Narratology

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.