Linguistic Stylistics. Lings_P_LS16; Narrative Discourse: Focalization and Narration. Narrative Discourse: Focalization and Narration

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1 Linguistics Linguistic Stylistics Paper Coordinator Narrative Discourse: Focalization and Narration Prof. Ravinder Gargesh Module ID & Name Lings_P_LS16; Narrative Discourse: Focalization and Narration Content Writer Ravinder Gargesh id Phone ; Contents: 16.0 Introduction 16.1 Focalization External Focalization Internal Focalization 16.2 Narration 16.3 Levels of Narration 16.4 Types of Narrators Heterodiegetic Narrator Homodiegetic Narrators 16.5 Summary Objectives: Narrative Discourse: Focalization and Narration The main objective of this module is to give the students an idea about a typology of language style rooted in the perspective of language as choice. It is explained how language resulting from linguistic choices manifested systematically constitutes style. In a literary text such choices perform two functions: (i) an overt function, and (ii) a covert function. The overt function is identificatory, for it identifies language use with the characteristics of a person, group, society or age. The covert functions relates to style as meaning in semiotic terms, an

2 idea similar to what the Prague scholars had said about foregrounding (in the previous module 2) Introduction In this section, three categories of the text namely focalization, narration, levels of narration, and types of have been discussed. Focalization which reveals the point of view or the angle of vision has also been analyzed under the two categories of internal and external focalization Focalization Focalization refers to point of view in the narrative. Focalization can be can be categorized in the two types (i) External focalization (ii) Internal focalization. External focalization refers to the point of view of heterodiegetic narrator in a third person narrative where the narrator doesn t participate in the story. Internal focalization, on the other hand, refers to the point of view of homodiegetic narrators who are characters in the story. However, internal and external focalizations both are also identified in the text, The Inheritance of Loss External Focalization The story events of The inheritance of loss are told mainly in third person heterodiegetic narration. The heterodiegetic narrator not only narrates the story rather it also includes the viewpoint of the narrator on characters, place and actions of the events. This is known as external focalization. Some of the examples of external focalization are provided below: External focalization can be observed in the very beginning of the novel in the following passage: although Biju s letters traced a string of jobs, they said more or less the same thing each time except for the name of the establishment he was working for. His repetition provided a coziness, and the cook s repetition of his son s repetition double-knit coziness (17). The passage is narrated in the third person heterodiegetic narration and seems that the narrator is not telling about himself but about Biju. The narrator s view point about Biju s leaving jobs from one place to another is commented through this passage. Hence, in this passage external focalization is about action of Biju, a character in the novel. Another example of external focalization commenting on the cook s knowledge is reflected in the following passage: Foolish cook. He had not realized that the deliberateness came not from faith in science, but from self-consciousness and doubt (73).

3 The above example shows that the narrator is third person commenting on the cook. The narrator refers the cook as foolish cook and further comments about the cook s realization. It seems that the narrator is omniscient and knows everything about the character. Here, in this passage external focalization reflects the cook s foolishness and ignorance. The external focalization that represents narrator s point of view about Biju s earnest desire for green card can be observed in the following passage: The green card the green card. Without it he couldn t leave. To leave he wanted a green card. This was the absurdity (99). Here, in this passage, external focalization refers to Biju s extreme desire for getting the green card in order to leave. This act of having earnest desire to get green card has been focalized as absurd. This example of external focalization reflects character s mentality. Further, the actions of Gyan has been focalized by the narrator in the following way: cheese and chocolate they wanted, but also to kick all those bloody things out (259). This external focalization in the above example, involves comments on the motive of the actions of Gyan and GNLF activists that they want to retain cheese and chocolate on the one hand but on the other hand want to kick all the foreign things represent contradiction in their motto of the movement. External focalization representing character s status or position in the country can be seen in the following example. He knew he was a foreigner but he had lost the notion that he was anything but an Indian foreigner (220). Here, the above example is in the third person heterodiegetic narration which focalizes about father Booty s identity as a foreigner in India. However, from all of the above examples of external focalization, it can be identified that the external focalization has been incorporated in the text to focalize characters action, desire, knowledge, perception and mentality. Besides, external focalization, internal focalization, too, has been incorporated in the text to present characters point of view Internal Focalization The text, The Inheritance of Loss also serves internal focalization in the text which involves characters point of view about any action, place, and characters. The first example of internal focalization can be observed in cook s view point about New York in the following sentences:

