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Plan
¡ NEWS

¡ NARRATION
¡ Introduction
¡ Definitions : types of narrator
¡ Functions & roles of narration

¡ FOCALIZATION
¡ Definition
¡ Internal & external focalizers/ focalization

Lecture 10 ¡ Multiple focalization = shifting viewpoints

Narration & Focalization

NEWS Why is a narrator important?

CC2 ¡ We often identify with the person telling a story =
NARRATOR
From “Loneliness” or “Uncle Ernest”
¡ It’s as if they were a person!
¡ Introduction
¡ Unless autobiography, narrator is a FICTIONAL
CONSTRUCT
¡ One part in full
¡ However, he/she links TWO REAL PEOPLE!
¡ One part a plan
REAL AUTHOR – NARRATOR – REAL READER(S)
¡ Bonus for conclusion

Gérard Genette (1930-2018)-

Narratology
WHO’S TELLING THE STORY?

¡ HETERODIEGETIC
¡ Not a character

¡ HOMODIEGETIC
¡ Character

Narration ¡ AUTODIEGETIC
¡ Character telling own
story

DIEGESIS = narrative

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Hetero/Homo/Auto- Hetero/Homo/Auto-
diegetic? diegetic?

“I'VE been a postman for twenty-eight

AS soon as I got to Borstal they made me a long- years.”
distance cross-country runner..
“The Fishing Boat Picture”
“The loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner”
¡

Hetero/Homo/Auto- Hetero/Homo/Auto-
diegetic? diegetic?

“I ONCE saw a bloke try to kill himself”
“On Saturday Afternoon”
BRISTOL CITY had played Notts County
and won. Right from the kick-off Lennox
had somehow known that Notts was
going to lose, […] because he himself, a
spectator, hadn't been feeling in top
form.
“The Match”

Hetero/Homo/Auto-
Recap on kinds of narrator
diegetic?
¡ HETERODIEGETIC
¡ Not a character
WHILE Jones the teacher [explained the
¡ HOMODIEGETIC plot of] Masterman Ready, Colin from the
¡ Character classroom heard […] caravans rolling
¡ AUTODIEGETIC slowly towards the open spaces of the
¡ Character telling own story Forest
“Noah’s Ark”
”

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Role of narration
¡ Establishing a setting

¡ Presenting character

¡ Relating events & action

Function and ¡ Addressing reader

roles of narration ¡ Generalizing

¡ Commenting on the act of narration

¡ Reporting speech

Establishing a setting
Presenting a character
§1 A MIDDLE-AGED man wearing a dirty raincoat,
who badly needed a shave and looked as though
he hadn't washed for a month, came out of a
public lavatory with a cloth bag of tools folded
beneath his arm.
Establishing a setting
Relating actions & events
Presenting a character
¡ §3 The long spacious eating-place was almost full.
Establishing setting - inside
¡ §4 Having passed through the half dozen noisy people
standing about he found himself at the counter

Presenting a character & establishing setting Relating actions & events

§2 ¡ §5 The brunette turned on him.

Chimes to the value of half past ten boomed from Relating actions & events
the Council-house clock. ¡ §6 He spoke up hesitantly. "Tomatoes on toast as well.”
Establishing the setting - outside ¡ Relating actions & events, presenting character

Generalizing &
Addressing the reader /
narratee-1
[The policeman] answered me sharp:
"No, it bloody well ain't." Coppers
always lose their tempers as quick as
this […]
"We know you weren't in the house," he
said, […] They always say 'We' 'We',
never 'I' 'I'--as if they feel braver and
righter knowing there's a lot of them
against only one. […]
“Loneliness”
Commenting on the act of
narration
I'VE been a postman for twenty-eight years. Take
that first sentence: because it's written in a simple
way may make the fact of my having been a
postman for so long seem important, but I realize
that such a fact has no significance whatever.
After all, it's not my fault that it may seem as if it has
to some people just because I wrote it down plain;
I wouldn't know how to do it any other way.
“The Fishing-boat Picture”
¡ Reminds us it’s a story
¡ Link between language and social class

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Reporting speech / thoughts Example: “Loneliness” - 1

¡ “What am I doing here” she wondered "A man to see you," she said. ¡ Flashback/ Analepsis
¡ DIRECT SPEECH: “” and a reporting verb "Hurry up, or he'll be gone.” […] scene

¡ What am I doing here "Well, you know where Papplewick ¡ Smith recounts being
¡ FREE DIRECT SPEECH no “” & no reporting verb questioned by the police
Street is, don't you?" the copper
asked me […]
¡ She wondered what she was doing there
¡ INDIRECT SPEECH in the past, no “” but reporting "Ain't it off Alfreton Road?" I asked
verb + filtered through narrator + him back, helpful and bright.
¡ What was she doing there “” and a reporting verb
¡ FREE INDIRECT SPEECH in the past, no “” & no
reporting verb + in character’s head = DIRECT SPEECH

Example: “Loneliness” - 2 Example: “The match” -2

"I don't want no lies," he said […] Where do Smith asks a question He had gone too far. Why did he Lennox’s wife despairs of her
they scrape cops up from anyway? "All I want directly in the present make Saturday afternoon such hell husbands temper
is to get from you where you put that tense on earth? Anger throbbed violently
money.”
in her temples.
Q: Who do we feel closer to,
Lennox or his wife
No “” and no reporting verb*
In the past, No “”, no reporting verb, in
FREE DIRECT SPEECH the character’s head

* ex: wonders/ asks himself…. ⇒FREE INDIRECT SPEECH

Example: “Mr Raynor the school

teacher Recap on reported speech
¡ He regretted the departure of the ¡ Disillusioned school ¡ "I don't want no lies," he said […] Where do they scrape
teacher cops up from anyway?
girl who had been, to him, perfect
in every way FREE INDIRECT SPEECH
¡ Fantasizes about the
shopgirls he sees from ¡ "A man to see you," she said.
the window
in the past, no “” but reporting verb + DIRECT SPEECH
filtered through narrator + ¡ Fantasy takes
⇒INDIRECT SPEECH precedence over ¡ He regretted the departure of the girl
reality
INDIRECT SPEECH

¡ Why did he make Saturday afternoon such hell on earth?

FREE INDIRECT SPEECH