Download Internal Narration

BBL 3207
POINT OF VIEW
Viewpoint in narration
• Identifying the viewpoint presented in a text
can range from being relatively
straightforward, e.g. 1st-person characternarrator, to being more complex, e.g. frequent
shifts in perspective, or ambiguities i.e. whose
point of view is being presented.
Point of view on the psychological
plane
• References to the reflector’s senses, thoughts
and feelings  a more internalised
psychological perspective had been adopted.
• The authorial point of view relies on an
individual consciousness (or perception)
Psychological point of view
• The choices an author makes with regard to the
various ways in which a story might be narrated
• It is concerned with whose perspective events are
presented from, whether character(s) or
narrator(s) and the linguistic indicators that can
be used to identify this point of view.
• 2 categories of narration:
i. Internal narration
ii. External narration
Internal and External Narration
• Uspensky (1973):
i. Internal Narration – ‘subjective viewpoint’ of
a particular character(s)
ii. External Narration – omniscient narration,
‘objective’, includes narratorial comment on
the characters and actions described
Internal Narration
• Of course, businesses took some time to get
established –Mma Ramotswe understood this – but
how long could one go on at a loss? She had a certain
amount of money left over from her father’s estate
but she could not live on that forever. She should
have listened to her father; he had wanted her to
buy a butchery, and that would have been so much
safer. What was the expression they used? A bluechip investment, that was it. But where was the
excitement in that?
(Alexander McCall Smith, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective
Agency, p. 86)
External Narration
• [. . .]Morris Zapp has just discovered what it is that’s
bugging him about his flight. The realization is a
delayed consequence of walking the length of the
aircraft to the toilet, and strikes him, like a slow-burn
gag in a movie-comedy, just as he is concluding his
business there.
(David Lodge, Changing Places, p. 29)
• Internal - the reader is likely to feel that the
point of view is more restricted
• External - the point of view expressed seems
to belong more to the narrator than to the
character (e.g. the simile)
Internal Narration
• The narration of events from within a particular
character’s consciousness, either with that character
taking on the role of narrator, or by a narrator
assuming an omniscient viewpoint, able to access
the internal states of the character
• Type A
• Type B
NARRATION
• Category A:
– narrated in the first person by a participating
character in the story
– Homodiegetic narration (p. 28)
– Internal to the narrative
Internal Narration
• the narration of events from within a particular
character’s consciousness, either with that character
taking on the role of narrator, or by a narrator
assuming an omniscient viewpoint, able to access
the internal states of the character
Internal Narration
• narration from a point of view within a character’s
consciousness, manifesting his or her feelings about,
and evaluations of, the events and characters of the
story
• written either in the first person or in the third
person with clear indicators of the character’s
“world-view” or presentation of their thoughts being
evident.
• the most subjective form of narration  1st person
narrator
Internal Narration
• “I jumped on Sinbad's bottle. Nothing happened. I
didn't do it again. Sometimes when nothing
happened it was really getting ready to happen”
― Roddy Doyle, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
• “Did I write Ballsbridge on the envelope I took to
cover when she disturbed me writing to Martha?”
(107). (Leonard Bloom, Ulysses)
NARRATION
• Category B:
– Third person narrative
– Narrators who are not participants in the story
– Heterodiegetic
– Can be subdivided further:
• Narratorial mode - Events in the story related from
outside the consciousness of any character
• Reflector mode – 3rd person narrator moves into the
consciousness of a character; character is the reflector
of the fiction
Internal Narration – Type B
• The point of view of someone who is not a
participating character but who has knowledge of
the feelings of the characters - a narrator, or the socalled ‘omniscient author’
• takes the form of third-person omniscient narration
• to a greater or lesser degree, the author gives an
account of the mental processes, feelings and
perceptions of the characters
Internal Narration – Type B
• Dr Iannis had enjoyed a satisfactory day in which none of
his patients had died or got any worse. He had attended
a surprisingly easy calving, lanced one abscess, extracted
a molar, dosed one lady of easy virtue with Salvarsan,
performed an unpleasant but spectacularly fruitful
enema, and produced a miracle by a feat of medical
prestidigitation.
(Louis de Bernières, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, p. 1; my
underlining)
• Underlined parts do not necessarily reflect Dr Iannis’s
feelings about his day but seem instead to be the
narrator’s evaluations of events.
