The modes (or types ) of narration are the methods of embodiment of the plot in the text selected by the author of an artistic (prose, poetic, dramatic, cinematic, musical, etc.) work. Narration (“storytelling”) as a process is possible only in the form of one or another narrative mode, which involves, among many other aspects, the choice of a narrative point of view (for example, from the first person, from a third person) and the choice of the narrator’s “voice” ( English narrative voice ) - techniques for supplying plot information, for example, by directly reproducing the character’s thoughts and feelings, creating the illusion of the narrator’s unconditional presence at all events, reading someone else’s letter, retelling from someone else’s words, guesses, etc. In addition, the narrative mode involves the construction of the narrator’s idiolect — the speech features of the person conducting the narration (“ storyteller ” or “narrator”), from neutral, erased, “zero” in terms of phraseology to the original, real speech mask, embodied in the most vivid form the form of a tale , the narrative specificity of which consists in building a stylistic - discursive confrontation between the author and the narrator.
The role of a narrator can be, for example:
1) a storyteller invented by the author and integrated into the text, possessing a name, biography elements, etc., but external to the events unfolding in the text (Rudy Panko in N.V. Gogol's “ Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka ”),
2) narrator (“ War and Peace ” by L. N. Tolstoy or “ Dead Souls ” by N. V. Gogol),
3) one of the participants in the events of the work (chroniclers in the novels of F.M. Dostoevsky ), etc.
Types of narrators can differ dramatically in their ability to penetrate the consciousness of heroes (one or several), in terms of their awareness (see unreliable narrator ), involvement in events, bias, emotional attachment to certain characters, visibility for the reader, originality of individual speech manners and a host of others. In addition, the work may have a whole system of narrators, more or less explicitly presented in the text (a vivid example is “ Hero of Our Time ” by M. Yu. Lermontov ). The narrative space of the text can be organized inconsistently: the stated chronicler during the development of the plot can sporadically be endowed with the features of an omniscient author (The Brothers Karamazov , F. M. Dostoevsky), an objective narrator-author may lose access to the consciousness of his hero, and so on.
Content
Narrative Point of View
The narrative point of view in a literary text refers to the position of the narrator in relation to the events described. Quite popular in narratology is the analogy between the role of a narrator of a literary text and an operator in cinema, which can shoot from some external point of view, covering the entire event space, can be in the center of the action, holding a hand-held camera, use several cameras, etc.
First-Person Narration
In this mode of narration, the narrator is the narrator, who at the same time acts as a character and designates himself by means of the first person pronoun “I” or, much less often, “we” (as in Agota Kristof's “ Thick Notebook ”). Typically, this type of narrator makes it possible to effectively express the thoughts and feelings of the narrator hidden and inaccessible to the outside observer, and opens the way to various forms of self-observation and reflection of the character, which brings him closer to the diary. Often the narrator is a hero whose thoughts are available to the reader, but usually not to other characters. First-person narrative predisposes to the construction of the narrator's narrative idiostyle, with a special choice of vocabulary, idiomatics, and other linguistic features.
A first-person narrative can come close to an objective third-person narrative, when the narrative “I” does not seem to be aware that it is telling a story, and vice versa, emphasis can be placed on the very fact of the story if the “I” narrator emphasizes to whom why, when and where does he carry out the act of narration. Such an explicit narrator is usually a participant in the events described: the main character ( Pechorin in the novels “ Taman ”, “ Princess Mary ”, “The Fatalist ” from “ Hero of Our Time ” M. Yu. Lermontov), a secondary participant in the events ( Maxim Maksimych from the story “ Bela ”From“ Hero of Our Time ”M. Yu. Lermontov), a random witness (storyteller in the novel“ Maxim Maksimych ”from“ Hero of Our Time ”M. Yu. Lermontov), a consistent chronicler who practically did not take part in the action (Anton Lavrentievich L-in of the " Possessed " by F. Dostoevsky nd). It is also possible to combine and switch these roles ( Dr. Watson from “Notes on Sherlock Holmes ” combines the roles of a chronicler and a secondary character).
The fundamental features of a first-person narrator are subjectivity in presenting and comprehending events and interpreting the motives of the actions of other characters, the incompleteness of the information that he has, the explicit psychology of his assessments of other actors. In addition, such an “I” storyteller may have the goal of misleading the addressee or giving an intentionally distorted image of events. The “I” narrative assumes that the reader builds his image of the narrator and, in the course of perceiving the text, corrects the image of reality constructed by the narrator, restoring what “actually” happened.
