Narrative Judgments on the Love and Friendship in Julian Barnes’ <i>The Sense of an Ending</i>

Liu Maosheng; Yang Junting

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ijla.20200805.16

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Narrative Judgments on the Love and Friendship in Julian Barnes’ The Sense of an Ending

Liu Maosheng, Yang Junting

Published in International Journal of Literature and Arts (Volume 8, Issue 5)

Received: 19 August 2020 Accepted: 8 September 2020 Published: 19 September 2020

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Abstract

Julian Barnes is famous in contemporary literary world. His works have attracted many readers all over the world for his variety of writing style and his unceasing exploration of the truth of history and memory. As the Man Booker Prize winning novel in 2011, The Sense of an Ending mainly tells the story of the protagonist Tony Webster’s love relationship with Veronica Ford and his friendship with Adrian Finn through recalling the past. Taking the changing relationship among Tony, Veronica and Adrian as the main line, this paper mainly analyzes the different interpretive, ethical and aesthetic judgments and re-judgments made by Tony, the protagonist and the first person narrator, and the reader on the love and friendship in the novel in the light of James Phelan’s theory of narrative judgments. Through analysis, this paper shows the organic connections between the three types of narrative judgments, which not only promotes the narrative progression of the novel, but also realizes the perfect integration of the novel in narrative form, narrative ethics and narrative aesthetics. This process shows Barnes’ doubts about the reliability of human memory, which provides a better way for readers to understand the novel and appreciate Barnes’ superb narrative art.

Published in	International Journal of Literature and Arts (Volume 8, Issue 5)
DOI	10.11648/j.ijla.20200805.16
Page(s)	298-307
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Julian Barnes, The sense of an Ending, Narrative Judgments, Narrative Art

References

[1]	Guignery, Vanessa & Roberts, Ryan, eds. Conversations with Julian Barnes [M]. Jackson: The University Press of Mississippi, 2009.
[2]	Qu, Shijing & Ren, Yiming. A History of Contemporary British Fiction [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai Translation House, 2008.
[3]	Masters, Tim. Man Booker Prize Won by Julian Barnes at Fourth Attempt [N]. BBC News. BBC. 18 Oct., 2011.
[4]	Phelan, James. Experiencing Fiction: Judgments, Progressions, and the Rhetorical Theory of Narrative [M]. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 2007.
[5]	Greaney, Michael (2014). The oddness of Julian Barnes and The Sense of an Ending. English, 63 (242): 225-240.
[6]	Farsi, Roghayeh (2019). Positioning strategies and representation in fictional autobiography: The Sense of an Ending. Anglia, 137 (1): 84-104.
[7]	Li, Hongqing (2018). Theses on history in Julian Barnes’s novel. Foreign Languages Research, 35 (3): 92-98, 112.
[8]	Chen, Bo (2018). Ethics of memory narrative in The Sense of an Ending. Contemporary Foreign Literature, 39 (1): 96-103.
[9]	Zhang, Lainqiao (2015). Ethical introspection in The Sense of an Ending. Contemporary Foreign Literature, 36 (3): 70-76.
[10]	Barnes, Julian. The Sense of an Ending [M]. New York: Vintage Books, 2012.
[11]	Shang, Biwu (2010). A maternal love misread: Narrative Judgments in Toni Morrison’s A Mercy. Foreign Literature Studies, 32 (4): 60-69.
[12]	Nie, Zhenzhao (2014). Introduction to Literary Ethical Criticism [M]. Beijing: Peking University Press, 2014.
[13]	Liu, Maosheng (2018). The ethical tradition in Bernard Shaw’s theatrical narrative. Foreign Literature Studies, 40 (3): 67-76.
[14]	Genette, Gérard. Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method [M]. New York: Cornell University Press, 1980.
[15]	Phelan, James & Rabinowitz, Peter, eds. A Companion to Narrative Theory [M]. Hoboken: Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2005.
[16]	Phelan, James. Narrative as Rhetoric: Technique, Audiences, Ethics, Ideology [M]. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 1996.

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Liu Maosheng, Yang Junting. (2020). Narrative Judgments on the Love and Friendship in Julian Barnes’ The Sense of an Ending. International Journal of Literature and Arts, 8(5), 298-307. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20200805.16

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Liu Maosheng; Yang Junting. Narrative Judgments on the Love and Friendship in Julian Barnes’ The Sense of an Ending. Int. J. Lit. Arts 2020, 8(5), 298-307. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20200805.16

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AMA Style

Liu Maosheng, Yang Junting. Narrative Judgments on the Love and Friendship in Julian Barnes’ The Sense of an Ending. Int J Lit Arts. 2020;8(5):298-307. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20200805.16