External Narration
• The events of a story are presented from a
position outside any particular character’s
consciousness, therefore excluding any
thoughts or feelings that character may
experience.
• the “objective” presentation of events as they
happened, without comment or evaluation
from the narrator
External Narration
• characterised through the use of non-factive
expressions (words of estrangement),
metaphors and comparisons.
External Narration
• The events of a story are presented from a
position outside any particular character’s
consciousness, therefore excluding any
thoughts or feelings that character may
experience.
• Type C
• Type D
External Narration – Type C
• The “objective” presentation of events as they
happened, without comment or evaluation
from the narrator.
• Not offering to report what an ordinary
unprivileged observer could not see.
• It is impersonal in relation to the author or
narrator, declining to offer judgements on the
characters’ actions;
External Narration – Type C
• This claimed authorial objectivity is indicated
by avoidance of evaluative modalities
(adjectives, adverbs)
• ‘the most neutral, impersonal, type of third
person narration’ (Fowler 1996: 177).
• There is no insight into the internal states of
the characters but simply a description of
their actions.
• It is this type of narration that is perhaps most
commonly associated with stage directions in
drama.
External Narration – Type C
Two other people had been in the lunchroom. Once George
had gone out to the kitchen and made a ham-and-egg
sandwich “to go” that a man wanted to take with him.
Inside the kitchen he saw Al, his derby hat tipped back,
sitting on a stool beside the wicket with the muzzle of a
sawed-off shotgun resting on the ledge. Nick and the cook
were back to back in the corner, a towel tied in each of their
mouths. George had cooked the sandwich, wrapped it up in
oiled paper, put it in a bag, brought it in, and the man had
paid for it and gone out.
“Bright boy can do everything,” Max said. “He can cook and
everything.
You’d make some girl a nice wife, bright boy.”
(E. Hemingway, The Killer)
External Narration – Type D
• Takes into account the opinion and the impressions
of the narrator.
• The author pretends to have no access to the
internal states of characters and establishes this
pretence by the use of, characterised through the
use of non-factive expressions (words of
estrangement)
o I {believe, guess, think, agree, doubt, fear, imagine} that it
is raining
o It {appears, seems, is likely, is certain, is probable} that it
is raining
• more generally be seen as indicators of a limited
viewpoint, whether of character or narrator.
MODALITIES
• Modality “covers linguistic constructions [that]
… express speakers’ and writers’ attitudes
towards themselves, towards their
interlocutors, and towards their subjectmatter; their social and economic
relationships with the people they address;
and the actions which are performed via
language (ordering, accusing, promising,
pleading)” (Fowler & Kress, 1979: p. 200);
MODALITIES
• Modalities are a class of items concerned with
judgments or assessments of events or people
(evaluative modality), (ii) degrees of
commitment of the speaker to the truth of what
is being uttered (e.g. possibility and prediction)
(epistemic modality), and (iii) different degrees
of authoritative control of others (e.g. obligation
and permission) (deontic modality);
• Every utterance carries traces of a basic modal
investment in the proposition uttered;
Epistemic modality
Certainty
Lack of
certainty
Epistemic certitude
• Epistemic certitude is expressed:
1. By means of modal auxiliaries such as must, etc. (The
light is on; Eric must be in his room);
2. By means of semi-auxiliaries: the speaker's present
certitude about a future happening can be expressed by a
semi-auxiliary such as “to be bound to”;
3. By means of modal adverbs such as certainly,
undoubtedly, evidently, obviously, etc.;
4. By means of frequency adverbs such as always,
frequently, often, etc.;
5. By means of assertion such as in The experiment is a
failure vs. Is the experiment a failure?) (The assertion is
the highest degree of certitude, Lyons, 1977: pp. 808-9);
6. By means of verb choice (The experiment is a failure vs.
The experiment seems to be a failure);
Epistemic lack of certitude
Epistemic lack of certitude is expressed:
• By modal auxiliaries: may/might provide a range of
perspectives as to what kind of possibility the speaker has
in mind;
• By attitudinal disjuncts: never, perhaps, maybe;
• By hedges: sort of suggests that the speaker is unable to
definitely categorize the object of perception. Moreover,
uncertainty can be suggested by the "either... or"
construction;
• By particular modalizing verbs: I suppose / presume/think
undermine the strength of a full assertion. Lack of certainty
could also be indicated by seem;
• By means of conjunction: as if/though
Degrees of epistemic commitment
– Companies that are successful on the web OPERATE
differently from their laggard counterparts.
