Focalisation
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In narratology, focalisation is the perspective through which a narrative is presented, as opposed to an omniscient narrator.[1] Coined by French narrative theorist Gérard Genette, his definition distinguishes between internal focalisation (first-person) and external focalisation (third-person, fixed on the actions of and environments around a character), with zero focalisation representing an omnisicent narrator.[2] Homodiegetic narrators exist in the same (hence the prefix 'homo') storyworld as the characters exist in, whereas heterodiegetic narrators are not a part of that storyworld. The term 'focalisation' refers to how information is restricted in storytelling.[3]
Determinant
[edit]Focalisation in literature is similar to point of view in literature and in filmmaking, but professionals in the field often see these two traditions as being distinctly different. Genette's work was intended to refine the notions of point of view and narrative perspective. It separates the question of "Who sees?" in a narrative from "who speaks?" [4][5] A narrative where all information presented reflects the subjective perception of a certain character is said to be internally focalised. An omniscient narrator corresponds to zero focalisation. External focalisation is the camera eye.
A novel in which no simple rules restrict the transition between different focalisations could be said to be unfocalised, but specific relationships between basic types of focalisation constitute more complex focalisation strategy; for example, a novel could provide external focalisation alternating with internal focalisations through three different characters, where the second character is never focalized except after the first, and three other characters are never focalized at all.
Narratology
[edit]The specific domain of literary theory which deals with focalisation is narratology, which concerns not only distinctions between subjective and objective focalisations but various gradations between them, such as free indirect speech or quasi-direct discourse. Narratologists tend to have a difficult time agreeing on the exact definitions of categories in their field; hence its dynamic nature. Jo Alyson Parker described such transient speech as a "roving trajectory of focalisation", as seen in the works of Virginia Woolf (such as Mrs Dalloway).[6]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Birch, Dinah, ed. (2009). "focalization". The Oxford Companion to English Literature. Oxford Companions (7 ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780192806871.001.0001. ISBN 9780192806871. Retrieved 29 December 2024.
The technical term in modern narratology for the adoption of a limited 'point of view' from which the events of a given story are witnessed, usually by a character within the fictional world. Unlike the 'omniscient' perspective of traditional stories, which in principle allows the narrator privileged insight into all characters' secret motives and the ability to recount simultaneous events in different places [...]
- ^ Genette 1980, p. 189.
- ^ Genette 1980, p. 245.
- ^ Genette 1980, p. 186.
- ^ Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of Narrative, 3rd ed., trans. Christine van Boheeman (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009), 146; Niederhoff, Burkhard: "Focalisation", Paragraph 8. In: Hühn, Peter et al. (eds.): the living handbook of narratology. Hamburg: Hamburg University [view date:3 February 2020].
- ^ Parker, Jo Alyson (2007). Narrative form and chaos theory in Sterne, Proust, Woolf, and Faulkner (1st ed.). New York: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 91–92. ISBN 978-0-230-60721-7.
Bibliography
[edit]- Genette, Gérard (1980) [1972]. Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method. Translated by Lewin, Jane E. New York: Cornell University Press. ISBN 9780801410994.
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