A Narrative Analysis of The Invisible Japanese Gentlemen

【Abstract】： Labov narration-analysis pattern is a sort of method frequently used to analyze narrative discourse. This model consists of six steps， including abstract， orientation， complicating action， resolution， evaluation and coda. Under the guidance of Labov’s model， this thesis analyzes the narrative structure of The Invisible Japanese Gentlemen to further explore the impact of the narrating technique on strengthening the theme of the novel.

【Key Words】： Labov’s model； narrative structure；narration

1 Introduction

1.1The Brief Introduction of The Invisible Japanese Gentlemen

The Invisible Japanese Gentlemen is written by a famous British short story writer named Graham Green in 1965. This story was set in a restaurant called Bentley in London. The author used first-person narration. The narrator is an onlooker， which also plays a role in this novel. The story was told by a middle-aged man who is probably the author Graham Greene himself. He sat alone and observed other customers. Besides， eight Japanese gentlemen seated at a big table. A pretty young English woman， who is a writer， had just sold her first novel. Yet the point of this story is that this woman does not even notice the Japanese gentlemen at all. There is a strong contrast between the unobservant woman and the very perceptive and sophisticated narrator.

1.2Literature Review

1.2.1 Previous Research on Stylistics

Style is important in writing. Stylistics can be seen as a branch of linguistics. Stylistics is an interdisciplinary field of study， which analyzes the critical use of language. The linguist Jean-Jacques Lecercle publishes a short critique of aims， methods and rationale of contemporary stylistics. [2]Paul Simpson also mentioned that many linguistic critics consider stylistics as appendages of literary research. In recent years， stylistic analysis is widely used in various kinds of discourse description， explanation， appreciation and in English discourse teaching.

1.2.2 Research on Narration at home and abroad

Paul Simpson thinks that it’s common for much work in stylistics and narratology to make a primary distinction between two basic components of narrative： narrative plot and narrative discourse. In what became an influential study in structuralist narratology， the Russian scholar Wadimir Propp published in 1928 ‘morphology’ of the fairy tale. His purpose is to investigate the form of the fairy tale and confirm the regularity of the structure. Labov’s model has proved a productive model of analysis in stylistics.

Since the1980s， the narratology research in China is growing， and it mainly focuses on translation， instruction and application. The published monographs are emerging from the scholars such as The Secret of telling stories： The theory of literary Narrative， Narrative： Meaning and Strategy. At present， the scholars are fixed on the feminist narrative research.

2 Theoretical Model： Labov’s Narrative Model

2.1 The Introduction of Labov’s Narrative Model

William Labov is an American linguist， widely regarded as the founder of the discipline of variationist sociolinguistics and he is employed as a professor in the linguistics department of the University of Pennsylvania. The main points of his model were first published in 1972 in an essay The Transformation of Experience in Narrative Syntax. In this essay， Labov extends the subject of the structure analysis of the article to the entire oral story， and divided the story into six key categories. He discusses each part as a tool which we can use to analyze narrative patterns， to help recognize recurring themes and ideas.

The six key categories of Labov’s model are： abstract， orientation， complicating action， resolution， evaluation and coda. Labov uses the term “abstract” to refer to the introductory part of the narrative. It briefly introduces the story before the narrator begins to describe the whole story. However， this category is selective. The next stage is usually called “orientation”. This part helps the audience to identify time， place， persons， activity and situation of the story. Following the orientation is the “complicating action”. It refers to the core narrative category providing the ‘what happened’ element of the story. One essential feature of this category is the stationarity of the narrative order. That is to say， the narrative order should comply with chronological order of the events. Complicating actions may be physical actions. The next stage is “resolution”. It recapitulates the final key event of a story. “Evaluation” refers to the point， or reason， the narrative is being told， and it can be done in a number of ways. Finally， there may be a coda. It means that a story has ended and brings the audience back to the point at which he entered the narrative.

