The Deep Structure of Zhang Ailing's Novels—A Study of Flower Withers from the Perspective of Greimas's Action Element and Semantic Matrix

The deep structure of Zhang Ailing’s novels is worthy of attention. Greimas put forward the theory and concepts of narrative program, action element, semantic matrix, and so on, which is an effective tool for revealing the deep structure of Zhang Ailing’s works. In the paper, four narrative procedures in Zhang’s novel of Flower Withers are analyzed: having the desire, having the ability to achieve the desire, achieving the goal and reward stage. The actantial relations are: subject (Zheng Chuanchang) and object (Zhang Yunfan), sender (Zheng Chuanchang’s mother and sister) and receiver (Zheng Chuanchang) and supporter (missing) and opponent (Zheng Chuanchang’s mother, father, sisters, disease and his initiative disappearance ). The deep structure of Flower Withers shows the conflict between living and death, freedom and imprisonment, etc.