英语毕业论文-福克纳“献给爱米莉的玫瑰”的叙事技巧

英语毕业论文-福克纳“献给爱米莉的玫瑰”的叙事技巧 英语毕业论文-福克纳“献给爱米莉的玫瑰”的叙事技 巧 重庆大学本科学生毕业论文 福克纳“献给爱米莉的玫瑰”的叙事技巧 学 生: xxx 学 号:20080933 指导教师:xxx 专 业: 英语 重庆大学外国语学院 二O一二年六月 Graduation Thesis of Chongqing University Study on the Narrative Techniques of Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily Undergraduate: xxx Student Number: 20080934 Supervisor: xxx Major: English College of Foreign Languages Chongqing University June 2012 Acknowledgements I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Associate Professor Hu Wencheng, whose expertise, understanding, and patience, added considerably to my graduate experience. I appreciate his vast knowledge and skills in many areas and his assistance in writing this paper. Without his prudent proofreading, expert comments and above all generous understanding, I would not have been able to accomplish this paper. It has been a privilege and great joy to study under his supervision during the one-year paper writing. My special gratitude also goes to Professor Mao Lingying, whose academic writing course has bestowed me with a foundation on academic writing and enlightened me with the right way of making research, and Professor Li Yongyi, whose cross-cultural course has expanded my horizon and given me great inspirations in writing this paper. I would also like to thank all of my other teachers, all of my classmates for their care and help during the past four years of my undergraduate study. I must also acknowledge my family for the support they provided me through my university life, and without their love and encouragement, I would not have finished this paper 摘 要 《献给艾米莉的一朵玫瑰》是20世纪最重要的美国短篇小说之一。作者威廉??福克纳被认为是美国南方文学的代表。尽管许多文学评论已经认识到叙事技巧在这篇小说中所扮演的重要角色,并且通过马克??肖莱尔的新批评主义理论和其他相关叙事学理论探讨了该小说。但从具体的叙事技巧结合小说情节的探讨并不多，本论文将从小说的叙事技巧出发，探讨叙事技巧对读者造成的影响，并就此分析叙事技巧在主人公形象塑造和展现小说主题上的作用。论文包括五章。第一章是导论，分为三个部分:本论文的写作动机，重要意义以及阐述论文从叙事技巧着手分析该小说的合理性;第二章是文献综述。在这一章，作者将会对国内外对于《献给艾米丽的玫瑰》的评论做一个简要的探讨。第三章从叙事学的角度对作品进行分析，第四章分析叙事技巧对读者的影响以及它们对人物塑造和主题展现上的重要作用。第五章是结论。基于以上分析，论文将得出造成艾米丽悲剧的根源是清教统治下腐朽的社会传统。 关键词:威廉??福克纳, 时间错置, 第一人称复数叙事, 意识流 Abstract “A Rose for Emily” is generally viewed as one of the most important American short stories in 20th century. Its author William Faulkner is regarded as the representative of the southern literature of the United States. Although many literary critics have recognized that narrative techniques play an important role in this novel and interpreted it by means of Mark Schorer’s new criticism theory and other theories concerning narrative techniques, there are few studies in China interpreting this novel through combining narrative techniques and the plot of the story. The core aim of narrative techniques study is to discuss their influences on readers, and thus explain the effects they produce on the characterization of the heroine and theme development. The paper contains five chapters. Chapter One, the introduction, is divided into four parts: the significance and motivation of writing this paper, which show the power of “A Rose for Emily” as well as its writer and justifiability to employ narrative techniques in analyzing this short story. Chapter Two is the literature review. In this chapter, the author gives a brief survey of the critical works, both at home and abroad, on “A Rose for Emily”. Chapter Three is the analysis of the work from the perspective of narration. Chapter Four analyzes the narrative techniques’ influences on readers and their effects on characterization and theme development. Chapter Five is the conclusion. Based on the analysis in the previous chapters, it can be concluded that the tragedy of Emily is made by the decayed puritanical ethic tradition. Key words: William Faulkner, Anachronism, The first-person plural narrative, Stream of consciousness Contents Acknowledgements I 摘 要 II Abstract III 1 Introduction 1 1.1 The Motivation and Significance of the Paper 1 1.2 Paper Claim 2 1.3 Brief Introduction to Theoretical Basis 2 1.4 The Outline of the Paper 2 2 Literature review 4 2.1Narrative Studies on “A Rose for Emily” 4 2.2 The researches abroad 4 2.3 The researches in China 5 3 An analysis of “A Rose for Emily” 6 4 An analysis of the narrative techniques in the short story 7 4.1 Anachronism 7 4.2 The first-person plural narrative 9 4.3 stream of consciousness 11 5 Conclusion 13 Works cited 15 1 Introduction 1.1 The Motivation and Significance of the Paper “A Rose for Emily” is generally viewed as one of the most important American short stories appearing in the 20th century. From the early 1920s to the outbreak of WWII Faulkner published 13 novels and numerous short stories, which grounds his