全部 标题 作者
关键词 摘要

OALib Journal期刊
ISSN: 2333-9721
费用:99美元

查看量下载量

How to Tighten the Screw?
—On the Three Tensions of Narrative Strategies in “The Turn of the Screw”

DOI: 10.4236/oalib.1113914, PP. 1-11

Subject Areas: Literature

Keywords: Narratology, “The Turn of the Screw”, Textual Interpretation

Full-Text   Cite this paper   Add to My Lib

Abstract

Henry James’s novella “The Turn of the Screw” is marked by its powerful narrative techniques and suspenseful artistry, which imbue the text with ambiguity and contradiction. The mental health of the female teacher and the existence of the ghost have been subjects of ongoing debate among scholars for over a century. While the interpretation of the text is diverse, an analysis from a narrative perspective reveals that part of the controversy stems from three key transformations in the narrative mechanism: manipulation, the layered narration in the introductory sections, and the narrator’s first-person perspective that establishes authority; contradiction, the temporal inversion and contradictory content in the main manuscript, which, as a limitation of the limited first-person perspective, undermines trust in authority; and blankness, the abrupt ending and unresolved questions in the text, which, though seemingly ambiguous, are actually inevitable outcomes of the narrative process. 

Cite this paper

Huang, X. (2025). How to Tighten the Screw? —On the Three Tensions of Narrative Strategies in “The Turn of the Screw”. Open Access Library Journal, 12, e13914. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/oalib.1113914.

References

[1]  Kim, T.-D. (2020) The ‘Ghost’ Wandering between Texts—A Ghost Criticism Perspective on ‘The Screw Tightens’. Foreign Language Studies, 1, 33-39.
[2]  Ma, Y.L. (2011) Three Interpretations of ‘The Turn of the Screw’ by Henry James. Liter-ary Research, 7, 31-40.
[3]  Zhu, M. (2009) The Power Struggle in the Process of ‘Telling Stories’—Exploring Gender Is-sues in the Novel ‘The Turn of the Screw’ from a Narrative Perspective. Journal of Foreign Languages (Shanghai Interna-tional Studies University), 4, 77-86.
[4]  Zhao, Y.H. (2022) The Rhetoric of Fiction. Peking University Press, 348-355.
[5]  Henry, J. and Zou, H.L. (2003) The Turn of the Screw. Taibai Literature and Art Publishing House, 1-191.
[6]  Booth, W.C., Hua, M., Hu, S.X. and Zhou, X. (1987) The Rhetoric of Fiction. Peking University Press, 348-355.
[7]  Shen, D. (1994) Revisiting the Classification of Narrative Perspectives. Foreign Literature, 2, 65.
[8]  Henry, J. and Zou, H.L. (2021) The Art of the Novel. Sichuan Literature and Art Publishing House, 1-4.

Full-Text


Contact Us

[email protected]

QQ:3279437679

WhatsApp +8615387084133