer himself thus hides behind the figure of the narrator, presents all the events of the story from the latter's viewpoint and only sporadically emerges in the narrative with his own considerations, which may reinforce or contradict those expressed by the narrator...The structure of the entrusted narrative is much more complicated than that of the author's narrative proper, because instead of one commanding, organizing image of the author, we have the hierarchy places himself in the position of the main character and tells of things that only the main character saw and felt. When a minor character, who participates in the actions, narrates the story, the events are described through the perception of his character. The author places himself in the position of a minor character and gives this character’s version of the events and personages.
When the author shifts the responsibility of telling the story to the first person narrator, he actually provides his reader with two versions of one and the same story:
1) the explicitly expressed subjective version (the narrator’s version) 2) the implied objective version, which the skilled reader is expected to derive.
The narrator in these novels may be an adult, a child, a teenager, a mentally ill person.
There are several advantages of this method: 1) The first person narrative is a very effective means of revealing the personality of the character who narrates. The narrator tells what he thinks and feels, and the reader easily understands his motives, his nature. 2) This narrative method increases the credibility of the story. The narrator’s statements are backed by the narrator’s presence in the described events. 3) The story told by the first person narrator is more confiding. The narrator often uses the informal tone, addresses the reader directly and establishes a personal relationship with him. The reader is treated by the first person narrator trustfully.
Here we should mention the novel of Harper Lee “To Kill a Mockingbird”. Before analyzing the novel we would like to quote V. Pokalchyk: “It is notable that in the novels where the writer creates the main character as a teenager or a child who is not familiar with all aspects of life the paints are much softer, there is much singleness of the character’s soul, though the attitude towards “adult” is life still predominantly negative”. (12, 97)
Unlike the main character of Salinger, who perfectly revealed the inner world of a teenager from a bourgeois family, the Finch brother and sister are children with a completely healthy psyche. They lost their mother in their early childhood, nevertheless their father is bringing them up perfectly well. They are the embodiments of perfect American citizens.
Scout and her brother, Jem, learn the principles of racial justice and social tolerance from their father, whose just and compassionate acts include an unpopular defense of a black man falsely accused of raping a white girl. They also develop tolerance and the strength to follow their convictions in their acquaintance and eventual friendship with a recluse who has been demonized by the community.
Criticism of its tendency to sermonize has been matched by praise of its insight and stylistic effectiveness. It became a memorable film in 1962 and was filmed again in 1997.
From the point of view of our research, this novel is very interesting because the story is told on behalf of the eight years old daughter of Finch. It is evident that the book has great artistic value. Scout tells her story in her childish, undeveloped language. In the analysis of the novel this stylistic feature plays an essential role: “Jem says I was. He read in a book where I was a bullfinch instead of a Finch. Jem says my name's really Jean Louise Bullfinch, that I got swapped when I was born and I'm really a – (30); “He never drink a drop in his life - name, yes he did. He said he drank some one time and didn't like it” (20, 62)
We understand that the story teller is an underage from such grammatical and stylistic mistakes as: “... Simon made a pile practicing medicine, but in this pursuit he was unhappy lest he be tempted into doing what he knew ...” (20, 14); “It was customary for the men in the family to remain on Simon's homestead ...” (20, 14); “They persisted in pleading Not Guilty to first-degree murder ...” (20, 15); “He played the character parts formerly thrust upon me ...” (20, 19); “But there came a day when Atticus told us he'd wear us out if we made any noise in the yard ...” (20, 23); “He made me start off on the wrong foot”. (20, 36)
The book has memoirs character, as its protagonist recollects her childhood. For example: “I said if he wanted to take a broad view of the thing? It really began with Andrew Jackson. If General Jackson hadn't run the Creeks up the creek, Simon Finch would never have paddled up the Alabama, and where would we be if he hadn't”. (20, 13) or: “... it occurred to me that I would be starting to school in a week. I never looked forward more to anything in my life. Hours of wintertime had found me in the treehouse, looking over at the schoolyard, spying on multitudes of children through a two-power telescope Jem had given me, learning their names, following Jem's red jacket through wriggling circles of blind man's buff” (20, 27).