reputation and for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize at the age of 52. He is the most influential writer in Southern American literature. Apart from the honors it brings to its writer, it is acclaimed as the best in the history of Southern American literature as well as an important contribution to modern American literature. Since the publication of “A Rose for Emily”, many critical works focus on Faulkner’s literary skills and the use of stream of consciousness, symbolism and on the modernistic and post modernistic writing techniques. The greatness of this short story is that, Faulkner cultivates a rose for Emily in the story. And the rose appears in two sentences of the novel, “upon the valance curtains of faded rose color, upon the rose-shaded lights” qtd in Contemporary College English, 2003, p. 110 1. This indicates Emily’s misfortune in her life time. And her search for happiness also ends up with failure. More importantly, Faulkner makes use of non-linear narrative to show readers a poor lady’s resistance to change and suggests that the formation of her twisted character. Emily is passive in her life and misses her chance to change. And in turn she becomes the victim of the Puritanical ethic dominated society. Thus the theme of the short story deepens from a female’s suffering to a social tragedy. Although many literary critics have recognized the narrative techniques’ important role in this novel and interpreted this novel by means of Mark Schorer’s new criticism theory and other theories concerning narrative techniques, there are few studies in China interpreting this short story through combining narrative techniques with its plot analysis. Moreover, the disordered chronology makes it appropriate to analyze this novel using anachronism. The stories in the novel, whether in the past or at present, are not straight-line activities, but interwoven in many ways. And there is suspense in the short story which needs to be discovered. This is also in concordance with the narration. Thus, it is meaningful to analyze the work in the light of narrative techniques. 1.2 Paper Claim The author tries to interpret Emily’s attachment to the past and the attitudes of the townspeople towards Emily, in order to find the answer to her tragedy. It is argued that her tragedy derives from the Puritanism dominated decayed society. 1.3 Brief Introduction to Theoretical Basis The inconformity between story time and narrative time was defined by the French narratologist Genette as anachronism. The narration time includes narrative time and story time. The narrative time order is the development of the text and the story time order is a story’s time from the beginning to the end. The narrative time order can changed by the narrator while the story time order is changeless. And the use of first person plural point of view in the short story creates two kinds of narrator, one is the omniscient and another is the objective narrator. And the stream of consciousness is a literary method of representing a blending of mental processes in fictional characters, usually in an unpunctuated or disjointed form of interior monologue. 1.4 The Outline of the Paper This paper has five chapters. Chapter One, the introduction, is divided into four parts: the significance and motivation of writing this paper, which show the power of “A Rose For Emily” as well as its writer and the justifiability to employ narrative techniques in analyzing this novel. The second part is the brief summary of the main idea if this dissertation. The third part is the brief introduction of anachronism, point of view and stream of consciousness. The last part is the outline of this paper. Chapter Two is the literature review. In this chapter, the author will give a brief survey of the critical works, both at home and abroad, on “A Rose for Emily”. The previous study falls into four categories: new criticism study, feminist study, psychological study and modernist study. In China, the study of this novel is comparatively limited. On the basis of literature review, the author points out that a research on this novel by employing narrative techniques may shed a new light on the interpretation of the characterization and theme of this novel. Chapter Three is the brief introduction to the work― A Rose for Emily. The author will introduce Emily’s typical character and narrative techniques in the short story. Chapter Four consists of three parts. It will have a detailed analysis of the narrative techniques together with the plot. The first part is the anachronism’s influence on readers and its effects on story development and characterization. The second part is the first-person narrative and to analyze the intention of the author’ retreating from the narrative. The third part is about stream of consciousness. The paper analyzes the order of the narrator’s consciousness and explores the source of Emily’s tragedy. Chapter Five is the conclusion. It will first summarize the major points of the analysis and then based on this, draw the conclusion of the research. 