A characteristic feature of modern literature is narratives from a non-standard first person, where people with mental disabilities, asocial types, animals, and even inanimate objects play the role of narrators (The Black Cat by E. A. Poe , The Worldly Views of the Murr Cat by E. T A. Hoffmann and many others). Stories on behalf of animals and objects quickly began to be used in children's literature (cf. Sasha Cherny, “ The Mickey Fox Diary ”).
The first-person narrator’s figure also imposes certain restrictions on the author’s narrative, in particular because the hero involved in the action, who is in a certain place at a certain time, cannot reliably know what is happening in another place, which complicates the natural embodiment of parallel storylines. To overcome these limitations, a whole series of plot moves are used, which have turned into cliches (eavesdropping on conversations, reading other people's letters, etc.). For first-person narration, therefore, a high degree of individuality, subjectivity of presentation, and at the same time, the narrator’s point of view is limited, his experience and horizons are cm., for example, the story IA Bunin's " Cold autumn " where the narrator selects close-up, only one subjectively meaningful to her recollection, and omits a number of events their "thicken" Do as much as possible.
For a long time, the German term Ich-erzählung was used as the terminological designation of this narrative form, including in the works of M. M. Bakhtin .
Second Person
A rather rare narrative form that is almost never unique in a prose literary text. With its help, the reader’s contact with the text is achieved, the reader feels that he himself is a character within the story, an element of the plot, action:
Close your eyes and see. In the city, in Makaryev, along Sovetskaya Street, with a high cobblestone pavement, his brother ran, flickering with trousers whipping along his ankles, and you followed him, walked quickly - oh, if you couldn’t remember the dapperfully navy trousers!
- In the "first issue" they give! - throwing up a bundle, said a gray-haired old woman, stopping near the house with an unfinished window open on the sidewalk.
White knot. And you impatiently shuffled the forged soles of American shoes - ran briskly, holding two medals pounded on his chest.
- Pozdyshev V. A. Urgency: Roman. - M.: Soviet writer, 1986
Third-Person Narration
In works that are built as a third-person narrative, the narrator is contrasted with other characters as a figure of a different space-time plan, of a different level. He can act as an objective observer or an omniscient narrator, therefore, the distinguishing features of this type of narration is a large degree of objectivity, relative completeness in the transmission of the inner world of other characters, in the description of their life. If in the first-person narrative the correlation “the narrator’s speech is the characters’s speech” is established, then in the third-person narrative the mobile relation “the narrator’s speech is the subject-speech plan of the heroes” is observed.
Narrative from several persons
Temporary organization of narrative
Elapsed Time
Present
Future tense
Localization
The term “focalization” was proposed in the early 1970s by the French structuralist Gerard Genett as a development of the ideas of J. Puyon and Ts. Todorov to indicate a narrative perspective and became key for narratology. In total, three types of focalization are distinguished, which, however, have a dynamic, fluid nature and cannot be clearly defined:
- zero focalization ( fr. focalisation omnisciente ou zéro ): a classic narrative with a narrator-“god” who knows everything about his heroes, their thoughts and feelings, their past, present and future, capable of being present simultaneously in different places; in texts with zero focalization, the reader’s knowledge exceeds the character’s knowledge. An example of a text with a dominance of zero focalization is “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy.
- internal focalization ( French focalization interne ): the reader can see the world exclusively from the point of view of the “focal character” ( French personnage focal ), with his eyes, which is manifested, in particular, in the use of deictic and other referential means. The reader receives information about the world of the text refracted through the prism of the subjective consciousness of the hero, incomplete and reflecting his interpretation of events. The reader’s knowledge is equal to the character’s knowledge. Consistent internal focalization is realized, for example, in “ Age with Cocaine ” by M. Ageev , which is combined with the first-person narrative, and in the “ Step ” novel by A.P. Chekhov as part of an objective third-person narrative that conveys a view of events from a point of view view of the protagonist - a nine-year-old boy Egorushka.
- external focalization ( French focalization externe ): a look at the hero is made out with the help of an external neutral, objective, invaluable narrative, which can be likened to the impartial camera of a documentary operator, which is, however, inside the world of text. The character at the same time has a greater amount of knowledge than the reader. The latter can only put forward more or less plausible motivations for the actions of the hero.
In real literary texts, different types of focalization can form complex structures with one of them dominating.
Literature
- Bakhtin M. M. Problems of the poetics of Dostoevsky. - M. , 1963 (revised version of the book "Problems of Dostoevsky’s creativity." - L .: Priboy, 1929).
- Paducheva E.V. Semantic research. Semantics of time and view in Russian. The semantics of narrative. - M .: Languages of Russian culture, 1996.
- Assumption B. A. Poetics of composition. - M .: Art, 1970.
- Schmid B. Narratology. - M .: Languages of Slavic culture, 2003.
- Genette, Gérard . Figures III, 1972.