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@article{10.11648/j.ijla.20200805.16,
  author = {Liu Maosheng and Yang Junting},
  title = {Narrative Judgments on the Love and Friendship in Julian Barnes’ The Sense of an Ending},
  journal = {International Journal of Literature and Arts},
  volume = {8},
  number = {5},
  pages = {298-307},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijla.20200805.16},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20200805.16},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijla.20200805.16},
  abstract = {Julian Barnes is famous in contemporary literary world. His works have attracted many readers all over the world for his variety of writing style and his unceasing exploration of the truth of history and memory. As the Man Booker Prize winning novel in 2011, The Sense of an Ending mainly tells the story of the protagonist Tony Webster’s love relationship with Veronica Ford and his friendship with Adrian Finn through recalling the past. Taking the changing relationship among Tony, Veronica and Adrian as the main line, this paper mainly analyzes the different interpretive, ethical and aesthetic judgments and re-judgments made by Tony, the protagonist and the first person narrator, and the reader on the love and friendship in the novel in the light of James Phelan’s theory of narrative judgments. Through analysis, this paper shows the organic connections between the three types of narrative judgments, which not only promotes the narrative progression of the novel, but also realizes the perfect integration of the novel in narrative form, narrative ethics and narrative aesthetics. This process shows Barnes’ doubts about the reliability of human memory, which provides a better way for readers to understand the novel and appreciate Barnes’ superb narrative art.},
 year = {2020}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - Narrative Judgments on the Love and Friendship in Julian Barnes’ The Sense of an Ending
AU  - Liu Maosheng
AU  - Yang Junting
Y1  - 2020/09/19
PY  - 2020
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20200805.16
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijla.20200805.16
T2  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
JF  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
JO  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
SP  - 298
EP  - 307
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2331-057X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20200805.16
AB  - Julian Barnes is famous in contemporary literary world. His works have attracted many readers all over the world for his variety of writing style and his unceasing exploration of the truth of history and memory. As the Man Booker Prize winning novel in 2011, The Sense of an Ending mainly tells the story of the protagonist Tony Webster’s love relationship with Veronica Ford and his friendship with Adrian Finn through recalling the past. Taking the changing relationship among Tony, Veronica and Adrian as the main line, this paper mainly analyzes the different interpretive, ethical and aesthetic judgments and re-judgments made by Tony, the protagonist and the first person narrator, and the reader on the love and friendship in the novel in the light of James Phelan’s theory of narrative judgments. Through analysis, this paper shows the organic connections between the three types of narrative judgments, which not only promotes the narrative progression of the novel, but also realizes the perfect integration of the novel in narrative form, narrative ethics and narrative aesthetics. This process shows Barnes’ doubts about the reliability of human memory, which provides a better way for readers to understand the novel and appreciate Barnes’ superb narrative art.
VL  - 8
IS  - 5
ER  -

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Author Information

Liu Maosheng

Faculty of English Language and Culture, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, China
Yang Junting

Faculty of English Language and Culture, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, China

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Plain Text BibTeX RIS

APA Style

Liu Maosheng, Yang Junting. (2020). Narrative Judgments on the Love and Friendship in Julian Barnes’ The Sense of an Ending. International Journal of Literature and Arts, 8(5), 298-307. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20200805.16

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ACS Style

Liu Maosheng; Yang Junting. Narrative Judgments on the Love and Friendship in Julian Barnes’ The Sense of an Ending. Int. J. Lit. Arts 2020, 8(5), 298-307. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20200805.16

Copy | Download

AMA Style

Liu Maosheng, Yang Junting. Narrative Judgments on the Love and Friendship in Julian Barnes’ The Sense of an Ending. Int J Lit Arts. 2020;8(5):298-307. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20200805.16

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@article{10.11648/j.ijla.20200805.16,
  author = {Liu Maosheng and Yang Junting},
  title = {Narrative Judgments on the Love and Friendship in Julian Barnes’ The Sense of an Ending},
  journal = {International Journal of Literature and Arts},
  volume = {8},
  number = {5},
  pages = {298-307},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijla.20200805.16},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20200805.16},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijla.20200805.16},
  abstract = {Julian Barnes is famous in contemporary literary world. His works have attracted many readers all over the world for his variety of writing style and his unceasing exploration of the truth of history and memory. As the Man Booker Prize winning novel in 2011, The Sense of an Ending mainly tells the story of the protagonist Tony Webster’s love relationship with Veronica Ford and his friendship with Adrian Finn through recalling the past. Taking the changing relationship among Tony, Veronica and Adrian as the main line, this paper mainly analyzes the different interpretive, ethical and aesthetic judgments and re-judgments made by Tony, the protagonist and the first person narrator, and the reader on the love and friendship in the novel in the light of James Phelan’s theory of narrative judgments. Through analysis, this paper shows the organic connections between the three types of narrative judgments, which not only promotes the narrative progression of the novel, but also realizes the perfect integration of the novel in narrative form, narrative ethics and narrative aesthetics. This process shows Barnes’ doubts about the reliability of human memory, which provides a better way for readers to understand the novel and appreciate Barnes’ superb narrative art.},
 year = {2020}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - Narrative Judgments on the Love and Friendship in Julian Barnes’ The Sense of an Ending
AU  - Liu Maosheng
AU  - Yang Junting
Y1  - 2020/09/19
PY  - 2020
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20200805.16
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijla.20200805.16
T2  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
JF  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
JO  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
SP  - 298
EP  - 307
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2331-057X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20200805.16
AB  - Julian Barnes is famous in contemporary literary world. His works have attracted many readers all over the world for his variety of writing style and his unceasing exploration of the truth of history and memory. As the Man Booker Prize winning novel in 2011, The Sense of an Ending mainly tells the story of the protagonist Tony Webster’s love relationship with Veronica Ford and his friendship with Adrian Finn through recalling the past. Taking the changing relationship among Tony, Veronica and Adrian as the main line, this paper mainly analyzes the different interpretive, ethical and aesthetic judgments and re-judgments made by Tony, the protagonist and the first person narrator, and the reader on the love and friendship in the novel in the light of James Phelan’s theory of narrative judgments. Through analysis, this paper shows the organic connections between the three types of narrative judgments, which not only promotes the narrative progression of the novel, but also realizes the perfect integration of the novel in narrative form, narrative ethics and narrative aesthetics. This process shows Barnes’ doubts about the reliability of human memory, which provides a better way for readers to understand the novel and appreciate Barnes’ superb narrative art.
VL  - 8
IS  - 5
ER  -

Copy | Download