– Companies that are successful on the web are bound to
OPERATE differently from their laggard counterparts.
– Companies that are successful on the web OFTEN operate
differently from their laggard counterparts.
– Companies that are successful on the web MAY operate
differently from their laggard counterparts.
– Companies that are successful on the web SEEM TO
operate differently from their laggard counterparts.
– Companies that are successful on the web MAY not operate
differently from their laggard counterparts.
– Companies that are successful on the web never OPERATE
differently from their laggard counterparts.
Psychological effects of epistemic
commitment
• The degree of epistemic commitment tends to
influence our view of “reality” which is represented on
a scale of certitude-lack of certitude;
• The degree of epistemic commitment tells us what
sort of person the speaker is (careful, responsible,
self-confident, over-confident, arrogant, etc.;
• If the speaker is believed, the degree of epistemic
commitment that is adopted tends to bring
persuasion in the reader/hearer;
Deontic modality: authoritative control
A controls
B
B controls
A
Deontic modality
• Modality which expresses desire and obligation
• Deontic modality is the qualitative commitment of
the speaker to a harmonious or disharmonious
interpersonal relation in the represented reality
• Deontic modality could be expressed:
– By means of modal auxiliaries such as may, must, should,
etc.
– By means of the imperative mood such as Open the
window
• You should work quicker.
• You MUST go now (I order you to leave now)
Power and language
• Utterances are “signs of authority, intended to be
believed and obeyed;”
• What gives people authority is not their linguistic
competence but the social structure present in
each of their utterances;
• Thus, holders of power are those “authorized to
speak with authority;”
Psychological effect of deontic
modality
• An authoritative person is perceived either as
an undemocratic and despotic person, or as
having strong personality;
• The victim of authority and power attracts a
lot of sympathy, pity, etc. or disrespect on the
part of observers;
• Depending on personality, the reader
identifies either with the authoritative person
or the victim of authority;
• Category A and category B narratives can
also be subdivided on the basis of the
patterns of modality that they reveal,
and Simpson refers to the three possible
subdivisions as positive, negative and
neutral ‘shading’.
Positive & negative shading
• In texts with positive shading the deontic
(expression of duty/obligation) and
boulomaic systems of modality (desire) are
foregrounded.
• Negatively shaded texts, on the other hand,
are those in which the epistemic (confidence /
lack of confidence: ‘could’, ‘might’) and
perception (‘clear’, ‘obvious’, ‘apparently’,
‘evidently’) systems of modality are
foregrounded.
Neutral shading
• Usually 3rd person narration.
• The narrator does not reveal all that he or she knows
about the characters, and where the reader is not
given access to the characters’ thoughts and feelings.
Two other people had been in the lunchroom. Once George had gone
out to the kitchen and made a ham-and-egg sandwich "to go" that a
man wanted to take with him. Inside the kitchen he saw Al, his derby
hat tipped back, sitting on a stool beside the wicket with the muzzle of a
sawed-off shotgun resting on the ledge. Nick and the cook were back
to back in the corner, a towel tied in each of their mouths. George had
cooked the sandwich, wrapped it up in oiled paper, put it in a bag,
brought it in, and the man had paid for it and gone out.
HOMEWORK
• Go to Note: POINT OF VIEW2
• Identify the modal shading in the passages in
pg 128-129.
• Write a written report of your analysis submit
by 18th Nov 2014.
Checklist of modalities
• Determine which type of modality is dominant in the text
(evaluative, epistemic and/or deontic), mentioning
representative examples and using statistical skills, if need
be;
• Determine the linguistic instruments of expressing modality
(modals, semi-auxiliaries, mood, modal adverbs, assertion,
tense, attitudinal disjuncts, hedges, modalizing verbs,
conjunction, etc.);
• Determine the psychological effects modalities have
created in the text (such as feelings of intrusion in liberty,
lack of democracy, strong personality, sympathy, pity,
disrespect, inferiority/superiority, authority, carefulness,
responsibility, self-confidence, over-confidence, arrogance,,
etc.)