Narratology

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Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan

Focalisation and Narration

FOCALISATION: WHO SEES?

Position of the focaliser relative to the story:

  • External focalisation vs. Internal focalisation
  • View of the focalised from outside vs. from within

NARRATION: WHO SPEAKS?

Temporal relations between narration and story:

  • 'ulterior narration' [after the events]
  • 'anterior narration' [before the events]
  • 'simultaneous narration' [during the events]
  • 'intercalated narration' [narration and events alternate, e.g. in epistolary novels]

Narrative Levels:

  • extradiegetic level: The level "immediately superior to the first narrative and concerned with its narration".
  • diegetic level: "the events themselves" [diegesis = story]
  • hypodiegetic level: "stories told by fictional characters [...] a second degree narrative"

"The diegetic level is narrated by an extradiegetic narrator, the hypodiegetic level by a diegetic (intradiegetic) one" (p. 92)

Functions of hypodiegetic narratives:

  • Actional function: the hypodiegetic narrative contributes to the development of the plot
  • Explicative function: the hypodiegetic level offers an explanation of the diegetic level
  • Thematic function: the hypodiegetic narrative is in analogy to main narrative

A TYPOLOGY OF NARRATORS

Narrators may be distinguished in the following respects:

By Narrative Level: extradiegetic narrators, intradiegetic narrators, hypo- and hypohypodiegetic narrators.

By the Extent of Participation in the Story: Homodiegetic narrators are involved in the story, heterodiegetic narrators are not.

By their Degree of Perceptibility:

  • Description of setting.
  • Identification of characters.
  • Temporal summary.
  • Definition of character.
  • Reports of what characters did not think or say.
  • Commentary.

By Reliability: Signs of unreliability are:

  • the narrator has limited knowledge;
  • is personally involved;
  • represents a problematic value-scheme.
Source: Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan. Narrative Fiction. Contemporary Poetics. London, New York: Routledge. 1994 [1983]. 71–105.

Characterisation

[= the modes by which information about individual characters is conveyed]

Direct definition of character

  • Who defines? (narrator, characters, about self or others?)
  • In what situation is the definition stated?

Indirect presentation

  • Actions (commission / omission / contemplated action)
  • Characteristics of Speech
  • External appearance
  • Environment
physical: room, house, street, town.
human: family, social connections.

Reinforcement of Characterisation by Analogy

  • Names (telling names, symbolic names, etc.)
  • Landscape.
  • Contrasts and similarities between characters.
Source: Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan. Narrative Fiction. Contemporary Poetics. London, New York: Routledge. 1994 [1983]. 59–70.

Franz K. Stanzel

first-person narration (Ich-Erzählsituation)

  • first-person narrator: the narrator is part of the world of the characters
  • tendency towards subjective / unreliable presentation
  • narrating self (erzählendes Ich) vs. experiencing self (erlebendes Ich)
  • narrator-as-protagonist vs. narrator-as-witness
  • typical genres: diaries, letters, essays, (fictional) autobiographies

example: I shook my head at this unpleasant surprise, for indeed I should have anticipated it. I had it coming. It was always the same.

authorial narration (Auktoriale Erzählsituation)

  • third-person narrator: the narrator is not part of the world of the characters
  • tendency towards objective / 'reliable' presentation
  • 'omniscience'
  • omnipresence
  • 'telling' rather than 'showing': intrusive comments

example: The paranoid shook his head at the unpleasant surprise – the way that whiny people always do - and he thought: "I had it coming."

figural narrative situation (Personale Erzählsituation)

  • third-person narrator assuming the perspective of a character: perceptions, emotions, thoughts, vocabulary are the character's, not the narrator's
  • tendency towards subjective / immediate presentation
  • 'showing' rather than 'telling': no intrusive comments

example: The paranoid shook his head at the unpleasant surprise. Why on earth was it always him? Why him? Again and again! He had it coming!

Source: Franz Stanzel. Die typischen Erzählsituationen im Roman. Wien, Stuttgart: Braumüller, 1955.