2 Literature review 2.1 Narrative Studies on “A Rose for Emily” On account of its suspending plot, twisted character, typical way of narrative, “A Rose for Emily”, has attracted many readers and scholars at home and abroad. And more and more critics pay attention to this work since it is published. They mainly focus on psychoanalysis, socio-cultural study, feminism, narrative and comparative study, and various aspects of the story have been investigated. Among these research studies, the narrative strategy of the short story is a focus, also a difficulty. Taking the word of the title concerning “narrative” into consideration, this paper narrows the scope of the literature review concerning narrative studies. Narration is an inherent human impulse, so there is no wonder bringing it into literary criticism. At the end of 1960, under the impact of structuralism, narration was born in France. Narration has entered into the period of “postclassical narratologies” from “classical narratology” since the 1990s. Classical narration tends to be called structural narratology; whereas postclassical narration, with two major characteristics: to attach more importance to the role of readers and social or historical context and to stress interdisciplinary research, aim to surpass structural narratology, so as to enrich narrative criticism. Though the research materials concerned with narratology, a brief literature review about this short story is as follows. The researches abroad The first category of study is about the narrative time in Faulkner’s work. Sartre once points out in his “On the Sound and the Fury: Time in Faulkner’s Novels” that Faulkner’s metaphysics is a metaphysics of time. Faulkner shows his success in using time and produces many researches such as Paul D.McGlym’s “The Chronology of ‘A Rose for Emily’” 1969 , G.R. Wilson Jr’s “The Chronology of Faulkner’s ‘A Rose for Emily’ Again” 1972 , Gene M. Moore’s “Of Time and Its Mathematical Progression: Problems of Chronology in Faulkner’s ‘A Rose for Emily’” 1992 , etc. All this shows that Faulkner’s non-chronological story-telling occupy a very important role for critics. And this narrative technique reveals Faulkner’s strong interest in time and southern history. The second category of studies focused on the point of view employed in this short story, such as Ruth Sullivan, Isaac Rodman, Lawrence R. Rodgers, etc. Among them, Terry Heller’s “The Telltale Hair: A Critical Study of William Faulkner’s ‘A Rose for Emily’” is a representative among critics focusing on the narrative effect. The third category of studies is about narrative structure in the work. Faulkner always arranged an intricate structure to his short stories. Floyd C. Watkins’s “The Structure of ‘A Rose for Emily’” 1954 , William V. Davis’s “Another Flower for Faulkner’s Bouquet: Theme and Structure in ‘A Rose for Emily’” 1974 , Ray B. West Jr.’s “Atmosphere and Theme in ‘A Rose for Emily’” 1998 . The fourth category is about narrative language in “A Rose for Emily” is also very typical. Faulkner describes Emily’s house with a very long and complex sentence, which can present a solemn feeling with a slow rhythm as well as the noble past of the owner in this town. Besides, Faulkner always uses long sentences followed by many short sentences in order to reach certain art effects. For example, in the Part Five, “The man himself lay in the bed” in the middle of two long paragraphs is very obvious , because this short simple sentence would make readers wondering who this man is and why he is lying here. It can produce a new suspense with horrible atmosphere. The two examples mentioned above are frequently applied to illustrate certain features of Faulkner’s language in many critical studies. And there is another language features in “A Rose for Emily”, which appears in Mary Louise Weaks’ “The Meaning of Miss Emily’s Rose” 1981 . The studies concern the narrative skills are numerous, for instance, Semiramis Yagcioglu’s “Lauguage, Subjectivity and Ideology” 1995 . And the studies also include the interdisciplinary narrative. Mary Arensberg and Sara E. Schyfter’s “Hairoglyphics in Faulkner’s ‘A Rose for