Prose Flashcards
Story, Discourse, Plot
distinctions?
Theorists of narrative have long been in agreement that there are at least two levels in a narrative text:
Sth that happens and this sth is related in a certain way.
In other words:
- WHATis told?
- HOWis it told?
--> in structuralism:
What = story
How = discourse
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Further subdivision:
> Story - events and existents
> Discourse - plot, narrative voices, focalisation, narrative modes, representation of consciousness, time language in literature
Story vs Plot:
- originally difference pointed out by Aristotle, distinguishing actions in real world and nits that are selected from these and arranged in what he calls mythos
- in English Studies defined by Forster
- -> story as the chronological sequnce of events
- -> plot as the causal and logical structure which connects events.
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story: The king died and then the queen died.
plot: The king died and then the queen died of grief.
What is prose literature?
Prose is in non-metrical, ‘ordinary’ language.
With growing popularity of the novel and a corresponding expansion of the market for literature throughout the 18th and 19th centuries prose gained its prominent position as a suitable lg for literature.
Mostly considered: narrative prose. That is prose literature which tells a story.
story vs plot
example
Countless novels, plays and romances which develop the same basic story:
girl marries young - husband treats her badly - husband dies - girl marries man who has loved her for a long time.
But causal and logical connections between events, i.e. the plots of those novels etc are quite different.
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But the distinction is of course artificial.
In fact, the stor itself, the mere sequence of events, is an abstract entity, a construct that exists only in our heads after we have read the narrative as presented in the text.
Narrators and Narrative Situtation
1 - Narrative Voices
(2 - Focalisation
3 - Unreliable Narrators
Relevance?)
unlike categories of analysis like characterisation, plot or space,
the category of narrator is unique to the more diegetic genres (narrative prose and narrative poetry).
Two aspects considered: - narrative voice (who speaks?) - focalisation (who sees?) --> both aspects called NARRATIVE SITUATION \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
1 - Narrative Voices
- narrator is NOT the author, even in autobiographical texts distinction helpful
- narrative situation aspect of discourse (meaning it is part of the analysis that examines HOW a narrative is told)
- who speaks?/who tells the story?
- concerns the narrative as a whole
Genette (1980) made first distinction: - homodiegetic narrator --> narrator is also in story --> if the protagonist then: autodiegetic EXAMPLE: - Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe - Robinson Cruesoe by Defoe --> homodiegetic-autodieteic narrator e.g. seen when reflecting n childhood, can only give infos from hearsay, but we gain personal impression bc. we hear story through her own voice
- heterodiegetic narrator
- -> not a character in the story, but hovers above it and knows everything about it
Stanzel (1984) - first-peron narrative situation - authorial narrative situation roughly corresponds to Genette's terms - but also includes figural narrative situation)
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Distinction of overt vs. covert narrator
Overt Narrator:
- seems to have distinct personality
- makes his/her opinions known
- explicit judgements or implicit evaluations
e. g. when narrator is ironic
Covert Narrator:
- is hardly noticeable
- concentrated on showing (he said, then she said…) rather than telling
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2 - Focalisation
Narrative Modes
in general
Closely related to questions of narrative voice and focalisation.
The distinction between narrative modes is as old as literary theory itself; Plato distinguishes between two main types: mimesis (the direct presentation of speech and action) and diegesis (the verbal representation of events). The distinction was taken up by Aristotle and can – much later – still be found in Henry James’ distinction between showing and telling.
MIMESIS - showing - direct presentation
DIEGESIS- telling - mediated presentation
DRAMA
- as most mimetic literary genre (along with film)
- consists of mainly direct presentaion of speech and action
NARRATIVE PROSE (and poetry) four main narrative modes:
_Skala_ speech - mimetic report (of action) description comment - diegetic
Communication system in Prose
comprises three levels:
- Real world:
- real author and actual reader - Narrative Text:
- a reader as adressed in the text: the narratee
(sometimes the narrator adresses imaginary or actual “dear reader”) by the narrator - Story-World
- character who speaks character who listens
Narrators and Narrative Situtation
(1 - Narrative Voices)
2 - Focalisation
(3 - Unreliable Narrators
Relevance?)
unlike categories of analysis like characterisation, plot or space,
the category of narrator is unique to the more diegetic genres (narrative prose and narrative poetry).
Two aspects considered: - narrative voice (who speaks?) - focalisation (who sees?) --> both aspects called NARRATIVE SITUATION \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
2 - Focalisation
The narrator is the agency that transmits the events and existents of the narrative verbally.
Two main categories:
- omniscient point of view, from a position outside the story
- narrator adopts limited point of view of one character in the story and in consequence to remains ignorant of what happens outside this character’s range of perception
Distinction between narrative voice (who speaks?) and perspective (who sees or perceives?):
Genette has introduced the term focalisation in order to avoid confusion with earlier usages of the terms ‘point of view’ or ‘perspective’ which is often used to denote narrative voice as well. Modified by Rimmon-Kennan.
