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2007 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

A Study of the Present-Tense Narrative in the Contemporary UK and Commonwealth Novels

Research Project

Project/Area Number 18520210
Research Category

Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)

Allocation TypeSingle-year Grants
Section一般
Research Field ヨーロッパ語系文学
Research InstitutionYamaguchi University

Principal Investigator

MIYAHARA Kazunari  Yamaguchi University, Faculty of Humanities, Professor (10243875)

Project Period (FY) 2006 – 2007
Keywordspresent tense / Narrative grammar / Narratology / contemporary novels
Research Abstract

Nowadays a considerable number of English novels am written in the present tense. The extensive use of the present tense in narrative fiction boomed in the 1960s and has been thriving until now. My study focused on this phenomenon, and resulted in three published papers and one oral paper. I first re-examined the various approaches taken so far to account for the effects of and requisites for the use of present-tense narration. A lot of grammarians and narratologists-Comrie, Declerck, Langacrker, Cutrer, Casparis, Fleischman, Cohn, Damsteegt, to name a few-claim that their approaches and analyses can give a sufficient and exclusive explanation, but I have found a number of exceptions to their rules from the contemporary British novels published after 1970. Their approaches and analyses should be used complementarily, and, more often than not, their explanations only serve to explain what conditions enable the writers to use the present tense; they do not tell us what makes the writers … More decide to adopt the present-tense narrative in their books. Furthermore, those previous attempts at the rationale behind the use of the present tense come short of clarifying what brought about the remarkable upsurge of present-tense narration in the 1970-2000 period in the UK and Commonwealth.
It is up to each novelist to decide what effect he/she likes to foreground through the use of the present tense, and that decision may be made either intentionally or unintentionally. I looked for possible motives that have prompted the use of present-tense narration in the contemporary British fiction, and succeeded in finding a promotive factor. The post-colonial situations after WW2 brought forth a new way of writing histories and cultures of various minority groups, such as the formerly-colonized peoples, women, and juveniles. My contention is that to such "secondary" people, the present tense may have been art alternative means of expressing themselves-a means seemingly untainted with a touch of authoritarian decisiveness of the conventional past tense historiography. The writers belonging to such minority groups, or those in sympathy with then, have chosen the present tense, wittingly or unwittingly, as a style for voicing their sense of resistance, democracy, and self-esteem. Less

  • Research Products

    (8 results)

All 2007 2006

All Journal Article (6 results) (of which Peer Reviewed: 1 results) Presentation (2 results)

  • [Journal Article] 現代英国系小説に見られる現在時制語りの研究 その序説 -「非完結相がもつ可能性-2007

    • Author(s)
      宮原 一成
    • Journal Title

      山口大学 文学会志 57

      Pages: 111-132

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
  • [Journal Article] 現代英語小説における現在時制語り -語り専用の時制文法の検証-2007

    • Author(s)
      宮原 一成
    • Journal Title

      The Kyushu Review 11

      Pages: 1-20

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
    • Peer Reviewed
  • [Journal Article] A Preparatory Study for Present-Tense Narrative in Contemporary British Novels2007

    • Author(s)
      Kazunari, Miyahara
    • Journal Title

      Journal of the Literary Society of Yamaguchi University 57

      Pages: 111-132

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
  • [Journal Article] Present-Tense Narrative in Contemporary British Novels : Reconsideration of'Narrative-Grammar' Approaches2007

    • Author(s)
      Kazunari, Miyahara
    • Journal Title

      The Kyushu Review 11

      Pages: 1-20

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
  • [Journal Article] "Folding Policy"-Zadie Smith著White Teethの世界観と歴史観2006

    • Author(s)
      宮原 一成
    • Journal Title

      英語と英米文学 41

      Pages: 101-119

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
  • [Journal Article] Folding Policy' : Ways to Deal with Histories in Zadie Smith's White Teeth2006

    • Author(s)
      Kazunari, Miyahara
    • Journal Title

      English and English-American Literature 41

      Pages: 101-119

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
  • [Presentation] 現代英国系小説における現在時制語りの解釈3種2007

    • Author(s)
      宮原 一成
    • Organizer
      日本英文学会九州支部
    • Place of Presentation
      熊本大学
    • Year and Date
      2007-10-28
    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
  • [Presentation] Three Ways to Look at the Present-Tense Narration in Contemporary British Novels2007

    • Author(s)
      Kazunari, Miyahara
    • Organizer
      The 60th General Meeting of the English Literary Society of Japan, the Regional Branch of the Kyushu District
    • Place of Presentation
      Kumamoto University
    • Year and Date
      2007-10-28
    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より

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Published: 2010-02-04  

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