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Narrators ;Narrative Structure in Fiction Narrators and characters,...

, are essentially 'paper beings'; the (material) author of a narrative is in no way to be confused with the narrator of that narrative. ....who speaks (in the narrative) is not who writes (in real life) and who writes is not who is.--Roland Barthes, "The Structural Analysis of Narratives" 1. Narrators

All stories are narrated from a point of view. There are basically two points of view from which to tell a story: either from outside the story--using an External Narrator, or from inside the story--using an Internal Narrator. As Roland Barthes so clearly articulates, a Narrator, whether Internal or External, is never to be confused with the Writer. Narrators and characters are "paper beings"--strategies which writers use to tell stories.

The External Narrator An External Narrator is not a character in the story, but a persona, a disembodied "voice" the writer creates to tell the story from outside the story-world. External narration is easily recognizable because the story is written grammatically in the third person: he, she, they-which is why the External Narrator is frequently called the Third-Person Narrator. Three major variations of the External Narrator are:

Vision From Behind A Narrator who tells the story from a certain distance outside the story-world-what Jean Pouillon calls, "Vision from Behind." This Narrator (often called the Omniscient Narrator) can present a multitude of characters and events from any perspective in time and space; can reveal the internal life of any of the characters; and make comments and judgments on the characters and events in the story. The persona of the Narrator is clearly differentiated from the characters. Cf. Don Quixote, Tom Jones, The Death of Ivan Illych; Haruki Murakami, "Tony Takitani", Annie Proulx's"Brokeback Mountain".

Vision From Without A Narrator with the persona of a Neutral Reporter. A Narrator who only reports the actions and speech of characters, describes persons, places and objects of the story-world; does not go insidecharacters to report on their minds; and does not make comments about characters and events. Cf. Hemingway's, "Hills Like White Elephants , "The Killers". Cf. Dashell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon.

Vision With A Narrator who presents the story from the perceptual and experiential point of view of a character or several characters. The Narrator does not express independent judgments about events in the story-world, but reports the

perceptions, thoughts and feelings of the character--frequently in the idiom of that character. Cf. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man; Mrs. Dalloway; Mary Gaitskill,Tiny, Smiling Daddy": Lorrie Moore, "Charades"; Tobias Wolff, "The Disposition"; Alice Munro, "The Runaway".

Of course, there are many variations and combinations of these three basic methods of using an External Narrator. Only studying specific stories and novels will yield an understanding of the flexibility and subtleties of External Narration. (For a comprehensive discussion of the scholarly research on the art of narration, see Manfred Jahn's brilliant and generous online book: Narratology: A Guide to the Theory of Narrative.)

Uniqueness of the External Narrator The External Narrator can do what is impossible to do in real life--enter directly into the minds of other human beings. In actual life, we know other people only indirectly-through their words and actions. As R.D. Laing said: "I cannot experience your experience. You cannot experience my experience. We are both invisible men. All men are invisible to one another." Only in the make-believe world of Third-Person Narration can the Narrator present transparent minds, making the invisible, visible. Dorit Cohn in Transparent Minds defines three basic ways the External Narrator renders consciousness transparent.

Psycho-Narration. The Narrator reports what a character is thinking and feeling. He narrates the character's psyche--hence, Psycho-narration. Interior Monologue: Direct Thought. The Narrator directly quotes the character's thoughts. Narrated Monologue: Indirect Thought. The Narrator presents the character's thought indirectly using the character's own idiom, but keeping the third person reference and tense of narration.

Here is a paragraph from James Joyce's "The Dead," in which Joyce presents the mind of his character, Gabriel, as he is thinking about the speech that he's about to make at his Aunts' dinner party. The three types of narrating consciousness are color-coded: Red: Psychonarration; Green: Interior Monologue; Blue: Narrated Monologue. He ran over the headings of his speech: Irish hospitality, sad memories, the Three Graces, Paris, the quotation from Browning. He repeated to himself a phrase he had written in his review:"One feels that one is listening to a thought- tormented music." Miss Ivors had praised the review. Was she sincere? Had she really any life of her own behind all her propagandism? There had never been any ill-feeling between them until that night. It unnerved him to think that she would be at the supper-table, looking up at him while he spoke with her critical quizzing eyes. Perhaps she would not be sorry to see him fail in his speech. An idea came into his mind and gave him courage. He would say, alluding to Aunt

Kate and Aunt Julia: "Ladies and Gentlemen, the generation which is now on the wane among us may have had its faults but for my part I think it had certain qualities of hospitality, of humour, of humanity, which the new and very serious and hypereducated generation that is growing up around us seems to me to lack." Very good: that was one for Miss Ivors.What did he care that his aunts were only two ignorant old women? Here are analyses of two complete short stories, demonstrating how External Narration renders consciousness:

James Joyce's "The Dead" Annie Proulx's "Brokeback Mountain".

The Internal Narrator The Internal Narrator is a character within the story he or she is telling. Frequently called the First-Person Narrator because the story is told by a character who uses "I". The two variations of First-Person narration are:

The First-Person Narrator as the central character. The Narrator tells a story about himself--a story about change--the movement from innocence to experience; ignorance to knowledge. Or the Narrator tells a story which focuses on his reflective consciousness--his perceptions and evaluations of the people he meets and the events he lives through. Examples: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; Catcher in the Rye; Joyce, "Araby"; John Updike, "A&P". The First-Person Narrator as a witness to what happens to the central character. Examples: Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby; Hemingway, "Old Man at the Bridge".

