Q1: Who is telling the story in the novel: narration, narrational points of view, types of narration and their reliability.

Question 1

What is narration/narrator?

Answer 1

narration/narrator - a voice which tells the story or speaks to the audience/readers. It determines the story’s point of view (however, the voice can come from a variety of different perspectives)

Question 2

What are two types of narration?

Answer 2

Based on the degree of the narrator’s knowledge we can present two types of narration:

1. Narrator as a non-participant in the events
2. Narrator as a participant in the events

Question 3

Characterize a narrator non-participant in the events.

Answer 3

• omniscient/all-knowing
• seeing into one or more major characters
• objective: trying to remain outside of the characters

Question 4

Characterize the narrator participating in the events.

Answer 4

• protagonist

- minor character

Question 5

Describe Booth’s concept of reliable and unreliable narrator.

Answer 5

• reliable - when the narrator speaks/acts in accordance with the norms of the implied author
• unreliable - when the narrator doesn’t speak in accordance with the norms of the implied author

Question 6

Describe Booth’s concept of implied author.

Answer 6

• implied author - a consciousness projected by the text; a construct assembled by the reader
• it distinguishes the virtual author of the text from the real, empirical author
• implied author’s views are not the same as the views of the real author

Question 7

Describe narration issues in Joseph Conrad’s “The Heart of Darkness”.

Answer 7

• two narrators: Marlow and a second person (frame narrator who begins and ends the story) -> they both use first person narration so we can see Marlow from another perspective [more objectively]
• the second narrator sometimes interrupts Marlow, the second narration allows the reader to step back from Marlow’s point of view and evaluate the story

Question 8

What is important about the narrational distances in Nabokov’s “Lolita”?

Answer 8

It’s necessary to recognize the difference between the author and the narrator (-> the importance of the implied author)

• misconceptions of the main character (Humbert) who describes the story
• ppl thought Nabokov shared the same immoral points of view as the narrator