3 Qualitative Analysis

3.1 Narrative Analysis with the Labov’s Model

Following the young female writer praised by a publisher and her fiancé talking about their date of wedding， the fiction tells the truth that the heroine looks forward to being a writer but she doesn’t possess the skills to do it well.

The title of this fiction implies that the characters that play a big role in the novel， and the readers will surmise that these people are significant to the whole text.

Abstract： At the end of the first paragraph represents the first category of Labov’s model. Orientation： The first and the second paragraph confess the time， place， characters and relevant background. Time： dinner. Place： This story takes place in Bentley， a restaurant in London. Participants： an unmarried couple， eight Japanese and the narrator. The cause of the things， the heroine is excited by the news that her maiden work and she is full of imagination.

Complicating action： As the core narrative category， it discusses the first book of the heroine， the work of the fiancé， the heroine’s attempt to publish her second book， the climax and so forth. This category consists of three specific periods： creating conflict， intensifying the conflict and climax phrase. The first period mainly reflects from the second paragraph to the fourth paragraph， it describes that the heroine wants to set a wedding date but her fiancé speaks vaguely and without enthusiasm. The second period refers to the intensifying conflict. From the fortieth paragraph to the forty-fifth paragraph， the heroine again asks her fiancé “You don’t really want to be married to a novelist， do you？” However， her fiancé still had not replied directly， just say， “You aren’t one yet.” The climax phrase： At the end of this short fiction， the heroine’s fiancé ask her “I wonder what all those Japanese are doing here？” But the heroine responds “Japanese？” and “What Japanese， darling？ Sometimes you are so evasive I think you don’t want to marry me at all.” [1] Here， these conversations perfectly intensify the conflict and push the story into the climax. Resolution： This fiction ends with several conservations. The author does not tell us the future of the heroine and just gives us an open ending. However， the climax conceals potential crisis， and the heroine fails to fulfill her supposed powers of observation by failing to notice the presence of the Japanese gentlemen. Evaluation： Evaluation refers to the narrator’s comments on the cause， main points plus the purpose of the story. It also includes the comments on action and characters， and some discussions about relevant situations from others and so on. The evaluation can be used as the narrator’s view in some cases and other’s attitudes to a definite situation. Evaluation is the distinct feature of this realistic work. The author makes the pertinent remarks on the personalities of the characters， the career and the bitterness of being a writer， which also hints that， it is essential for the heroine to think twice before making any decision on her profession， and she should act according to her ability. Meanwhile， it is not wise of her to be a writer. Coda： The Invisible Japanese Gentlemen has no coda which does not mean that it obeys the genre of a formal narrative. What is noteworthy is that not all stories strictly comply with the order of Labov’s model. On the contrary， the author sometimes meets the actual demand to disrupt the time or space order， and rearrange the plots to create suspense so that it can make the story more dramatic.

3.2 The First-person Narration

In this fiction， the author uses the first-person narration and has many identities such as a customer and the narrator. The author himself plays a role in the story， and he can closely observe people and events around him. Meanwhile， he can also objectively record those happened in this restaurant， which greatly increases the truth and credibility of the story. Following are several examples：

1. “There were eight Japanese Gentlemen having a fish dinner at Bentley’s. Sometimes， the pretty girl who sat in the window...but her own problem seemed too serious for her to pay real attention to anyone in the world except herself and her companion.”[1]

This sentence reflects that the eight Japanese are very conspicuous， and they all wear eyeglasses and are radiant with smiles. The Japanese arise many customers’ interest including the author. They sit between the young couple and me， but the heroine ignores them.

2 “I could see them as two miniatures hanging side by side on white wood panels.”[1]

This sentence is the author’s attitude towards the young couple， but it indirectly reflects that the two people are seemingly out of this restaurant and they show indifferent attitude towards the surroundings.

3 “He said， ‘I wonder what all those Japanese are doing here？’ ‘Japanese？’ She said. ‘What Japanese， Darling？ Sometimes you are so evasive I think you don’t want to marry me at all.’”[1]

The story ends with dialogues between the young couple. The answer and question structurally echo with the beginning of the story. The conservation points that the girl lacks ability of observation， so she is not a good writer. With an open ending， the author doesn’t give an account of the leading character’s prospect， which leaves enough imaginary space for the audience.