It is complicated to tell a story on behalf of a little girl about the business of adults, social problems of America. But Harper Lee has the necessary skill of a writer to deal with this problem successfully.
We would like to use another example, where a story is told from the first person narrative, on behalf of a teenager. The novel is Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye”. J. Pokalchyk wrote about this novel: “The main character of Salinger’s novel is Holden Caulfield, a sixteen years old teenager. He tells about a few days from his life and about America. The story is presented from the point of view of a sensitive teenager” (12, 98).
In the novel Holden is depicted as an unhappy, disappointed and very lonely human being. He even does not want to study because he sees in society only hypocrisy. Caulfield is very close to suicide – he does not know how and why to live. He decides rather to remain “immature” than to conform to this society.
Holden’s speech is characteristic because he uses the vocabulary of ignorant people: “It was icy as hell and I damn near fell down” (23, 31); “Partly because I have a lousy vocabulary and partly because I act quite young for my age sometimes” (23, 34); “Looking down at the game and freezing my ass off” (23, 30); “You take somebody old as hell” (23, 32); “Then just for the hell of it ...” (23, 172); “Why the hell do you have to say that?”(23, 174); “... I didn't feel so damn dizzy any more” (23, 205); “Fuck you” (23, 204); “She ran and bought her ticket and got back on the goddam carrousel just in time” (23, 212).
He makes lots of grammatical mistakes: “He started going into this nodding routine” (23, 33); “Old Spencer started nodding” (23, 34); “I wanted to get the hell out of the room. I could feel a terrific lecture coming on” (23, 35); “He started handling my exam paper like it was a turd or something” (23, 36); “I was beginning to sort of hate him” (23, 36); “I have to admit it” (23, 48); “I couldn't get her off my mind” (23, 55); “Just to stop lying” (23, 76); “I couldn't brush my teeth because I didn't have any toothbrush with me” (23, 193).
Now we would like to analyze the speech of Holden in details:
a) the regular use of such parasitic words and phrases as all (how my parents were occupied and all, it was December and all, right in the pocket and all, they're nice and all), stuff (goddam checkups and stuff, tickets and stuff), crap (starches and crap, and all that crap), sort of (you felt sort of sorry for her, she was sort of deaf, I was beginning to sort of hate him);
b) grammatical mistakes: the use of personal forms of verbs after on account of, that requires a gerund (on account of four subject, on account of it was Sunday); the use of irregular verbs (I'd woke him up, she's been laying here all night); not proper use of personal pronouns (DB took Phoebe and I, told Allie and I, I woke he and his wife up, kept telling Stradlater and I); violation of syntactic rules (I don't like that type language, except Alice had a cold, he started handling my exam paper, I have to admit it);
c) the use of slang (to shoot the bull, to chew the rag, to shoot the crap, to shoot the breeze, to chew the fat, to give somebody a buzz, damn near sent a telegram, I damn near broke my knee) ;
d) the regular use of such epithets as phony - phony (phony bastard, phony smile, phony handshake, a phony kind of friendly), lousy - bad (lousy teeth, lousy manners, lousy childhood, lousy movie), terrific - wonderful (terrific book, terrific sentence, terrific legs, terrific guy);
e.) emphatic intensifier hell (touchy as hell, old as hell, sad as hell, beautiful as hell, playful as hell);
f.) the wrong use and formation of adjectives (unhairy, grippy, Christmasy, pimply, wrinkly, fisty).
The novel of Anthony Burgess' “The Clockwork orange” is equally interesting for our research. The title of the novel comes from a phrase once common among Cockney in London. They called everything unusual “crooked as a clockwork orange”. The origin of the title is somewhat dubious as Burgess lived in Malaysia for seven years and in the Malayan language the word “orang” means “man”, in English orange means a fruit.
