story
what actually happens in the text
Chronological sequence
following events make the story
discourse
Order and causality of events
showing
What are people doing - mostly through dialogue – Realism
neutral description
lack of feelings or insides of the character
no judge or comment on the character
writing a play using pros
dramatic method (through dialogue)
telling
descriptions and a strong narrator presence – Romanticism
comments about the character
feel the presence of the narrator
explanatory method
narrative fiction
form of writing
fiction is not the opposite of reality
narratives need an mediating instance (narrator)
no narrator in poems (speaker)
dramas can have a narrative character
Generosity by Richard Powers (2009)
Postmodernism
narrator talks about the environment in detail
pictures a man far away
reality effect
relation between the text and the narrator
narrative
causes an effect
description
is a state
story vs discourse
can be seperated
presentation of the character
Modes of Presenting Consciousness
showing to telling
Free direct thought
Direct thought
Free indirect discourse
Indirect thought
free direct thought
The narrator is the character
Characters thoughts
Jump between characters if the narrator changes (different chapters)
What should I do
direct thought
The narrator describes what the character is doing or thinking but is not the character
Characters’ thoughts reported in direct speech (with inquit formula is added – he she said)
She thought “What should I do”
free indirect discourse
The narrator sounds like the character but is not the character
Characters’ thoughts, but the narrator is speaking
Pronouns and tense shift to the narrator’s point of view
What should she do
indirect thought
The narrator is not using the language of the character
presence of the narrator is the strongest
A grammatical shift toward the narrator
XY wondered what she should do
Order
sequences of events
story oder can be different from the discourse order
flashbacks, foreshadowing
frequency
how often an event occurs
sth. is happening every day in the story but is just mentioned once in the discourse
duration
Relation of story time and discourse time
Storytime: time that passes within the world the characters inhabit, the story world (actual time)
Discourse time: the time it takes to tell or read a story and presentation of sequences
Summary
Discourse Time < story time
The narrative is speeding up
Often without details
stretch
Discourse time > story time
Description of mental process
Isochrony
Discourse time is identical to the story time
Showing rather than telling
Consists of dialogue
Ellipse
Discourse time is not realized while storytime is
Leave out moments in time
Leaves out steps in the chronological order
Time jumps
Pause
Discourse time is realized whereas story time is not
Nothing happens but the narrator keeps on talking
Reality effect because of additional information
Narration and focalization by Gérard Genette
level
relation
appearance
focalization
extradiegetic
intradiegetic
telling the reader outside the story world
all texts have an extradiegetic level (only one)
level of the reader
frame as the extradiegetic level to separate the worlds
can’t communicate with the character
story within a story
don’t need to have one but can have an infinite amount (most texts don’t have one)
story world
painting within the painting as the intradiegetic level
different point of view
space
time jumps don’t have to be on another level
can communicate with characters
heterodiegetic
homodiegetic
autodiegetic
Narrator is not part of the story world
narrator is the voice
how is the voice related to the story
often 3rd person narrator
can also be I but not part of the story world
Narrator is part of the story world but is not the main character
interact with the characters
also part of the story world (Main character)
often first person
Every autodiegetic narration is also homodiegetic but not the other way round
unreliable narrator
every first person is unreliable as we only get their point of view (subjective)
heterodiegetic narrator can be selective
if they are unreliable it can not be proven as they are outside of the story world
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce (1890)
Realism
Most of the story is the imagination of the Farquhar (the man who is being hanged)
the whole story happens in his head
imagines the escape from the execution so that he can reunite with his family which symbolises hope
ticking watch symbolizes not only the less time he has left but also how to sharpen his senses are before his dead
more underlined through the little details he sees in nature
takes place while the civil war
Main character as a local slave owner
stretch through the thoughts in his mind before he dies
Pause as we get additional information or a description of the scene to make it feel more real
Ischrony through dialogues
extradiegetic level
heterodiegetic narration
zero focalization
overt through feelings of the character
The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe (1849)
the definitions of an unreliable Narrator
even tries to convince us he is not insane
tool that we shouldn’t trust the narrator
story wouldn’t work with another narrative mode
“He is pondering in his room” – The end!
killing a man due to his evil eye in order to get rid of the eye as it made him feel uncomfortable
separates the eye from the man as it is only the eye which borders him not the man himself
after the murder, he divides the dead body into pieces and hides them
after the police arrived as a neighbor called them he brought them into the bedroom
he imagined hearing the heart of the dead man which made him go crazy which is why he in the end told the police about the murder (bad conscience?)
