The Sacred Sin A Brief Analysis of the Narrative Structure of Dual Irony in The Spire

Qigang Liu

Abstract


In William Golding’s novel The Spire, irony as a narrative device is conspicuously employed within the narrative of the story, however, hidden behind this obvious textual irony there is another layer of irony ingeniously designed by the author, which smoothly incorporates the readers into its realm of irony. Moreover, the degree to which the readers recognize this dual irony will eventually decide the width and depth of their analysis when they interpret the protagonist Jocelin and even the allegorical significance of the whole novel.

 


Keywords


Jocelin, the spire, irony, dual irony, moral judgment

Full Text:

PDF

References


Abrams, M.H., & Harpham, G.G. (2010). A Glossary of Literary Terms 9th Edition Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Researching Press.

Babb, H. S. (1970). The Novels of William Golding. Ohio: The Ohio State University Press.

Baker, J. R. (1965). William Golding A Critical Study by James R. Baker. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

Golding, W. (1964). The Spire. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc.

Golding, W. (1983). “Nobel Lecture” 7 December. Retrieved on 12 Dec, 2015 from

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1983/golding-lecture.html

Herman, D. (2007). The Cambridge Companion to Narrative. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Carey, J. (2009). William Golding: The Man Who Wrote Lord of the Flies, London: Faber and Faber.

Hutchins, R.M. (1952). Great Books of the Western World, Volume3. The Great Ideas: II Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.

Kinkead-Weekes, M., & Ian, G. (1967). William Golding—a critical study, London: Faber and Faber.

Li, Sh. (2001). An Introduction to 20th Century English Literature. Xi’AN: XI'AN Jiaotong University Press.

Magill, F. (1977). Survey of Contemporary Literature Volume Eleven, Revised Edition New Jersey: Salem Press, Inc.

Page, N. (1985). William Golding Novels, 1954-1967. Hong Kong: Macmillan Publishers Ltd.

Qu, Sh. (2008). A Historical Survey of Contemporary British Fiction,(Translated) Shanghai: Shanghai Translation Publishing House.

Sumner, R. (1986). The Spire by William Golding,-(Macmillan Master Guides) Hong Kong: Macmillan Education Ltd.




DOI: https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.5n.3p.257

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Bookmark and Share


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

2012-2023 (CC-BY) Australian International Academic Centre PTY.LTD. 

International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature

To make sure that you can receive messages from us, please add the journal emails into your e-mail 'safe list'. If you do not receive e-mail in your 'inbox', check your 'bulk mail' or 'junk mail' folders.