Emily’” 1986-1987 . The researches in China Though domestic study about Faulkner is later than the foreign country, it still attracted many scholars’ interest to study the work such as Ning Juanqin and Shi Junhua’s “On Anachronism and Narration Distance of A Rose for Emily” 2007 , Ding Xiaoyu’s “The Temporal Philosophy of A Rose for Emily” 2008 , Pan Buhan’s “The Narrative Structure and Techniques in William Faulkner’s ‘A Rose for Emily’” 2008 , Pan Xuequan’s “An Interpretation of ‘A Rose for Emily’ from the Perspective of Linguistic Iconicity” 2008 . And Xiao Minghan’s “Study of William Faulkner” is the first treatise on studying Faulkner’s work in a more complete perspective. From the researches both at home and abroad, it can be concluded that the narrative study of “A Rose for Emily” has mushroomed. However the studies from the perspective of combining narrative study with the plot of the short story are few. And that leave possibility for researchers to try a new angel to interpret this story. 3 An analysis of “A Rose for Emily” “A Rose for Emily” is a gothic short, originally published in 1930. The story begins with Emily’s death when the whole town comes to her funeral and then flashbacks a whole life of Miss Emily. Her father, Mr. Grierson, drives all the suitors out of the door so that she does not get married even at thirty. She refuses every change that the war had brought and lives a different life from the townsmen. And finally she died with her old plantation system. The novel creates a poor female image. The major character of Emily is her sentimental attachment to the past. In Faulkner’s words, “the past is never dead, it is not even past” Faulkner, 1960 . Miss Emily refuses to face the new world and attempts to remain in her high social position. Those can be found in many details of the story. She refuses to pay the taxes. She does not permit people to fasten the metal numbers to her door; she even does not allow people to dispose of the body for three days when her father dies. All these facts clearly illustrate Miss Emily’s attachment to the past. As to the motive of killing her lover, one convincing explanation is Ray West’s (1968) theory of Emily’s attempt to stop time, Which is consistent with her character. The disordered chronology makes the story very complex and indicates Emily’s bad fate. The author retreated from the narration through the first-person plural narrative. The author unfolds Emily’s story before readers and also indicates the reasons of Emily’s tragedy. And the using of stream of consciousness makes the whole narration natural and meaningful. At the end of the story, Emily died and the story comes back to the beginning. “Our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection„the women mostly out of curiosity” p103 . 4 An analysis of the narrative techniques in the short story This story is a typical example for Faulkner as an greatest experimentalist: from its contents, the story covers almost all the themes presented in other fictions, such as the decline of the aristocratic family, the slavery, the humanity; from the aspect of narrative arts, the story is a experimental writing field involving many artistic narrative techniques, such as multi-perspective narrative, anachronism, stream of consciousness symbolism and flashback. In the work, the “rose” is a symbol that represents Faulkner’s sympathy to Emily and flashback is reflected at the beginning of story with Emily’s death. And then the work writes about her life before death in the following parts of the story. The paper will interpret it in terms of three typical narrative techniques using in the novel: anachronism, the first person narrative, stream of consciousness. 4.1 Anachronism In “A Rose for Emily”, the chronology plays an important role in characterization, plots and theme development. It is an eye-catching technique that Faulkner used in the work. And Faulkner deliberately disjointed chronological time in the story. He uses “a complicatedly disjunctive time scheme” Wilson, 1972:56 that “twists chronology almost beyond recognition” Sullivan, 1971:176 . In this story there are two chronologies. One is the time of narrative and another is the story time. And those two twist together and create obstacle for readers to understand the story easily and completely. So, in order to better understand the story clearly and find the potential answer of some suspense in the story, it is very necessary to make Emily’s own chronology in the context. According to the hints and important events a timetable can be made below: Chronology of the Major Events in Emily Grierson 1 1856 Emily was born 2 1886 Emily was still single and 30 years old 3 1888 Emily’s father died around this time 4 1889 Homer Barron arrived in the summer, Emily started dating Homer Barron 5 1890 Baptist Minister had an interview with Emily. Emily’s cousins arrived. Emily bought arsenic 6 1890 Townspeople sprinkled lime to eliminate the smell from Emily’s house. 