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3.2 Shipwreck and Power Game Outcome.............................33

Chapter Four Challenging Authority and Discourse:Unnatural Narrators in Foe......37

4.1 Mr.Foe:Creator Entering the Fictional World.....................37

4.2 Susan:Failure as a Storyteller................................42

Chapter Five Conclusion.................................55

Chapter Four Challenging Authority and Discourse:Unnatural Narrators in Foe

4.1 Mr.Foe:Creator Entering the Fictional World

In terms of the unnaturalness of the narrative level,Richardson pays attention tothe leap of fictionality contemporary narrative works.As Richardson puts forward,'fictionality is a central vantage point and touchstone of unnatural narrative theory'(42).Fiction plays a very important role in the unnatural narrative theory,and theunnatural narrative depends on and foregrounds the deep distinction between fictionand non-fiction.Paradoxically,unnatural narrative tries to challenge traditional limits,which become its essence,including even basic boundaries such as the limitation between fiction and nonfiction.Creators entering their fictional worlds is one of theways that Richardson believes how the author achieves this purpose.

Coetzee employs an innovative narrative stratification in order to achieve thegoal of his novel Foe.The principle of this stratification differs from that found intraditional novels.In Foe,the main narrative layer is the desert island story written bySusan and Mr.Foe,but it does not appear at the beginning of the novel.Instead,Coetzee begins with Susan Barton's journey to Brazil in search of her daughter.Whenthe ship she is on is mutinied,she is cast adrift on a desert island where she meetsCrusoe and Friday and lives with them for two years.By placing this backstory at thebeginning of the novel,Coetzee presents readers with a realistic,grounded account ofthe main character's experiences.However,readers are initially unaware of who istelling the story or to whom it is being told.Each paragraph begins with a puzzlingdouble quotation mark until the final sentence of the chapter.In the second part of thenovel,which can be considered as the main narrative level,Susan reveals herself asthe narrator of the previous desert island story.She states,'I have set down the historyof our time on the island as well as I can,and ericlose it herewith.It is a sorry,limping affair(the history,not the time itself)-'the next day,'its refrain goes,'thenext day...the next day'-but you will know how to set it right.'(47).Then thereader could know that the previous desert island story was narrated by Susan Barton.With this revelation,readers are able to connect the two narrative layers and gain adeeper understanding of the story as a whole.

Chapter Five Conclusion

The reappraisal of the credibility of the tradition history is an important theme ofpost-colonial literature,as well as in Coetzee's fiction.Foe,as a rewriting of RobinsonCrusoe,which can be regarded as a colonial conon,lays stress on reconstructing thetraditional European history,and exposes the colonial ideology and politics.Thisthesis attempts to analyze how unnatural narration affects the本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。