Abstract
This paper aims to compare the different applications of colors in narrative in two modern short stories, James Joyce’s Araby and Virginia Woolf’s Kew Garden. It has been found that two different roles of colors are presented—colors function as narrative elements and self-expressive elements. Colors and lights in Araby are subjected to narration while colors and lights in Kew Garden stand out of events and are independent from narration. It seems that Joyce employs colors and lights as symbols to implicate what he tried to express, while Woolf frees colors and lights by treating them as subjectivity. The comparison between the usages of colors in those two short stories has been conducted through two parts, colors to feel vs. colors to view, and colors with symbolic meaning and colors with natural/ordinary meaning.
Highlights
Color is an indispensable element in literary works since the description of matters, space and events, the expression of characters’ moods, sentiments, and situations, and the foundation of narrative tones and atmosphere can’t do without the help of varieties of colors and lights
This paper aims to compare the different applications of colors in narrative in two modern short stories, James Joyce’s Araby and Virginia Woolf’s Kew Garden
Colors and lights in Araby are subjected to narration while colors and lights in Kew Garden stand out of events and are independent from narration
Summary
Color is an indispensable element in literary works since the description of matters, space and events, the expression of characters’ moods, sentiments, and situations, and the foundation of narrative tones and atmosphere can’t do without the help of varieties of colors and lights. Descriptive function and expressive function are two major roles colors play in traditional narrative works—to portray the appearance of a given object directly and to depict one’s sentiments and sensibilities indirectly. The roles of color in literary works change along with the development and evolution of narrative styles and techniques, which is determined by the change and evolution of human experience. Modernist works adopt new techniques like interior monologue, stream of consciousness, epiphany, and fragmentation, etc. The employment of colors in literary works shows something new
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