The Creative Impulse: Narrator as Device in William Somerset Maugham’s short fiction

Abstract

The aim of this study is to identify the characteristics of William Somerset Maugham’s narrative style, and it is especially concerned with the implications of the narratorial point of view. It proposes a close reading of seven short stories specifically selected as case studies among Maugham’s abundant literary production.

This thesis divides into five chapters, the first one providing a historical overview of the polarizing critical standpoints concerning Maugham’s work, as well as a short exploration of the major cinematic adaptations from the same short fiction tackled in the discussion. Next, it analyses two linked pieces from 1928 short story collection “Ashenden”: by investigating in detail their structure and themes, it argues that Maugham’s defective omniscient narration crucially affects short stories’ subject matter and overall significance. The final chapter deals with five more short stories published at various stages of his career, yet all of them sharing a European setting and focusing on artists’ creative and personal development. It discusses how Maugham’s characteristic narratorial presence appears particularly suited to convey the reflective, often ironic tales of his flawed, unconventional protagonists.

This research makes a case for Maugham’s weaving of narrative devices – narrator’s voice, intradiegetic point of view and shift of focus – with plot events in a seemingly outmoded arrangement of the short pieces, in order to suggest richer perspectives than the limited scope usually attributed to Maugham’s practice. As a result, this thesis hopes to enhance the understanding of the work of a long overlooked author, whose craftsmanship in the art of writing plots won him lasting popular recognizance, but also blemished his reputation as a serious observer and writer of British society living in the first half of the 20th century.