Narrative Features in The Lady in the Van

Authors

  • Xiaojuan Liu Capital Normal University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1104.06

Keywords:

narration, plot structure, story world

Abstract

The Lady in the Van is about the odd friendship between Bennett, a writer, and Miss Shepherd, an eccentric homeless woman. This paper intends to discuss the narrative features of the film version from David Bordwell’s three dimensions (narration, plot structure and story world) of film narrative. The film presents us with a unique point of view, a seemingly disjointed but implicitly connected plot structure, and a story world in which the characters have their own goals to achieve. Bennett and Miss Shepherd have got to know each other better in fifteen years. Miss Shepherd is Bennett’s guide in life, teaching him how to write and how to get along with his mother.

Author Biography

Xiaojuan Liu, Capital Normal University

School of Foreign Languages

References

Bordwell, David. (2008). Poetics of cinema. New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.

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McIntyre, Dan. (2005). Logic, reality and mind style in Alan Bennett’s The Lady in the Van. Journal of Literary Semantics 34.1, 21-40.

McIntyre, Dan. (2006). Point of view in plays. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Nina Nørgaard, Rocío Montoro and Beatrix Busse. Liu Shisheng, annotation. (2017). Key terms in stylistics. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.

Richardson, B. (1988). Point of view in drama: diegetic monologue, unreliable narrators, and the author’s voice on stage. Comparative Drama 22.3, 193-214.

Ryan, M. L. (1991). Possible worlds, artificial intelligence and narrative theory. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.

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Published

2021-04-01

Issue

Section

Articles