Uniqueness of the Internal Narrator A First-Person Narrator tells his own experience of the world; the story-world of characters and events is filtered through his consciousness alone. First-Person narration is a form of conscious consciousness--the self articulating what is in the mind. The First-Person Narrator is restricted in his knowledge of other characters. He does not know directly the minds of other characters like the External Narrator does. He knows the other characters in the same way that the reader knows other people--only indirectly through his interpretation of their words and actions.

2. Narrative Structure Narrative Structure: Types of Story Structure 1. A single story narrated by either an Internal Narrator or an External Narrator. o Internal Narrator Internal Narrators can only tell one story however complex it may be in terms of involving many characters and events. The story she tells is

always a story from her point of view--her involvement with people and events. Examples: Huckleberry Finn, Catcher in the Rye, A Clockwork Orange. External Narrator Vision from Behind. The Distanced Narrator can tell a single story. Example: Roberto Bolano's "The Insufferable Gaucho", Chekhov's "The Lady with the Pet Dog". Vision from Without. The Neutral Narrator typically tells a single story rather than shifting between multiple story-lines. Examples: Hemingway, "Hills Like White Elephants, Dashell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon. Vision With. The Narrator telling the story from the perceptual and experiential point of view of one character is by definition a single story. Examples: Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Mary Gaitskill, Tiny, Smiling Daddy", Lorrie Moore, "Charades", Tobias Wolff, "The Disposition". 2. Multiple stories narrated by one narrator. o Only an External Narrator can narrate independent stories lines. An External Narrator can intercut between different characters and their actions in simultaneous or different times and same or different places, which cannot be done by a First-Person Narrator. Examples: Don Quixote, Anna Karenina, The Death of Ivan Illych, The Brother's Karamazov, Haruki Murakami, "Tony Takitani", Crane's "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky." A major contemporary technique for telling multiple stories is juxtaposing story-lines narrated from several characters perceptual and experiential point of view (Vision With). The shifts are easily recognizable by the change in perceptual/experiential point of view. Examples: Mrs. Dalloway, Alice Munro, "The Runaway", Joyce, "The Boarding Room". o An Internal Narrator cannot narrate separate stories in which she is not present. The First-Person Narrator is always in the story she tells. She can have other characters in her story tell their stories, but these stories are always embedded in her story. Examples: Conrad'sHeart of Darkness. 3. Multiple stories narrated by multiple narrators. o Combination of an External Narrator and an Internal Narrator. Examples: The Sound and the Fury, which is structured around three First-Person Narrators--Benjy, Quentin and Jason--and one External Narrator. Ian McEwan's Atonement: Shifts from External Narration to Internal Narration. Ingo Schulze's Simples Stories: Multiple shifts between First-Person and Third-Person Narrators. o Multiple first-person narrators. Examples: Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club, Akutagawa's "In a Grove", Faulkner's As I Lay Dying.
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Narrative Structure: Linear/Chronological and Non-Linear/Achronological Narratives are about characters and events in time. There are two basic options for structuring a story: telling the story in linear, chronological order or in non-linear, achronological order.

Linear/Chronological order. o Many First-Person narratives are told in chronological order. Examples: Joyce's "Araby", Chandler's The Big Sleep, Louise Erdrich's "Saint Marie". o External Narrators can tell two types of linear stories: Single stories. Examples: Joyce, "The Dead." Multiple stories. External narrators, unlike First-person narrators, can tell a linear, chronlogical story involving multiple sub-story lines by means of crosscutting between "simultaneous" events happening in different places. Examples: Crane's "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky", Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. Non-Linear/ Achronological o Internal narration is always in the present time of the telling. FirstPerson narrators cannot shift to a past or a future time . All time shifts are in their memories of the past or imaginings of the future. Shifts to the past are in the form of telling memories ( I remember when... or ten years ago I was... etc.). The same with shifts to future time. The shifts can only be telling about fantasies about the future. Examples: Tillie Olsen's "I Stand Here Ironing", John Updike, "My Father's Tears", Sherman Alexie's "The Toughest Indian in the World." o Third-Person Narrators employ a range of techniques for telling nonlinear/achronological stories. 1. The External Narrator narrates the time-shift directly: "Ten years before this..." 2. The External Narrator indicates time-shifts indirectly through dialogue, description of setting and reporting of action. Example: Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Illych: cf. Chapters 1 and 2. 3. The Narrator indicates time-shifts graphically in the text by means of chapter titles and part headings. Example: Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury: The four parts: April Seventh, 1928; June Second 1910; April Sixth 1928; April Eighth 1928. 4. The External Narrator can narrate time-shifts by presenting characters' memories or imaginings about the future. The timeshifts are in the minds of the characters not external shifts in time as in the first three methods. The external narrator uses one or more of the techniques for rendering consciousness--psycho-narration, internal monlogue or narrated monologue to narrate characters memories or fantasies about the future. Example: "Anger overrode his helplessness. Kitty could be vicious. He hadn't seen her vicious side in years, but he knew it was there. He remembered the time he'd

stood behind the half-open front door when fifteenyear-old Kitty sat hunched on the front steps with one of her few friends, a homely blonde who wore white lipstick and a white jacket jacket.-- Mary Gaitskill's Tiny, Smiling Daddy". Other examples: Richard Powers' The Echo Maker, Joyce's "Eveline."

Narrative Structure: Parts of the Whole Narratives of any length are organized in sections. Key questions to ask are: What are the sections? Are the parts indicated by chapters with or without titles, blank spaces between paragraphs, or other graphic means of indicating sections? What is the pattern of organization? What is the relationship of the parts to the whole narrative? In narratives with multiple story-lines what is the function of the different story-lines in the whole narrative? Example: Narrative Structure of Proulx's "Brokeback Mountain."

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