The novel consists of three parts. In the first the author depicts the horrifying world of the protagonist, Alex. In the second part he gets into prison. But even there he cannot change. He remains as aggressive as he was
“Boy, thou uproarious shark of heaven,
Slaughter of Elysium,
Hearts on fire, aroused, enraptured,
We will tolchock you on the rot and kick your grahzny vonny bum”. (27)
The third part ends with the mentioning that after so many events Alex decides not to continue living in such conditions – he becomes an adult.
The author was proficient in many languages : Russian, German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese and his native English. This knowledge helped him to create an artificial language “nadsat”, spoken by the characters. So we would like to draw the attention to the most extraordinary feature of the novel – the character speaks an artificial language. The most characteristic features of the book are:
a) It is written in “nadsat”, where some words have Russian origin and they are written in English. Some are even distorted versions of actually Russian words: “There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie, and Dim. Dim being really dim, and we sat in the Korova Milkbar making up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening, a flip dark chill winter bastard though dry”; “He had no licence for selling liquor, but there was no law yet against prodding some of the new veshches which they used to put into the old moloko…”; “It was nice sitting there in the warm, eating, and I found I was very hungry, so that after the fry I had to eat lomtick after lomtick of kleb and butter spread with strawberry jam out of a bolshy great pot”; “Alex gave me their eemyas”; (27) b) different grammatical mistakes: “The Korova Milkbar was a milk-plus mesto, and you may, O my brothers, have forgotten what these mestos were like, things changing so skorry these days and everybody very quick to forget, newspapers not being read much neither”; “An old man of your age, brother” I said, and I started to rip up the book I'd got, and the others did the same with the ones they had. Dim and Pete doing a tug-of-war with The Rhombohedral System”; (27)
c) the frequent use of the parasitic word like: “There were three devotchkas sitting at the counter all together, but there were four of us malchicks and it was usually like one for all and all for one”; “They kept looking our way and I nearly felt like saying the three of us (out of the corner of my rot, that is) should go off for a bit of pol and leave poor old Dim behind, because it would be just a matter of kupetting Dim a demi-litre of white but this time with a dollop of synthemesc in it, but that wouldn't really have been playing like the game”; “He had a like gentleman's goloss and spoke in a very weary sort of a way, and he nodded with a like droogy smile at one very big fat bastard”; “I take it up now, and this is the real weepy and like tragic part of the story beginning, my brothers and only friends, in Staja (State Jail, that is) Number 84F”; “We had four of these lomticks of like Prison Religion that morning, but the charles said no more to me about this Ludovico's Technique, whatever it was, O my brothers”; (27)
d) in the novel repeatedly occurs the repetition of certain words: “Then the lights started cracking like atomics and the boot or finger-nail or, as it might be, a bit of dirt on your trouser-bottom turned into a big big big big mesto, bigger ...”; “One of the three ptitsas at the counter, the one with the green wig, kept pushing her belly out and pulling it in in in time to what they called the music”; (27) e) the use of a noun instead of a verb: “You naughty old veck, you,” I said, and then we began to filly about with him”; “All the teens usage them”. (27) Another well known novel of modern prose is “Forrest Gump” written by Winston Groom. The main character and the narrator of the work is Forrest, a mentally ill man. On the very first page he says about himself: “LET ME SAY THIS: BEIN A IDIOT IS NO BOX OF CHOCOLATES”. (30)