4 New York. Very big city. The cars and buildings are nothing like here. In that country, there is enough food for everybody (84). From the cook s point of view, New York is a big city having cars, buildings and enough food for everybody whereas his son, Biju living in America faces the reality of immigrant life and green card check, his opinion about the country gets changed. He views: there was a whole world in the basement kitchens of New York (22). Further, Lola who has colonial mindset sees India as India is a sinking ship (47). Internal focalization has also been incorporated in the text to reflect opinions about people or the other characters of the novel. The cook s viewpoint that coastal people are more intelligent than inland people is expressed through internal focalization as Costal people intelligent than inland people.coastal people eat fish and see how much cleverer they are, Benglais, Malyalis, Tamils. Inland they eat too much grain, and it shows the digestion-especially millet-forms a big heavy ball. The blood goes to the stomach and not to the head. Nepalis make good soldiers, coolies, but they are not so bright at their studies. Not their fault, poor things. (73). The views about Nepali people are different for Lola and Noni. This represented through internal focalization can be observed bellow: I tell you these Neps can t be trusted. And they don t just rob. They think absolutely nothing of murdering, as well. (45). Further, GNLF leader, Ghising s point of view which expresses Nepali servants can be observed in the following passage: as laborers and We are laborers on the tea plantations, coolies dragging heavy loads, soldiers. And are we allowed to become doctors and government workers, owners of the tea plantations? No! We are kept at the levels of servants..our character has never been in doubt. And have we been rewarded?? Have we been given compensation?? Are we given respect?? No! They spit on us. (158) Internal focalization reflecting characters point of view towards the west and the western culture can be observed in the dialogue between Gyan and Sai. In the following passage, the language of Gyan shows his perception about Tenzing s climbing of the Mt. Everest which is entirely different and his own viewpoint as represented in the following lines: Tenzing who climbed the Mount Everest with Edmund Hillary but was made to wait before they reached the actual summit so Hillary could take the first step on

5 behalf of that colonial enterprise of sticking your flag on what was not yours. (155) Further, Gyan has different point of view of the West than that of Sai. His opinions of the West can be seen in the following passage when he says Sai: You are like slaves, that is what you are, running after the West, embarrassing yourself. It is because of people like you we never get anywhere. It s clear all you want to do is copy. Can t think for yourself. Copycat, copycat. Don t you know these people you copy like a copycat, THEY DON T WANT YOU!!!! ( ) Here, in the above-mentioned passage, internal focalization is of Gyan presents that following the West is nothing but becoming slaves and to be a copycat. The reality of the West being biased towards other people can be inferred from the next internal focalization of Gyan as given in the passage below: Don t you have any pride? Trying to be so Westernized. They don t want you!!!! Go there and see if they will welcome you with open arms. You will be trying to clean their toilets and even then they won t want you. (175) Internal focalization is used in the text to represent the point of view of characters that includes ideology. Thus, in the narrative text The inheritance of Loss, both types of focalizations external and internal help in finding the texture of the novel. While external focalization reflects authorial comment about characters action and thoughts, the internal focalization presents point of view of characters regarding place and other characters Narration Narration refers to the act of narration or storytelling in a narrative. In the narration, the study has analyzed narrative levels, typology of narrators, narrative mode and discourse. At the narrative levels, the text has been analyzed in terms of homodiegestic and heterodiegetic narration and overt or covert narration. Typology of narrators identifies that how many people are involved in storytelling and their types. Narrative modes have been analyzed in terms of showing, telling, summary and comments made by the author of the narrative, The Inheritance of Loss. Further, discourse has been analyzed to represent the speech of characters in terms of Free Direct Discourse (FDD) and Free Indirect Discourse (FID) Levels of Narration The novel is narrated in third person and the narrator is heterodiegetic overt with authoritative voice. Hence the novel is in heterodiegetic narratives. Besides the third-person overt heterodiegetic narrator, characters in the narrative, too plays the role of narrators. Hence they narrate a story within a story thus it seems that this narrative i.e. the novel has also

