Abstract
The paper discusses two approaches to defining internal, external, and zero-focalization. According to the first approach, the three types of focalization are defined in terms of a relation of a character’s knowledge to the narrator’s report. We argue that the definitions based on this approach are seriously flawed. According to the second approach, whether a narrative is internally, externally or zero-focalized depends on how the information that the reader gets about the fictional world is constrained. We discuss some ways of rendering these definitions more precise, and we point to a remaining problem of the definitions.
References
Audi, Robert. 1998. Epistemology. A contemporary introduction to the theory of knowledge. London & New York: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar
Bal, Mieke. 1983. The narrating and the focalizing: A theory of the agents in narrative. Style 17. 234–269.Search in Google Scholar
Berendsen, Marjet. 1984. The teller and the observer: Narration and focalization in narrative texts. Style 18. 140–158.Search in Google Scholar
Chatman, Seymour. 1978. Story and discourse. Narrative structure in fiction and film. Ithaca & London: Cornell University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Currie, Gregory. 2010. Narration, imitation, and point of view. In Gary L. Hagberg & Walter Jost (eds.), A companion to the philosophy of literature, 331–349. Malden & Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.10.1002/9781444315592.ch17Search in Google Scholar
Edmiston, William F. 1989. Focalization and the first-person narrator: A revision of the theory. Poetics Today 10. 729–744.10.2307/1772808Search in Google Scholar
Genette, Gérard. 1980. Narrative discourse. An essay in method. Ithaca & New York: Cornell University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Genette, Gérard. 1988. Narrative discourse revisited. Ithaca & New York: Cornell University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Horstkotte, Silke & Nancy Pedri. 2011. Focalization in graphic narrative. Narrative 19. 330–357.10.1353/nar.2011.0021Search in Google Scholar
Jahn, Manfred. 1996. Windows of focalization: Deconstructing and reconstructing a narratological concept. Style 30. 241–267.Search in Google Scholar
Kablitz, Andreas. 1988. Erzählperspektive – point of view – focalisation. Zeitschrift für französische Sprache und Literatur 98. 237–255.Search in Google Scholar
Klauk, Tobias, Tilmann Köppe & Edgar Onea. 2011. Internally focalized narration from a linguistic point of view. Scientific Study of Literature 2. 218–242.10.1075/ssol.2.2.03klaSearch in Google Scholar
Köppe, Tilmann & Jan Stühring. 2011. Against pan-narrator theories. Journal of Literary Semantics 40. 59–80.10.1515/jlse.2011.004Search in Google Scholar
Kuhn, Markus. 2011. Filmnarratologie. Ein erzähltheoretisches Analysemodell. Berlin & New York: de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110253559Search in Google Scholar
Kress, Karin. 2009. Narratologie. In Jost Schneider (ed.), Methodengeschichte der Germanistik, 507–528. Berlin & New York: de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110217438.507Search in Google Scholar
Lahn, Silke & Jan-Christoph Meister. 2008. Einführung in die Erzähltextanalyse. Stuttgart: Metzler.10.1007/978-3-476-05056-4Search in Google Scholar
Lehrer, Keith. 2000. Theory of knowledge, 2nd edn. Boulder & Oxford: Westview Press.Search in Google Scholar
Linhares-Dias, Rui. 2006. How to show things with words. A study on logic, language and literature. Berlin & New York: de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110899627Search in Google Scholar
Martinez, Matias & Michael Scheffel. 1999. Einführung in die Erzähltheorie. Munich: Beck.Search in Google Scholar
Nelles, William. 1990. Getting focalization into focus. Poetics Today 11. 365–382.10.2307/1772622Search in Google Scholar
Niederhoff, Burkhard. 2009. Focalization. In Peter Hühn, John Pier, Wolf Schmid & Jörg Schönert (eds.), Handbook of narratology, 115–123. Berlin & New York: de Gruyter.Search in Google Scholar
Nünning, Ansgar. 2008. Reconceptualizing the theory, history and generic scope of unreliable narration. Towards a synthesis of cognitive and rhetorical approaches. In Elke D’hoker & Gunther Martens (eds.), Narrative unreliability in the twentieth century first-person novel, 29–76. Berlin: de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110209389.29Search in Google Scholar
Phelan, James & Mary P. Martin. 1999. The lessons of “Weymouth”: Homodiegesis, unreliability, ethics and the remains of the day. In David Herman (ed.), New perspectives on narrative analysis, 88–109. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Phelan, James. 2005. Living to tell about it. A rhetoric and ethics of character narration. Ithaca & London: Cornell University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Pouillon, Jean. 1946. Temps et roman. Paris: Gallimard.Search in Google Scholar
Rimmon-Kenan, Shlomith. 2002. Narrative fiction, 2nd edn. London & New York: Routledge.10.4324/9780203426111Search in Google Scholar
Simpson, Paul. 1993. Language, ideology and point of view. London & New York: Routledge.10.4324/9780203312612Search in Google Scholar
Sternberg, Meir. 2007. Omniscience in narrative construction: Old challenges and new. Poetics Today 28. 683–794.10.1215/03335372-2007-012Search in Google Scholar
Stocker, Peter. 2003. Perspektive. In Jan-Dirk Müller (ed.), Reallexikon der deutschen Literaturwissenschaft 3, 55–58. Berlin & New York: de Gruyter.Search in Google Scholar
Todorov, Tzvetan. 1966. Les categories du récit littéraire. Communications 8. 125–151.10.3406/comm.1966.1120Search in Google Scholar
©2016 by De Gruyter Mouton