J. Tkachyk wrote about this novel: “In the novel a mentally ill main character symbolizes the unresolved contradictions of the American society… In the novel Forrest is similar to Shakespeare's clown. Moreover, the modus on evil is ironical. The naive perception of Forrest ridiculed all the basic concepts on which the American society rests” (13, 187-188). Basically, Groom uses the same device as Mark Twain in “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” – a first-person narrator who is at once seemingly naive. Hence there is great irony in Gump's many triumphs against the odds. In this rewriting of the American dream, anyone can succeed - even an absolute idiot. In terms of our research in the text you can find many features that are uncharacteristic of prose: a.) grammatical deviations from the English literary language in the storytelling of the protagonist: 1.) not correct use of articles: “LET ME SAY THIS: BEIN A IDIOT IS NO BOX OF CHOCOLATES”; “I been a idiot since I was born”; “Then one day a event happen that changed all that too”; “I'm closer to bein a imbecile or maybe even a moron, but personally”; “It was a hour or two before we arrived ...”; “I follow them to a office”; (30) 2.) not correct use of tenses: “I been a idiot since I was born”; “I can think things pretty good, but when I got to try sayin or writin them, it kinda come out like jello or something”; “When I was born, my mama name me Forrest ...”; “My mama was there, an so was the guy in the car an two other people what look like goons-who I guess was present in case I was to start something” , “It was a hour or two before we arrived, an the bus didn't have no toilet, an I had drank two Slurpees fore we lef”; “Nex thing I know, two men come an tell me to get up an I follow them to a office. A few minutes later, four policemen arrive an axe me to come with them”; “It seem like I done frightened off the gooks an they hightail it back to wherever they live”; (30) 3.) not proper use of pronouns: “... the ones with they eyes too close together ... what look like Chinamen an drool a lot an play with theyselfs”; “or whatever he calls hissef ...”; “somebody put out the word that a idiot got hissef on the All State Football team”; “it was 1968 an they was all sorts of”; “They was a door that lead to a big office where there's a older man”; (30) 4.) the use of adjectives instead of adverbs: “My mama is a real fine person”; “In the summer afternoons, when it was real hot ...”; 5.) the use of was instead of were and vice versa: “Now nex year wadn't too eventful, cept somebody put out the word that a idiot got hissef on the All State Football team an a bunch of letters start comin in from all round the country”; “The fact that I were too dumb to play college football did not seem to impress the United States Army none”; “It were my last year at highschool an in the springtime everbody else graduated”; “... it was in 1968 an they was all sorts of shit fixin to hoppen ...”; “a man an a lady called Bonnie an Clyde that robbed banks an they was some interestin other people in it also”; (30) b) the use of the parasitic word a bunch: a bunch of times, a bunch of kids, a bunch of his friends, an a bunch of letters start comin; c) a lot of spelling mistakes: “But what that did for me, knockin that boy upside the head, put a definate new light on my football playin”; “Probly the only thing I do know bout, but I done read up on em” ; “or whatever he calls hissef, he operate a gun store in town an once, when I was maybe twelve year ole ...”; (30) d) the use of too long, incomprehensible sentences: “I'm closer to bein a imbecile or maybe even a moron, but personally, I'd rather think of mysef as like a halfwit, or somethin-an not no idiot-cause when people think of a idiot, more'n likely they be thinkin of one of them Mongolian idiots-the ones with they eyes too close together what look like Chinamen an drool a lot an play with theyselfs”; “At first, when I's growin up, she'd let me go out an play with everbody, but then she foun out they's teasing me an all, an one day a boy hit me in the back with a stick wile they was chasin me an it raised some fearsome welt”. (30) About another type of entrusted narration V.A. Kyharenko wrote: “It is a bit more difficult to separate the author from the narrator when the latter is not stated by the first person or by spoken language. The codified storytelling from the 3rd person singular is oriented at the norms of written language and we have to look for any signs of it very carefully ... The author's opinion can be expressed by irony, hyperbole, repetition and actualization of systematic words, etc.” (9, 147) This type of narration is called entrusted anonymous narrative. The author may narrate his story anonymously, analyzing and interpreting the character’s motives and feelings. The reader sees what is going on in the minds of all the characters. This type of narration is told by the omniscient (or analytic) author. The omniscient author reproduces the character’s thoughts and comments on their actions. In such cases the opinion of the author may coincide with the opinion of the narrator or vice versa. The examples of the first are the novels of S. Fitzgerald “The Great Gatsby”, Harper Lee “To Kill Mockingbird”, S. Maugham “The moon and the sixpence” and examples of the latter are – E. Caldwell “The evening on Saturday”, John Reed “Mac-American”. Using many points of view makes a novel more interesting, diverse.
