Text as narrative structure

The text as narrative structure

Narratology deals with the question of “who sees ?” and “who speaks ?”.
Both questions are about the angle of vision through which the story is focused.

1. Focalization (who sees?)

Gérard Genette (Figures III) has distinguished between three types of focalisation :
- zero focalization, when the narrator is omniscient, i.e., knows more than any of the characters. N > C
- internal focalization, when the perspective is limited to what only one character can see or say. N = C
- external focalization, when the narrator knows or says less than what the characters know. N > C.

This raises the issue of voice (who speaks ?) and the question of the different types of discourse :

2.who speaks ?

- direct discourse, in inverted commas, introduced by a verb or an introductory reporting clause (like “she said”, “he uttered”...).
- indirect discourse = reported discourse.
- Free Direct Discourse: direct speech has two features testifying to the narrator's presence, i.e. the quotation marks and the introductory reporting clause. You have the Free Direct Speech when you remove either or both of these feautures. (Leech and Short, Style in Fiction)
- free indirect discourse: a sort of midway point between the first two, or a combination which blends their grammatical characteristics.
Three examples given by Rimmon-Kenan :
Direct discourse: He said, “I love her;”
Indirect discourse: He said that he loved her
Free Indirect Discourse : He loved her.
—> FID retains the third person “he” and the past tense from indirect speech, but in its truncation resembles the words used in the direct discourse example.
FID makes your hear the voice of a character, as relayed by the narrator’s voice. In fact you hear a blend of two voices