Focalisation does not have to stay the same throughout the narrative.
External focaliser:
- external to story
- often called narrator-focaliser (focus of perception seems to be of narrator)
Internal focaliser:
- usually limited, focus of perception of a character
- also called character-focaliser
- Internal focalisation can be more obvious still when the language abilities and mind style of the focaliser are realistically reproduced
EXAMPLE character-focaliser:
Virginia Woolf’s FLush
–> heterodiegetic narrator reproducing dog’s impressions in an internal focalisation
EXAMPLE
Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
–> even though the language of a child is here reproduced, the little boy himself is not the narrator (‘who speaks?’). It is again a heterodiegetic narrator and an internal focaliser.
Stanzel called figural narrative situation
–> not ‘figural narrator’ bc in this situation a narrator who is not the character continues to speak
Narrator comment:
This represents a combination of heterodiegetic narrator and external focalisation.
“Narrating I”
“Experiencing I”
Narrators and Narrative Situation
(1 - Narrative Voices)
(2 - Focalisation)
3 - Unreliable Narrators
Relevance?
Not all narrators are equally reliable, that is to say the reader is sometimes led to distrust what a narrator says (see Nünning 1998, also Reliability in Characterisation). There are various reasons for such distrust. Some narrators tell deliberate lies or omit crucial information. In Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd for instance, the homodiegetic narrator simply omits to mention how he himself commits the murder until the end of the book. Of course in this case, the reader does not realise that this narrator is unreliable until the very end. In other cases the narrator simply does not know enough to give an accurate account of what actually happened. A classic example is Ford Madox Ford’s The Good Soldier which is full of uncertainties and contradictions, simply because the narrator never fully understands what is happening. He tries to piece together various bits of information he receives and indulges in a number of speculations, but he is never quite certain. This makes the information the reader receives (seem) unreliable.
Relevance of Narrative Situation?
- no limited set of functions that
can be assigned to each type of narrator or focaliser, but an examinati
on of narrative voice and focalisation helps to explain how a certain atmosphere is created and how reader sympathy is directed - Internal focalisation helps empathise with the character-focaliser
Narrative Modes 1 - Speech 2 - Report 3 - Description 4 - Comment 5 - Mixed Narrative Modes 6 - Historical Change in Narrative Modes
Relevance?
1 - Speech
- direct speech most mimetic mode
EFFECT
Direct speech tends to use present tense as its main tense and uses the first person when the speaker refers to him- or herself, the second person when other participants of the conversation are addressed. The use of sociolect or dialect also serves to indicate spoken language
- indirect speech (or reported s.)
–> here the element of mediation is more noticeable
EFFECT
The effect of indirect speech can easily be perceived as somewhat monotonous and certainly it creates a distance between the utterance and the reader’s perception of it; it is less immediate than direct speech.
2 - Report
…informs the reader about events and actions in the story.
…can be identified mainly through its use of action verbs.
Often difficult to clearly separate between report and description. Also, it is very rare that a narrative presents an absolutely neutral report. Reports are frequently mingled with narrator comment.
3 - Description
narrative mode that represents objects in space, that is to say existents of the story, things that can be seen, heard or felt in some way.
Traditional rhetoric distinguishes between:
a. the description of place,
b. the description of time,
c. the description of character.
Obviously, these elements are normally combined.
4 - Comment
Here the mediator (i.e. the narrator) is noticed the most.
- find evaluations of the story’s events and characters, general observations or judgements
can be quite explicit, but evaluations can also be made less explicitly:
The choice of pejorative (insulting) diction, a hint of irony or the use of modifiers (such as ‘unfortunately’) also work as comment.
5 - Mixed Narrative Modes
In practice, narrative modes are mixed
6 - Historical Change in Narrative Modes
Preferences for certain narrative modes change over time.
20th-century narratives for instance tend to use less comment, especially moral judgements that claim general validity of the kind so frequently found in earlier narratives.
Modern narratives also favour the use of direct speech or direct representation of consciousness.
Generally, the tendency since the late 19th-century, especially since Henry James’ emphatic advocacy of the ‘showing’ mode, has been towards those modes that create the illusion of mimesis and disguise the voice of the narrator.
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This does not mean that one type of mode is better and that another is worse. It does indicate that readers have, at different times, different tastes and possibly different expectations and reading habits. A comparison of narrative modes can thus be fruitful when comparing narratives which were written at different times. It is also advisable to bear in mind the changing preferences for different modes when examining narratives from times other than our own.
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Relevance?
- the different effects various modes can have on the reader
e.g. in different modes and from changing perspectives the reader is both told and shown something about the characters
Prose
- Representation of Consciousness
representations of though, can be conceptualised as a kind of silent speech or inner speech
Ways to represent it:
- direct or indirect speech
3 major methods of thought representation (depending on noticeable narrator interference)
- interior monologue
- psychonarration
- narrated monologue or free indirect discourse
1 - interior monologue