autodiegetic relation as he is the main character
summary ..every night about midnight…
Pause as we get extra information about the mans feelings
fixed internal focalization
overt narration through commenting
To build a fire by Jack London (1908)
Ellipsis
he is walking for hours in the snow but the discourse time is a way shorter
as the voice doesn’t communicate with the characters from the story à …when the man turned aside...(3rd person)
overt native voice
character is ignorant and the narrator gives a comment
it should worry the man but it did not
if we had a covert narrator man would suddenly die and we would not know the reason
dynamic zero focalization
often dynamic when we have zero focalization
A man In Canada who was new in this area, not impressed by the cold winter
has to build a fire on the way to keep him warm
as he got wet he started to freeze which leads him to death
dies in the end from the cold
the dog symbolizes the instinct for survival
the boys symbolise destination, security, comfort, and companionship as they are the reason he decided to make the way to the camp in this cold
somehow they were also the reason he kept going
the other two by Edith Wharton (1904)
Alice Waythorn got married to Mr. Waythorn who was her third marriage
at first he did not really care
he was enjoyed that her ex-partners came back into her life or his life as the daughter from the first marriage got sick
he tried to avoid seeing them
only at home he felt save as it symbolizes the private world of the Waythorn family
situation changed as he met his first husband who was not as he expected him to be
he was afraid that the story repeats as he is somehow in the same boat as Alice’s first husband
in the end the other two and the Waythorns set together drinking a cup of tea
…ten days later at the beginning of Chapter 3
Pause as we get extra information through descriptions
Isochrony through short dialogues
overt narration
fixed internal focalization as we are in the head of the husband
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1892)
Feminist short story
tries to be feminist but actually she is not as she still does what others want her to do (take the medicine)
Collection of diary entries
Wallpaper is mirroring her mind (confused, hard to read)
Questions the role of women in society and mental health ( usually considered hysterical if you didn’t follow the norm)
Women in this time should do what others tell her or expect from her, especially the husband
would like to pursue her own ideas which makes her different than other women
Wants to defy the norm (not allowed to write but does it anyway)
haunted house almost a simile to her mind ( her mind is also haunted) →external
Woman is haunted – husband doesn’t believe her
Want to make her husband feel the way she does
her own husband doesn’t take her seriously but also her husband as a doctor doesn’t take her seriously
The narrator (the character ) can’t relate to her husband John
Poison relationship as her husband is the reason for her getting more and more sick
Tried to talk to him but gave up really quickly
seems like she is feeling lonely as her husband is always gone (only there at night)
could imply that he also leaves her alone with her problems (he doesn’t think she is sick as her husband or as a doctor)
her baby doesn’t play a big role in the story
but maybe it’s the reason for her sickness as it indicates Postpartum depression
At the end she locked herself in the room
going crazy as she believes there is a women behind the wallpaper
believes that she was also a women behind a wallpaper and don’t want to be put back
yellow wallpaper symboloses the obsession of the narrator
diaray as a symbol of rebellion
shows us the life of the mind that the narrator has been forced to give up
written in a sometimes confusing way or just hard to read
women behind the wallpaper as she identifies herself entirely with this mysterious figure.