We should mention another type of narration as well. This is the type when the narration is presented in the form of characters’ dialogues. On the choice of the characters depends the conflict. Kyharenko expressed such point of view about it: The narrative, both the author's and the entrusted, is not the only type of narration observed in creative prose. A very important place here is occupied by dialogue, where personages express their minds in the form of uttered speech. In their exchange of remarks the participants of the dialogue, while discussing other people and their actions, expose themselves too. So dialogue is one of the most significant forms of the personage's self-characterization, which allows the author to seemingly night?”
“Us?” I said, innocent. “Why, what happened?” “Stealing and roughing. Two hospitalizations. Where've you lot been this evening?”
“I don't go for that nasty tone,” I said. “I don't care much for these nasty insinuations. A very suspicious nature all this betokeneth, my little brothers.” “They've been in here all night, lads,” the old sharps started to creech out. “God bless them, there's no better lot of boys living for kindness and generosity. Been here all the time they have. Not seen them move we haven't.”
“We're only asking,” said the other young millicent. (27) Another example of such dialogues may be an extract from Salinger’s “The catcher in the Rye”: “Thank you for the compliment,” I said – suave as hell. “Holden Caulfield’s my name.” I should’ve given her a phony name, but I didn’t think of it. “Well, look, Mr. Cawffle. I’m not in the habit of making engagements in the middle of the night. I’m a working gal.” “Tomorrow’s Sunday,” I told her. “Well, anyway. I gotta get my beauty sleep. You know how it is.” (23, 83)
This effect is achieved not only by means of spoken phrases, but by the introduction of not correct grammatical forms, spelling mistakes. Such speech expressions must be repeated many times before they become characteristic for the character. It is interesting that sometimes in characters’ speech vulgarisms can be found. For example, in Theodore Dreiser’s “Genius” in the 1910's the character used a vulgarism: “A woman- figure came to close quarters, though he was not in any over sober state himself, recognised Corley's breath redolent of rotten cornjuice. Lord John Corley, some called him, and his genealogy came about in this wise. He was the eldest son of Inspector Corley of the G Division, lately deceased, who had married a certain Katherine Brophy, the daughter of a Louth farmer. His grandfather, Patrick Michael Corley, of New Ross, had married the widow of a publican there whose maiden name had been Katherine (also) Talbot”; or “Poor fellow! Quite a boy. Terrible. Really terrible. What dreams would he have, not seeing? Life a dream for him. Where is the justice being born that way? All those women and children excursion beanfeast burned and drowned in New York. Holocaust. Karma they call that transmigration for sins you did in a past life the reincarnation met him pike-hoses. Dear, dear, dear. Pity of course: but somehow you can't cotton on to them someway”. The technique of “stream of consciousness” is difficult both for the reader and for the author. (31)
The fourth and last type of narration is represented speech. This type is a mixture of the elements of direct and indirect speech. Kyharenko wrote about it as follows: “An example of represented speech is the following sentence: “And Daniel said, Yes, he knew he had a uncle down home who died like that” (J. Baldwin “If Beale Street Could Talk”). Here the words of Daniel are fully preserved: a not normative form of the article is possible only in direct response to a question. All traits of direct speech are present, except two things: 1) the words of the character do not contradict to the rule of tenses, 2) the one who speaks is marked by the pronoun of the 3rd person singular (compare directly the language: “And Daniel said: Yes, I know ...”). But the author's aim has been achieved”. (9, 174) Dialogical speech is mostly used in belles-lettres style. Dialogical speech is used to depict a character through his speech.
Writers who create inner monologues in literary works focus on the emotional and psychological processes that are taking place in the minds of one or more characters. Important character traits are revealed through an exploration of what is going on in the mind.
Represented speech is the form of utterance which conveys the actual words of the speaker through the mouth of the writer but retains the peculiarities of the speaker's mode of expression By various examples we have proved that modern writers of the English literature extensively use the different types of narratives.