7 1894 Colonel Sartorius remitted Emily’s taxes 8 1899-1907 Emily stopped giving painting lessons 9 1920 A deputation visited Emily to force her to pay taxes 10 1930 Emily died at the age of 74 11 1930 Townspeople visited Emily’s house and disclosed her crime Table 4.1 Source: Buhan, Pan. 2008. The Narrative Structure and techniques in William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily. 语文学刊. From the story, this chronology is disjointed. Some events do not appear according to the natural timetable above Table 4.1 . Instead, the chronology is disjointed into six fragments: item 5, item 6, item 8, item9, item 10 and item 11. In the story, item 5 is placed in part four, and item8-11 is placed in both part I and part IV of the story. In item 5, Miss Emily is engaged with Homer Barron and may marry to him. And this is not agreed by the townspeople. in Part IV “The men did not want to interfere, but at last the ladies forced the Baptist minister―Miss Emily’s people were Episcopal―to call upon her„„and the following day the minister’s wife wrote to Miss Emily’s relations in Alabama” p108 . Thus Miss Emily’s blood-kin come. Here the item 5 in part IV is obviously the main factor of Emily buying arsenic in part III. And in the first paragraph of part IV, “because Homer himself had remarked―he like men, and it was know that he drank with the younger men in the Elk’s Club-that he was not a marrying man” p108 serves as another important factor for Emily to kill Homer Barron. However, the narrator intentionally puts Emily’s action of buying poison before her cousin’s arrival and her lover’s declaration of his attitudes towards marriage. Thus, the cause and the effect become unclear and the narrator deliberately isolates the event of Homer’s disappearance in the development of the plot. This anachronism wants readers to calm down and continue to dig the deep level of the story and to recognize Emily’s crime without a final judgment. And the narrator put item 8-11 in the first part indicating another narrative purpose, which is different from item 5 and item 6. Although the events of item8-11 are mentioned in part IV, collecting those details and putting them in part I can create a vivid image before readers. Especially, Miss Emily refused to pay taxes to the new government, bought the arsenic with her authority successfully. And the officials in Jefferson Town dare not tell Emily to eliminate the smell around her house. So they decided to solve the smell problem by themselves. “So the next night, after midnight, four men crossed Miss Emily’s lawn and slunk about the house like burglars, sniffing along the base of the brickwork and at the cellar openings while one of them performed a regular sowing motion with his hand out of a sack slung from his shoulder.” p105 All of those show Emily’s power and dignity in her higher status and put a venerable light before the final revelation of her crime. The author breaks the chronological order and put these events in part I. It not only gives a description of Emily’s information, but also leads readers to gradually develop a sympathetic view towards her. Another important clue is that the author put Emily’s death at the beginning of the story before Homer’s death. This arrangement put Emily in a pitiful position from the beginning of the story. In a sense, the events are mentioned in part I firstly, and were mentioned again in part IV, serving as an emphasis on Emily’s pitiable yet venerable character, which further delays readers’ judgment towards Emily before they are shocked by the “iron-gray hair” in the last paragraph of the story. As Heller 1972:306 points out, “before we learn of Emily’s bizarre behavior we see her as pathetic-if antiquated-figure in a town whose life have passed her by; therefore, we are disposed to see Emily as victimized”. To sum up, the author uses the broken chronology to create a pitiable Emily and to explore the inner world of a human being and inner struggle in the human heart. 