Outline Narrating agency The role and functions of the narrator Narrating agency vs reader response Reliable vs unreliable narrators Focalization Narrating agency who tells Real author Implied author ID: 284590
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Slide1
Narration and focalizationSlide2
Outline
Narrating agency
The role and functions of the narrator
Narrating agency vs. reader response
Reliable vs. unreliable narrators
FocalizationSlide3
Narrating agency: who tells?
Real author
Implied author
Narrator
Implied readerReal reader“creative mind implied by the existence of the text” (Lodge)The kind of readers that the real author has in mind when he/she writes a novel (e.g. a certain age group, social class, or race, etc.)
Real author
Narrator
Real readerSlide4
The role and functions of the narrator
Relating actions and events
Establishing a setting
Commenting upon the characters
GeneralizingCommenting upon the act of narration itselfAddressing the narratee (“Dear reader”, for example)Reporting the characters’ words and presenting their thoughtsSlide5
Narrating agency vs. reader response
Narrative techniques can have the effects of
reducing or increasing the distance
between the reader and the characters.
Narrative techniques that have the effects of reducing the distance between the reader and the characters can be used in further characterization (the way a characters speaks can reveal character traits). They can also contribute to dramatization (the reader is encouraged to live vicariously and thus get involved in the story).Increasing the distance between the reader and the characters enables the author to invite the reader to assess the situation, to appraise or to condemn – to be critical. As a result, this narrative technique can often be found in the type of ironical text in which the reader, far from identifying with the characters, is supposed to feel superior to them and laugh at them.Slide6
Types of narrators
Omniscient
Limited omniscientSlide7
Reliable vs. unreliable narrators
The use of the unreliable narrator contributes to textual richness and generate what
Bakhtin
defined as “
polyphony” or “polyvocality” of the novelSlide8
Focalization: who sees?
Internal:
“ he hung before her, looking at her fixedly, as she stood crouched against the wall
”
External : “look down into the valley from this terrace-height where love is kindling”Focalization 0: when the focalizer cannot be located, he/she does not seem to be watching from any precise place; the use of this focalizer is often combined with the use of an omniscient narrator