摘要：This paper aims to decipher the character of Sarah in John Fowles’ The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1969, translated by Fowles into English in 1977 and revised in 1994). Our analysis draws on the Grammar of Visual Designs developed by Gunther Kress and Theo Van Leeuwen in 2006 linked to the concept of stereotyping as social arrangements which may vary from society to society as much as on the Theory of Blended Spaces defended by Fauconnier and Turner (1996, 2002, 2008), which allows readers to bring in their background knowledge to their personal readings in a highly interactive space. By applying these two theories, the present study suggests a new approach to Sarah from three different perspectives: that of (i) Charles as a reader inside the novel (ii) Readers outside the novel unable to activate elements other than Charles’ views and/or Victorian conventions, (iii) Readers outside the novel.