Conclusions In this research we have made an attempt to illustrate the different types of the author’s narrative, specifically in the novels of modern English and American writers. Narrative point of view in the creative writing of fiction describes the narrator's position in relation to the story being told. We have tried to show some peculiarities of their functioning. The narrative mode encompasses not only who tells the story, but also how the story is described or expressed The narrator may be a fictive person devised by the author as a stand-alone entity, or may even be a character. The narrator is considered participant if an actual character in the story, and nonparticipant if only an implied character, or a sort of omniscient or semi-omniscient being who does not take part in the story but only relates it to the audience. Ability to use the different points of view is one measure of a person's writing skill. After having analyzed the different types of the author’s narrative in modern English novels we can clearly identify the features of all of them. We have got acquainted with the author’s techniques of creating a complete picture of a novel. We have got more information about how the author helps the reader to become more familiar with the characters and events within the framework of the novel. While writing our research we have tried to show that the expression of an act of communication is an integral component of literature and is fully determined by the author’s skill.
The list of literature
1. Аникин Г.В. Английский роман 60-х годов XX века. – М.: Высшая школа, 1974 . – 360 с 2. Аникин Г.В., Михальская А.П. История английской литературы. – М.: 1982. – 287с 3. Арнольд И.В. Стилистика. Современный английский язык. – М.: Флинта, 2005. – 384с 4. Гальперин И.Р. Текст как объект лингвистического исследования. – М: Наука, 1981. – 139с 5. Денисова Т.Н. Історія американської літератури ХХ.ст. – К.: Основи, 2002. – 487с 6. Денисова Т.Н. Роман і романісти США. ХХ.ст. – К.: Наукова думка, 1993. – 362с 7. Єфімов Л.П. Стилістика англійської мови і дискурсивний аналіз. Учбово-методичний посібник. – Вінниця: Нова Книга, 2004. – 240с 8. Ивашева В. Английская литература ХХ века. – М., 1980. – 475с 9. Кухаренко В.А. Інтерпретація тексту. – Вінниця: Нова Книга, 2004. – 192с 10. Мендельсон М. Современная американская литература – М.: Правда, 1974. – 36с 11. Пелевина Н.Ф. Стилистический анализ художественного текста. – Л.: Просвещение, 1980. – 272с 12. Покальчук Ю Самотнє покоління – К.: 1972. – 273с 13. Ткачук Американські літературні студії в Україні. – К., 2004. – Випуск 1. Пуританська традиція у літературі США. – 260с 14. Шахова К. Література Англії ХХ століття. – К.: Либідь, 1994. – 398с 15. Шахова Проблемы новейшей литературы США. – К: Высшая школа, 2006. – 237с 16. Шкловський В. Про теорию прози. – М.: Федерация, 1985. – 265с 17. Bateson F.W. A guide to English literature. – L.: London Publishers, 1965. – 262p 18. Galperin I.R. Stylistics. – Moscow: Vysshaja skola, 1981. – 334p 19. Haggerty A. Harper Lee: “To kill a mockingbird”. – Mississippi: University of Mississippi, 2009. – 125p 20. Harper Lee To Kill a Mockingbird. – K.: Dnipro Publishers, 1977. – 340p 21. Kyharenko V.A. A Book of Practice in Stylistics. – Vinnytsia: Nova knyga, 2003. – 160p 22. Makaryk I.R.Encyclopedia of contemporary literary theory: approaches, scholars, terms. – Toronto: Toronto University Press, 1993. – 656p 23. Salinger J.D. The catcher in the rye. – M.: Progress Publishers, 1979. – 247p 24. Shields C.J. Mockingbird: A portrait of Harper Lee, N.Y.: Henry Holt, 2006. – 337p 25. http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ли,_Харпер 26. http://readlotronline.blogspot.com/ 27. http://www.e-reading.org.ua/bookreader.php/79514 28. http://www.e-reading.org.ua/book.=70358 29. http://www.readbookonline.net/title/14387/ 30. http://www.freebooks2u.com/classics/Forrest_Gump/13025.html 31. http://www.online-literature.com/james_joyce/ulysses/
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
1 RYERSON UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH English 108: Introduction to Fiction W2015 Instructor: Dr. M. Tschofen Office: JOR 1005 Office Hours: by appointment: Mondays: 10:00-‐11:00 Emails: Professor: Monique.tschofen@ryerson.ca TAs: Amy Loys: Amy.Loyst@ryerson.ca, Nick White: n8white@ryerson.ca • Emails will only be accepted from @ryerson.ca accounts • Put ENG 108 in subject line and allow 2 days for a reply • Please use email only after you have first checked the syllabus, Blackboard, and assignment instructions. TA and prof office hours are best for complex queries. • Questions should be sent to TAs first; they will forward unanswered concerns to the course professor.…
