부산대학교 도서관

Based on feminist narratology, this dissertation examines three novels by the renowned 20th-century British female writer, Margaret Drabble: The Millstone, The Middle Ground, and The Seven Sisters. Each of the three represents a different stage of Drabble's life and writing career, capturing the experiences of women in their youth, middle age, and later years, respectively. This study focuses on exploring the consistency and change in narratives of these novels, such as those of female characters and their experiences at the story level, as well as the narrative voices, narrative interventions, and narrative focalizations at the discourse level. This dissertation intends to reveal the efforts of modern intellectual women in breaking through obstacles and pursuing an integrated identity, as well as the author's pursuit of self-authorization as a female writer. Feminist narratology emphasizes the expression of women's authentic lives and intimate experiences in female texts. It specifically examines the self-awareness and gender dynamics embedded in female stories. In the three novels, Drabble probes into different stages of women's lives. The young women grapple with the challenge of reconciling personal aspirations with societal expectations, actively pursuing self-definition and self-realization. Middle-aged women confront uncertainty and new challenges as they navigate the middle ground, prompting them to reevaluate their values and goals through self-analysis. As for older women, they take charge of their lives by engaging in continuous exploration, exemplifying potential and agency even in their later years. As Drabble's writing evolves, women transition from youth to old age, from innocence to maturity. They consistently challenge traditional gender expectations and social norms while persistently pursuing a true self within the evolving social context. Drabble gradually enriches her personal insights through her life journey, contributing to a more confident expression in shaping women's experiences and exploring female identity. Feminist narratology also highlights the significance of gender-oriented narrative forms in establishing the authority of female authors. In the three novels, Drabble grants the narrators the right to speak for women's experiences and emotions. The narrative voice evolves from the personal voice to the authorial voice and then to alternating voices, constantly enhancing the discursive authority. Drabble also employs various strategies to bridge the distance between the reader and the text, in order to evoke readers' identification. For instance, she uses the engaging intervention or reveals undisclosed information in the fictional world to the narratees. These techniques enable readers to forge a closer connection with the experiences and feelings of the female characters and strengthen their understanding of the female consciousness conveyed by the author. Additionally, Drabble consistently positions females in a dominant focalization role to demonstrate their subjectivity and to mirror the real female world and values. With the broadening of different focalizations, from the limited internal focalization to the zero focalization and then to alternating focalizations, the female horizons and space for existence expand continuously, and women progress from individual self-fulfillment to collective advancement. By integrating narratives with gender consciousness and contextualization on both story and discourse levels, I would like to argue that Drabble constantly reinforces her self-authorization crossing different writing stages as a female writer and inspires women to establish an integrated sense of self.