4.2 The first-person plural narrative Faulkner uses the first-person plural narrative in “A Rose for Emily”. The narrator “we” are the townspeople who live in the same place with Emily. The author makes the narrator an omniscient narrator: And that was the last we saw of Homer Barron. And of Miss Emily for some time. The Negro man went in and out with the market basket, but the front door remained closed. Now and then we would see her at a window for a moment, as the men did that night when they sprinkled the lime, but for almost six month she did not appear on the streets. Then we knew that this was to be expected too: as if that quality of her father which had thwarted her woman’s life so many times had been too virulent and too furious to die. There are five sentences in this paragraph. The first sentence and the last sentence are omniscient point of view. And the second, the third, the fourth sentences are all external point of view, which describe what “we” saw. The first sentence in this paragraph follows the last sentence in the paragraph above, which is “A neighbor saw the Negro man admit him at the kitchen door at dusk one evening” 108 . This demonstrates that the narrator can know not only what the others had seen, but also understand Emily’s feeling, which shows the omniscient narrator. And in some places the author uses the third-person limited point of view. For instance, in the sixth paragraph in Part I: They rose when she entered―a small, fat woman in black, with a thin gold chain descending to her waist and vanishing into her belt, leaning on an ebony cane with a tarnished gold head. Her skeleton was small and spare; perhaps that was why what would have been merely plumpness in another was obesity in her. She looked bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water, and of that pallid hue. The narrator observes Emily through the third person narrative and evaluates her through “they” they refer to the new government. Here Emily looks like a corpse but is still arrogant. The cane still represents her family’s authority, but the word “tarnished” shows the fallen of her family as well as her corruption. In the story, “we” are the representatives of the south moral standard and social order. Firstly, we regard Emily as one of our members, so her behavior should conform to our standard; once she obeyed the standard, she would become our enemy. The first person plural point of view, “we”, closes the distance between readers and Emily. This kind of narrative strengthened the sense of truth and it is easier for readers to believe and pay sympathy to Emily. Thus the author retreats from the story successfully and readers can get the direct data about Emily and the townspeople through the first person narrative. So it can give more space and freedom for readers to form their attitudes towards Emily. As a gothic story it is very scary and unbelievable, but when the news comes from the people living in Jefferson town, it becomes real and believable. Meanwhile, readers can get a clear judgment about townspeople’s attitudes towards Emily. And from the story it is very obvious that the tragedy of Emily is brought by “we”------the representative of the south Puritanism dominated society, “we” have put much pressure on tender Miss Emily and hope that she is always according with the value of an aristocrat. Or, we will protest just as we dissatisfied with the smell in her house, the rejection of pay tax and the engagement with a northerner. The story begins with the funeral of Emily and ends with it, which forms a closed time circle so as to emphasis. “We” regard her as the image of tradition, a symbol of duty. Her death is just like a monument’s collapse. At first, “we” respect Emily. When Emily’s father died, she was exempted from taxes. “We” showed sympathy and care to poor Emily. When Miss Emily’s house gives out the smell, nobody dares to tell her to solve it. Instead, the officials sprinkled lime around Emily’s house quietly. From those detailed description readers can feel the townspeople’s concern towards Emily. However, when Emily is engaged with Homer Barron and even may marry him, the attitudes of people in the town change. People in the town think that Emily’s behaviors have made a bad influence on the town and set a bad example for the youth. The ladies in the town even think that Emily disgraces the images of women. And they send the minister and Emily’s blood-kin to prevent her from engagement. This shows that people in the town do not care about Emily’s happiness at all. The apathy and selfishness are showed through the first person narrative. The first person plural narrative on one hand, depicts Emily’s attachment to the past; on the other hand, condemns the intolerant, vulgar and decay society in the South. 