3.3 Conversation Analysis

Conversation analysis， originated from America in 1960s， is an emerging discipline. It aims at revealing the recurrent conversational structure in daily life. A thesis called A simplest systematic for the organization of turn-taking for conversation written by Harvey Sacks， Emmanuel Schegloff and Gail Jefferson lays a good foundation for this subject. Conversation analysis cannot only disclose the interpersonal relationships of the participants， but also reflects their values， beliefs and interests to some extent.

The whole text consists of 113 sentences， among which are 73 sentences beginning with dialogues. It’s obvious that conversation plays a crucial role in portraying characters and deepening the theme of the story. From the second paragraph， the text is mixed with dialogues which a couple talking about their wedding date. Among the six turns of the dialogues， the girl says 87 words， with 14.5 words of each dialogue. However， her fiancé just says 35 words， with 5.8 words of each conversation. To begin with， the young girl said， “So you see we could marry next week.” Her fiancé replied to her only with a word “Yes？” He behaved a little bit anxiously. And then， he said： “Of course， but mother…” Dialogues can clearly reflect their personalities. The girl is extroverted while the boy is a little bit introverted and not assertive. Throughout the course of conversations， the young girl occupies a leading position and the two parties lack common language in many aspects. So it’s impossible to equally carry out the dialogues. Although the author does not give us their ending， whether they get married or not， the answer is focusing on readers’ minds.

When we speak of conversation analysis in this fiction， the last dialogue deserves to be mentioned. The hero said： “I wonder what all those Japanese are doing here.” However， his fiancée should reply to him， “Japanese？” “What Japanese， darling？ Sometimes you are so evasive I think you don’t want to marry me at all.”[1] Actually， as the story develops， the suspense gradually disappears. Although the young girl is bent on writing， she is powerless in this situation because she is doomed to fail. The young girl can’t see things as they really are. The power of observation that she is proud of is nothing more than holiday words， because she is blind to the eight Japanese gentlemen sitting beside her. The author indirectly gives some counsels that we must get ourselves well prepared so that a right choice can be made when choosing a career.

4 Conclusion

Narration is a common genre of writing. Under the guidance of the narrative pattern of Labov， this thesis firstly analyzes the genre structure of The Invisible Japanese Gentlemen， and then it gives a detailed analysis from three aspects of the first-person narrative perspective， narrative review and characters’ dialogues. We can conclude that the stylistic characteristics guided by Labov’s model play important roles in exploring the expression of the theme and improving the appeal of the work.

References

[1] Graham Greene. The Invisible Japanese Gentlemen. Spectator Archive， 1966.

[2] Paul Simpson. Stylistics：A Resource Book for Students. New York： Routledge， 2004.

[3] W.Labov. Sciolinguistic Pattern. Philadelphia： University of Pennsylvania Press， 1972.

[4] 賈曉慶.敘述文體學(xué)[D].河海大學(xué)，2009.

[5] 秦秀白.英語(yǔ)語(yǔ)體和文體要略[M].上海：外語(yǔ)教育出版社，2002.

[6] 佟兆俊.重讀拉波夫敘事結(jié)構(gòu)模式[J].世紀(jì)橋，2011，（19）：40-42.

作者簡(jiǎn)介：全巧英（1991-），女，漢族，江蘇溧陽(yáng)市人，翻譯碩士，單位：云南大學(xué)外國(guó)語(yǔ)學(xué)院，英語(yǔ)筆譯專業(yè)2016級(jí)研究生，研究方向：英語(yǔ)筆譯。

李 鋒（1993-），女，漢族，山東萊蕪市人，翻譯碩士，單位：云南大學(xué)外國(guó)語(yǔ)學(xué)院，英語(yǔ)筆譯專業(yè)2016級(jí)研究生，研究方向：英語(yǔ)筆譯。