Unreliable narrator
the mode of narration is changing
first person narrator
Free direct thought as we are getting the characters thoughts
Ellipsis through time jumps (e.g. we have been here two weeks)
Stretch through her thoughts
Isochrony through dialogues
Pause as we are getting extra information through comments eg. of the room
Extradiegetic level
No intradiegetic level
Autodiegetic narrator as she is the main character
Narration changes in the end of the story
Now what happens right now (present)
Before it was a diary entry from the past
She as a person changes which is why the narration changes
Frees herself (breaks free from the paper)
Breaks free from being caged by her husband
dynamic internal focalization
covert
overt
Anonymous narrator
Often showing through dialogs
Stays neutral and doesn’t voice opinions
Narrator draws attention to himself
Telling through Comments
Autodiegetic narrator
fixed
dynamic
internal focalization
external focalization
we are in a character’s mind and only getting their point of view
focalizer is the character
we know more than any of the characters
we know less than the characters
fixed focalization
Focalization doesn’t change over the course of the text
Only one point of view
dynamic focalization
Focalization changes
Different point of views
often with zero focalization
Literary theory
if you change the literary theory the identity of the author becomes important in order to understand the structure of the text
white man writing story about colonialism changes the understanding of the text
death of the author problematic
think of literary theories which are good and easy to apply on the text
Literary theory could serve as a bridge between a text and larger social, cultural, political, and economic issues
Postcolonialism
all cultures affected by the imperial process
pointing out that colonialism was bad
look at texts and literature and observe how they deal with the impact of colonialism
others are different
we are better them then as we have something they don’t have
self and other
burden of the white men to bring civilization to the people
educate them as they are no full people
The aim of a postcolonial reading is not to merely identify and critique
is interested in more complex questions of hybridity, liminality, and identity which cannot be categorized in binaries
not only race also gender
orient feminine
Europe masculine
racist just say the other group is other then you no matter wether its positive or not
Joseph Conrad
polnish-british author
one of the most important authors of the 19th century
Period Heart of Darkness
1899
Part I
longest part
The Narrator describes the scene from the deck of a ship named Nellie as it rests at anchor at the mouth of the River Thames, near London
sunset and the memories of the narrator
Marlow interrupts the silence
Marlow adds that conquest is never pretty and usually involves the powerful taking land from those who look different and are less powerful
start of Marlow story
story of Fresleven’s Death, which was the reason he was hired
Company's office
conversation with his aunt
Marlow boards the steamer that will take him to the mouth of the Congo
Company's Outer Station
Grove of Death
Introduction of Mr. Kurtz, a station head
fifteen-day trek through the jungle
arrival at the station
Marlow is taken to the General manager
Marlow fixes the ship
We get more information about Kurtz
Marlows first lie
Marlow breaks off telling his story
Marlow resumes his story
Without rivets, Marlow can't do any work either
Part II
shortest part
General manager and his uncle
General Manager's uncle and his Eldorado Expedition head into the jungle
Marlow finishes repairing the ship (three months later)
the long difficult trip
Marlow continues with his story
eight miles before the headquarter
The next morning
one mile before the headquarter
message from the general manager
Marlow interrupts his story once again to address the men on the ship
BUT Kurtz was alive
Arrival at the station
Part III
Marlow and the Russian
The pilgrims come out of the house bearing Kurtz on a stretcher
Along the shore of the river near the ship the natives gather
conflict between Kurtz and the General Manager
Marlow and Kurz (climax of the novel)
departure of the ship the next day
Death of Kurtz
Marlow gets sick
Marlow’s return to Europe
representative of the Company comes to get Kurtz's papers
Marlow and Kurzes Ex future wife
Marlow, on the Nellie still at anchor in the Thames, goes quiet
Main themes
Colonialism
Most present in Part I
Hollowness of the civilization
Most present in Part I and Part III
corruption
Lack of truth
Main theme in Part III
Work
Most present in Part I (but not that much compared to the other topics)
Racism
Most present in Part I and Part II (but not that much compared to the other topics)
Book itself is not Racist but it criticises it
Marlow
Heart of Darkness is mostly made up of his story about his journey into the Belgian Congo
Seaman
Racist
Does othering
colonialist
Narration and focalization by Gérard Genette in Heart of Darkness
Homodiegetic
Overt narration through commenting
Zero focalization through comments about Marlow’s Story
Know more than the characters
Intradiegetic level
Marlow is telling the other seaman a story
Autodiegetic as Marlow is the main character
Overt narration as he is the main character
Internal focalization as we only get to know what Marlow knows
Dynamic focalization
Why the author uses an intradiegetic level and not Marlow as a narrator
Author wants to distance from Marlow
Marlow can not be the narrator as he would be unreliable
Marlow is racist
the author was a product of his time
his text critics that
paradox
he can not escape the racism of his time
somehow reproducing this
Other stylistic devices and important information
divided into three parts
Deeply problematic
Weird narrative framing
Hard to read in order to make the reader feel the way Marlow did on his way through the jungle
Structuralism in Heart of Darkness
application of the theory of structuralism
only interested in the structure of the text
Postcolonialism in Heart of Darkness
application of the theory of postcolonialism
identity of the author suddenly becomes important
how culture represents colonialism
Heart of Darkness is a way more complex
would be convinced Marlow would be the good guy but he is not
text is engaging with the racial politics of that time
expressing the mindest
but the idea is the white man’s burden
postcolonial reading of Heart of Darkness does not simply point out that the text reproduces racist discourses (which it does), but investigates the contradictions and ambiguities within these discourses
postcolonial moment of the text
cant separate ideology
realizes that they are not inhuman
Africa as a weird place (back in time)
Zuletzt geändertvor einem Jahr