4.3 stream of consciousness The whole story is developed with the townspeople’s consciousness. There are five parts. The first part is beginning with Emily’s death. All the townspeople intend to her funeral. Emily’s house is the only old big, squarish frame house just like Emily herself whom had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town. This occasion reminds us of Miss Emily’s privilege in 1894 that the Colonel Sartoris remitted her taxes and put this privilege as a heredity obligation. But after many years, the new government is not dissatisfied with the privilege and urges Emily to fulfill her obligation. However, they are driven away by Miss Emily when they taxed her. “So she vanquished them, horse and foot, just as she had vanquished their fathers thirty years before about the smell” p105 . This brings another recollection about Emily in part II, that is, Emily’s yard has smell, but the officials dare not to call upon her about it. So they went to her house at night and sprinkled lime there and in all the outbuildings. This is just the time that her father died and her lover disappeared mysteriously. So people began to recall Emily’s father who refused all of the suitors and deprived his daughter of her happiness. Thus Emily became an old woman but still single. And when his father died, she refused townspeople to bury her father. Next, in part III of the novel people made a recollection about Emily’s love experience. She fell in love with a northerner named Homer Barron. And they began to fall in love though the people in Jefferson show their dissatisfaction and even scolded them. Then two of Emily’s blood-kin came and prevent her. Finally Emily went to the drugstore and bought arsenic. At this time, in the fourth part of the story, people began to guess that Emily wound suicide. But people find that she bought a complete outfit of men’s clothing. It seems that she would marry to Homer Barron. Strangely, Homer Barron disappeared. Since then Emily knocked herself at home and never went out until she was forty. At the age of forty, she gives painting lessons to the children in the town. And here also mentioned the reason why Mr. Sartoris remitted her tax and the new government dissatisfaction about this privilege. And then the story comes to Emily’s funeral where the event was mentioned in the first paragraph of the story. The events in the story are not arranged by the cause-effect relationship, instead, by the narrator’s consciousness. This also shows Genett’s embedded theory. The narrator’s recollection is not concordance with story time. However, the recollection is reasonable and acceptable. This makes the recollection real and believable. As a master of stream of consciousness, Faulkner put the two kinds of time together. When Emily rejects to pay tax, rejects to bury her father, and hides Homer Barron’s corpse in her house, the time for her is still and nothing had happened. For Emily they are still alive. This kind of time is Emily’s psychology time, which shows that Emily lost her mind. However, when she is with Homer and gives lessons in china-painting, her psychology time is concordance with the townspeople’s time, which shows that she remains conscious and wants to be one of the members of the town. This just reflects the social resource of Emily’s tragedy, that is, the society abandons her and Emily becomes the victim of the Puritanism dominated society. 5 Conclusion Everything that specializes the American South and its inhabitants such as Southern history, climate, geography, natural life, society, customs, traditions, ideologies, living conditions, speech patterns, which are presented in Faulkner’s writing. However, he is far more than a regional writer; that is to say, Faulkner, known as one of the greatest most genuinely innovative modernist, reveals his greatest is due to what might to be called his stereoscopic vision, his ability to deal with the specific and the universal at the same time, as Gustaf Hellstrom, in the ceremony of 1949 Nobel Prize, presents to Faulkner: Moreover―side by side with Joyce and perhaps even more so―Faulkner is the great experimentalist among twentieth-century novelists. Scarcely two of his novels are similar technically. It seems as if by this continuous renewal he wanted to achieve the increased breadth which his limited world, both in geography and in subject matter, cannot give him. Faulkner wants to make his readers see the truth he unfolded in his works. The truth is not only implied in the language level, but also reflected on the way of narrative. In “A Rose for Emily”, Faulkner unfolds a miniature but vivid picture of the South by making this short story