Abstract

WHO SPEAKS, WHO LISTENS, WHO ACTS: AN INNOVATIVE MODEL FOR THOUGHTFUL AND UNDERSTANDING NARRATIVE

CHETAN ANILRAO AINCHWAR

Volume: 4 Issue: 2 2014

Abstract:

Traditionally we have examined narrative structures primarily in terms of voice (who is speaking). Although a number of critics have revised how we think of voice, for example by making the distinction between who speaks (voice) and who perceives (focalization), our understanding of narrative remains incomplete if we focus so exclusively on this one variable. For instance, second- person narration, which is defined not by who is speaking but by who is listening (the narratee), does not adequately fit into a model of narration that centers around voice or narrator. To account for different narrative structures more adequately, I propose a new model of narration that examines three variables: narrator, narratee, and protagonist. The model is made up of five categories based on the possible ways these three variables can relate to one another: complete coincident narration, non-coincident narration, and three forms of partial coincident narration. My dissertation introduces, defines, and explores each of these categories by analyzing specific texts that exemplify these narrative structures. These analyses demonstrate my larger argument, that the type and level of reader engagement with a text is determined more so by the relationships among these three variables than simply by the type of narrator. In other words, my model offers us a new understanding of the rhetorical dynamics of narrative discourse, a fresh account of both narration itself and its consequences for reader response.

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