乔治.威拉德:《小城畸人》的叙事结构之魂

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Abstract: It is Winesburg,Ohio that establishes Anderson’s position in American literature and wins him international reputation. Its complex and ingenious structural characteristics is just the main focus of this essay.

Key words: Winesburg Ohio, George Willard, narrative structure

Sherwood Anderson is remarked by William Faulkner as the “father of my generation of American writers”. His masterpiece Winesburg, Ohio enjoys a broad readership and diverse criticism. The book is written in episodic pattern, which are connected in a loose and coherent structure. There always has been a heated discussion on whether the book is a novel or a collection of short stories. The complex and ingenious structural characteristics, which accounts for the dispute, is just the main focus of this essay. The main structural peculiarity of this book lies in the fact that it not only has two narrative levels but also the realization of such two-level narrative structure and the connection of the components within each narrative level is made possible through the function of the character named George Willard. Winesburg, Ohio is just the best proof of Ferrara’s viewpoint that “in fiction the character is used as the structuring element” (Kenan, 35).

The first-degree narrative is finished in episode one, in which we are told that an old writer ever wrote a book named The Book of the Grotesque. The content of episode 2 to episode 25, which are stories drawn from The Book of the Grotesque, constitutes the second degree narrative, according to “the stories told by fictional characters, e.g. the exploits of the pardoner, constitute a second degree narrative” (Kenan,91). The reason for such a supposition mainly lies in the high consistency in the content between The Book of the Grotesque and the rest episodes.

From the description of episode one, we may get a general knowledge of The Book of the Grotesque. It is a book which writes about “grotesques” whom the old writer has ever known.Their grotesqueness mainly refers to their psychological aspect. They have the ability to think and they are more sensitive than the ordinary people in some sense.

Actually, from the second episode on, almost every episode can be regarded as an independent biography of a different “grotesque”, who is distorted by the frustration and suppression of his or her own desires. All these people are seen suffocating in an environment whose dominate feature is in want of understanding. Therefore, it is quite safe to say the protagonists appear in the rest episodes are just the “grotesques” in The Book of the Grotesque written by the old writer. The dual-identity Old Writer, both a character and a fictional author, contributes to the realization of the two narrative levels.

After a more careful reading, we would find that the old writer is just the old George Willard. He is the reporter on the Winesburg Eagle. His way of exploration in writing and his attitude towards creation experiences a process from childishness to maturity. The last sentence of Departure actually coordinates with the very beginning. It suggests that life experience in Winesburg and the people there certainly contribute a lot to his later literary career. Then let us take a glance of the first episode. In episode one, we know that the book is a result of the old writer’s impulse to write about the grotesques, whom he has ever known. It means that the grotesques he has known in his real life become the characters of his book. The head and tail of Winesburg Ohio echo with each other. As a consequence, it is reasonable to think that the old writer is old George Willard. The moment we discover this, we understand the author actually puts in a lot of effort in exploring the narrative technique.

Having got a clear idea of the first-degree narrative, we come to the second-degree narrative. What is told from episode two to episode twenty five belong to the second-degree narrative. Almost each episode tells us a story of a different person. However, it does not mean that they are completely irrelevant, on the contrary, they are connected by one character, George Willard , who has direct or indirect relationship with all the characters in Winesburg,Ohio. In Nobody Knows, Sophistication and Departure, George Willard is undoubtedly the protagonist. They mainly narrate his love affair and his growth. In Mother, Respectability , The Thinker and An Awakening, he serves as the supporting role. Without his part, the story would be an incomplete one. While in Hands, A Man of Ideas, The Strength of God, The Teacher, Loneliness, Queer , he is only a foil. He only acts as a listener to whom the grotesques tell their own stories and he has no direct function in promoting the plot forward. In the rest episodes, his position in the story is degraded to be a tool of creating and heightening the atmosphere of the tale.

To sum up, the character George Willard does contribute a lot to forming the two-level narrative structure. If we take a sweeping view of American modern literary history, Winesburg, Ohio is qualified to be regarded as a milestone in the history of American short stories in terms of its unique and complex narrative structure. This new form is a “mixture” of novel and collection of short stories, which suits the materials in modern American society.

Works Cited:

[1]Kenan, Shlomish Rimmon.Narrative Fiction: Co-ntemporary Poetics.London: Methuen, 1983.

[2] Anderson, Sherwood.Winesburg, Ohio.PenguinBooks Ltd, with an Introduction by Malcolm Cowley, 1976.

[3]傅修延:《文本学-文本主义文论系统研究》,北京大学出版社,2004。

伍阳艳:北京师范大学珠海分校。