Dos Passos, Steinbeck, Faulkner, and the narrative aesthetic of the thirties

Abstract

In this study, the author uses structuralist narrative theory to identify key narrative techniques common to the American novel of the 1930s. A narratological analysis is useful for such an examination because it invites comparisons between texts. Chapter I provides an overview of structuralist narrative theory, concentrating on Mieke Bal's theories of narratology. Chapter II argues that, in a given novel, the fictional narratives of each major character contain similar fabulae. Chapter III discusses the authors' use of repetition or doubling, in which the same event is presented from a variety of perspectives. Chapter IV discusses the anachronic, time distorting presentation of events common to work. Chapter V discusses the use of implicit narration, and the manner in which each author makes use of this technique for the purposes of social criticism. The concluding chapter compares narrative in the twenties to narrative in the thirties and argues that the later decade marks a change in narrative in American fiction. The narratological analysis also supports trends in Steinbeck and Faulkner criticism that these three authors should be read as Modern, and not postmodern, writers.