seen. Applying anachronism narrative, the past and the present are inextricably mixed, and the events, the scenes, the characters are come together, which gives unity and uniqueness to “A Rose for Emily”. And it can afford readers a new angle to probe into the complex unity of this short story. The disordered chronology is very typical in this story. It is not only create a gothic and mysterious story, but also shows readers a female’s miserable suffering through the disordered time and leads readers to think the deep level of the story. The ambiguity of the theme comes from the disordered chronology and stream of consciousness. On the superficial level, it is a murder story with elements of Gothic literature-an eccentric woman living in isolation. But on a deeper level, the story explores the inner world of a human being, or the inner struggle in the human heart. The research towards narrative techniques has got numerous materials nowadays both at home and abroad. Except Xiao Minghan’s study, there are many other important studies on Faulkner’s narrative techniques. Many of them are focus on the narrative techniques study and theme development. The paper pays more attention to the plot development and tries to dig out the effect that narrative techniques have brought to the short story writing and the power of expression. This paper also made a detailed study on stream of consciousness according to the events that occurred in the story. The story is developed through narrators’ consciousness flowing, which may lack logic and preparation. At first, at the beginning of the story, readers get to know that Emily died, which suspends readers’ curiosity to reader again. At last, the story comes back and continues to describe Emily’s death. Obviously, this arrangement puts an emphasis on Emily’s death and the reasons of her death. The murderers are “we”―the townspeople and the decayed traditional system and even Emily’s father. Moreover, this kind of arrangement gives readers a quite atmosphere to experience life’s hardship without disturbed by the author. Meanwhile, the using of the first person narrative makes readers have a closer relationship with the narrator. And it is easier for readers to understand the author’s feeling. In conclusion, “A Rose for Emily” deserves to get a deep thinking on its outstanding narrative technique and in that the story development. And from the analysis it can find that the source of Emily’s tragedy is comes from the decayed tradition. The author revealed the decay puritanical ethic society successfully through creates a female’s image. It sets a good example for us to learn. In order to accomplish the aim, the paper analyzes the narrative techniques from different aspects and combined them with the formation of Emily’s character and theme development. Though the analysis of the paper is still immature in some aspects due to the complexity of plot and ambiguity of the theme, people can definitely get a better understanding of narrative techniques of “A Rose for Emily” by reading this paper. Works cited Arensberg, Mary, and Sara E. Schyfter. Hairoglyphics in Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”/Reading the Primal Trace. Boundary, 1986-1987 Buhan, Pan. 2008. The Narrative Structure and techniques in William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily. 语文学刊. Davis, William V. 1974.Another Flower for Faulkner’s Bouquet: Theme and Structure in “A Rose for Emily”. Notes on Mississipi Writers. Faulkner, William. 1960. Act?, Scene ?, Reuiem for a Nun. Penguin. Gwynn, Frederick& Blotner, Joseph. 1959. Faulkner in the University: Class Conference at the University of Virginia, 1957-1958. University of Virginia Press. Heller, Terry. 1972. The Telltale Hair. A Critical Studies of William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”. Arizona Quarterly. McGlynn, Paul D. 1970. 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Graduation Thesis of Chongqing University Acknowledgements I Graduation Thesis of Chongqing University 摘要 II Graduation Thesis of Chongqing University Introduction Graduation Thesis of Chongqing University Abstract Graduation Thesis of Chongqing University Contents Graduation Thesis of Chongqing University Introduction Graduation Thesis of Chongqing University Literature review Graduation Thesis of Chongqing University An analysis of “A Rose for Emily” on the basis of narrative techniques Graduation Thesis of Chongqing University An analysis of the narrative techniques in the short story Graduation Thesis of Chongqing University Conclusion Graduation Thesis of Chongqing University Works cited