- 1988 Words
- 73 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
1. Chalykoff, Lisa, Neta Gordon, and Paul Lumsden, eds. The Broadview Introduction to Literature: Short Fiction. (BV)…
- 1100 Words
- 8 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
An unreliable perspective is used through the text, employing a narrative voice which results in ambiguity, leading the reader to think about the reality of the novel.…
- 874 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
We often discover we are familiar with certain ideas expressed in novels or short stories. However the way in which different writers express these ideas…
- 1770 Words
- 7 Pages
Powerful Essays -
This essay will explain about the narrative voice that is used in novels and how it misleads or mystifies the reader. Narrative voice defines the tone of the narrator stating their point of view. It presents the reader the situation which causes the narrator to have control over the reader’s mood. For example in the novel Perfume: the story of a murder by Patrick Suskind the author created a third person omniscient point of view. Therefore it allows the reader to know multiple characters feelings and thoughts.…
- 308 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
When looking at two or more forms of narratives we need to establish the similarities and differences in a number of areas. All literature has much in common, yet it may differ in outward forms depending on when it was written and the text type or genre used to create meaning.…
- 3852 Words
- 16 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Continues the emphasis on writing. Two analytical papers, based upon studies of the short story, poetry, and drama and a literary research paper, sequentially developed, are required.…
- 1115 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays -
The novel, that most accessible, democratic of literary forms, must establish its contract with its reader. It may be helped or hindered by all sorts of extraneous influences, cover design,…
- 1424 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
the author’s use of literary devices to contribute to the richness of textual meaning; and to control the…
- 1184 Words
- 5 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
Narrative." Studies In The Novel 43.2 (2011): 218-236. Literary Reference Center. Web. 11 Feb. 2014.…
- 1613 Words
- 4 Pages
Better Essays -
5. Choose one passage from the novel that gives an example of the author’s style. Write the passage down and then complete an analysis of the passage focusing on diction, imagery, choice of details, figurative language, tone, and any other tool the writer you view as significant.…
- 257 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
• Initially felt it necessary to outline the aims of fiction and the process by which it is created- purpose is to explore the scope and genres of fiction, answering questions which are posed by this area of academic interest…
- 1626 Words
- 7 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Kirszner, L.G., & Mandell, S.R. 2000. Literature. Reading ,Reacting, Writing. New York: Harcourt college Publishers.…
- 6578 Words
- 27 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Modern literary analyses and studies make the link between literary techniques such as narrative and storytelling and several other disciplines. Thus, one may find the theories of narrative and storytelling extending up to several major disciplines, such as philosophy, psychology, and literary criticism. In the view of different experts in literary analyses, there is a close connection between narrative or storytelling and the definition of the nature of self and personal identity. The former has been understood as influential in determining the definition of the latter and several writers have significantly contributed to this characteristic through their narrative and storytelling. These writers organize the characteristics and ideals of characters into a cohesive whole which develops a sense of who a person is. The narrative theory of identity as presented in the memories, events, and dreams of various characters and their personality traits illustrates the significant contribution made by literature in the realization of the narrative theory of identity.…
- 1536 Words
- 7 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Literature has long been a major source of information and entertainment. Learning to analyze literary work systematically can significantly add to your enjoyment and appreciation of literature.…
- 5463 Words
- 20 Pages
Powerful Essays