A Study on Narrative Time in Sunday in August under Genette's Narrative Theory

Abstract

The short story Sunday in August, written by French writer Patrick Modiano, recounts a story that John recalled from a Sunday in August. Although the length is small, there are many suspensions, which makes people feel confused and lonely. This effect is mainly caused by the author's unique narrative strategy: narrating from the first-person perspective makes readers feel more engaged and better understand the author's true feelings. At the same time, a kind of anachronistic narrative time technique is used to skillfully arrange the sequence of events, creating many unknowns, which makes readers focus on what happened in the past in the reading process, producing a sense of confusion. This paper aims to lay bare its subtle and elaborate narrative design of time by scrutinizing the way in which the protagonist, John, narrates the story beyond the limits of time, laying an emphasis on Modiano’s ingenious arrangement in discourse time by examining its time, order, duration, and frequency, through which Modiano’s unique philosophy of time and his deep understanding of the characters' inner world are fully revealed.