Item – Theses Canada

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OCLC number
1006640760
Author
Wang, Jianping,1957-
Title
In search of human dialogue : moral imperatives of Raymond Carver's fiction.
Degree
M.A. -- Dalhousie University, 1993
Publisher
Ottawa : National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1994.
Description
2 microfiches
Notes
Includes bibliographical references.
Abstract
Raymond Carver was a prolific writer. His writing career covers roughly a period of two decades, stretching from the early 1960s to the 1980s. With the publication of five collections of short stories, Carver has gradually gained recognition from both critics and the public and finally established himself as one of the finest short story writers in America. The critical and public acclaim are based upon Carver's sympathetic depictions of the American malaise and despair and his innovative contribution to the genre. His stories map out the emotional contours of America's lower-middle class life. One of the recurring motifs in his fiction is the search for human dialogue as a way out of emotional and physical exhaustion and isolation. As many of Carver's characters suffer from the problems of inarticulateness and alcoholism, the path of their struggle is riddled with difficulties which threaten to drag them down into eternal silence. But through trials and failures, Carver's characters define the parameters of their persistent quest for salvation. As Carver himself put it, "Good fiction is partly a bringing of news from one world to another" ("The Art of Fiction LXXVI"). His writing catches the dialogic imperative and tells one compelling story. The present thesis will focus upon this compelling and recurrent theme which runs through Carver's writing. Divided in four chapters, the thesis examines four aspects of this theme: inarticulateness, alcoholism, story-telling and Carver's revision, with the hope of revealing the affirming glow of Carver's stories, "a persistent and steady slow, however dim" ("The Art of Fiction LXXVI").
ISBN
0315937513
9780315937512