6 different narrative levels that mean there is a tale within a tale. The example of Matrix narrative and Embedded narrative or the first, second and third-degree narratives can be observed in narrative when the cook, a character in the story, narrates the story of Sai s grandmother about whom she didn t know anything. Consider the following examples: I ve forgotten the name, but she was the daughter of a rich man and the family was of much higher standing than your grandfather, of a particular branch of a caste that in itself was not high, of course, as you know, but within this group, they had distinguished themselves. (88) The above mentioned passage recounts the story of Sai s, grandmother told by the cook. As the cook himself is a character in the novel and tells the story therefore, his narrative is an embedded narrative within the matrix narrative, the main narrative in the novel. In the other words, it is a second-degree narrative because of its embedding in the first-degree narrative of the novel. Another example of embedded narrative or second-degree narrative is the cook s narration of his story of the death of his wife and how his son, Biju was naughty at his early days: She had died seventeen years ago, when Biju was five., slipping from a tree while gathering leaves to feed the goat. An accident, they said, and there was nobody to blame- it was just fate in the way fate has of providing the destitute with a greater quota of accidents for which nobody can be blamed. (14) He narrates story of his son s childhood in the following way: basically his nature was always good. In our village, most of the dogs bite, and some of them have teeth the size of sticks, but when Biju went by no animal would attack him. And no snake would bite him when he d go out to cut grass for the cow. He has that personality...he was not scared of anything at all. Even when he was very small he would pick up mice by the tail, lift frogs by the neck... (14) However, from the above-mentioned examples, it is obvious that like other texts, this narrative, The Inheritance of Loss, too, has adopted homodiegetic and heterodiegetic narration where both these function to provide the novel the narrative end without a dramatic force Types of Narrators Types or typology of narrators refers to the number of persons involved in storytelling. The types of narrators correspond with the levels of narration. Here, in this section, two types of narrators namely heterodiegetic and homodiegetic narrators identified in the text.

7 Heterodiegetic Narrator The novelist tends to use heterodiegetic overt narrator in with authoritative voice in the third person narration in The inheritance of Loss. The novel is narrated by a third person narrator who doesn t participate in the story and hence he is a heterodiegetic narrator as in the very beginning she identifies the characters and introduces them to the reader in the following passage: Sai, sitting on the veranda, was reading an article about giant squid in an old National Geographic. Every now and then she looked up at Kanchenjunga, observed its wizard phosphorescence with a shiver. The judge sat at the far corner with his chessboard, playing against himself. (1) Here, the narrator sets aside herself as in the authorial narrative situation and sees and describes the whole story from the outside and seems that she knows everything about the story s world and the character and hence she proves her overtness. The narrator s identification of the characters means she possesses prior knowledge of the character (Rimmon-kenan 2002: 98). Even though she is aloof from the story as she neither plays a role nor is involved as a character in the story but the way she describes each and everything of the house reveals in her one of the important feature of an authorial narrator i.e. being omnipresent. The narrator s omnipresence is also felt when she provides what happened with Biju in his early days in America: All the way in Ameriaca, Biju had spent his days standing at a counter along with a row of man. (15) Moreover, the narrator assumes authority as a reliable narrator based on her knowledge of Sai s age and her love affair in the following passage: It was February of Sai was seventeen, and her romance with gyan the mathematics tutor was not even a year old. (8) The narrator s overtness and authority as a reliable narrator can also be examined from the commentary which indicates that narrator is able to peep into the character s mind and verbalize his thoughts and imagination. See the following lines in which the judge is thinking about his wife: He thought of his wife. He was one-month-married man. He would return...many years from now...and then what...? It was all very strange. She was fourteen years old and he had yet to properly examine her face. (36)

8 From the above instances, it is very much obvious that the text uses third person narration to present the story. The narrator tends to be overt, reliable and heterodiegetic narrator in the authorial narrative situation presented in the novel. Moreover, on the basis of the narrator involved in the novel, it can be further said that the narrative voice in the novel is overt heterodiegetic Homodiegetic Narrators Homodiegetic narrators are those narrators who are characters in the story and they are also involved in telling story within the main story. Hence, characters become homodiegetic narrators in the story. The novel also involves characters as the homodiegetic narrators. The cook and Sai have been identified as homodiegetic narrators in the novel as discussed below: The cook, a character in the story narrates the rumour of the judge s of the past days saying that the judge was born into a top family of Gujarat. Into oner of the top families of Gujarat. Ahmadabad. Or was it Baroda? Huge haveli ike a place. (56) The cook s as a homodiegetic narrator highly exaggerates and narrates the story of how the judge was sent to England: They sent him to England and ten thousand people saw him off at the station. He went on top of an elephant! He had won, you see, a scholarship from the maharaj... (56) The cook narrates the story of how he was hired by the judge and now out of many servants he remained the only one Summary