Table Of ContentWolf Schmid
Figurally Colored Narration
Narratologia
Contributions to Narrative Theory
Edited by
Fotis Jannidis, Matías Martínez, John Pier,
Wolf Schmid (executive editor)
Editorial Board
Catherine Emmott, Monika Fludernik, José Ángel García Landa, Inke Gunia,
Peter Hühn, Manfred Jahn, Markus Kuhn, Uri Margolin, Jan Christoph Meister,
Ansgar Nünning, Marie-Laure Ryan, Jean-Marie Schaeffer, Michael Scheffel,
Sabine Schlickers
Volume 81
Wolf Schmid
Figurally Colored
Narration
Case Studies from English, German, and Russian
Literature
ISBN 978-3-11-076305-8
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-076310-2
e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-076316-4
ISSN 1612-8427
Library of Congress Control Number: 2021952272
Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;
detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.
© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck
www.degruyter.com
|
In memory of Johannes Holthusen,
my academic teacher
Preface
The present book deals with a hitherto neglected device in narrative texts: the
intrusion of figural evaluations and designations into the narrator’s discourse.
Figural means: belonging to the discourse of a character.
The book studies figurally colored narration (FCN) using three literatures:
anglophone, German, and Russian. I searched for FCN in short narrative genres
in particular, since the device is by nature more often represented there.
Figural coloring of the narration is most easily recognized in works narrated
by a non-diegetic narrator, i.e., a third-person narrator who does not participate
in the story being told, the diegesis. This is because FCN presupposes a clear ax-
iological and linguistic difference between narrator and character, which is only
present (in the guise of the difference between narrating and narrated self) in a
few diegetically narrated works.
Notwithstanding the necessary prioritization of short narrative forms and
non-diegetic narrators, I have also included individual novels that exhibit the
phenomenon, and in one case a novel with a diegetic narrator, Dostoevskij’s The
Adolescent, is examined in detail.
The texts have not been selected from the point of view of literary history, but
exclusively in terms of the presence of FCN. The examination of the texts likewise
does not pursue questions of literary history, but is carried out exclusively from
a typological point of view. Interpretations of the texts under consideration
should not, therefore, be anticipated. The examples concern manifestations of
FCN and their possible functions.
The level of detail in which the texts are addressed is somewhat varied. This
follows from their differing relevance to the phenomenon under investigation.
Dostoevskij plays a special role among the authors discussed. This is due to
the fact that the tension between narrator and character in this author’s works,
both non-diegetically and diegetically narrated, manifests itself in a typically
Dostoevskijan multi-voicedness. Dostoevskij was an author who was particularly
aware of the problem of representing consciousness, as occasional remarks by
his narrators attest. In no other author can one find so many and such varied
manifestations of FCN as in Dostoevskij.
*
The English versions of the quotations are drawn from recognized published
translations where available. If a published translation is not sufficiently ade-
quate, or is unsuitable for demonstrating the point at stake, I have revised the
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110763102-001
VIII | Preface
translation. Such cases are marked “tr. rev.” In some cases, it was not possible to
find an appropriate – or indeed any – published translation. It is important in our
context that perspectival nuances are reflected in translation. Not a few transla-
tions are at fault for correcting the original after finding it to be stylistically defi-
cient. The search for a suitable translation is particularly delicate with English as
the target language, since in comparison with German there are relatively few
translations of Russian works into English. Some authors are almost exclusively
read in one canonical translation, e.g., Thomas Mann in Lowe-Porter’s version.
Translations of primary texts that are my own, rather than drawn from published
sources, are marked by asterisks.
For the sake of uniformity and bibliographical research, the Russian personal
names and work titles are rendered in the international transliteration system,
i.e., not Chekhov, but Čexov. The translated quotations also use (or have been
silently modified to use) this system.
*
I sincerely thank my Hamburg colleague in English Literature, Prof. Peter Hühn,
who critically read the entire manuscript and provided numerous suggestions for
revision.
Since I am not a native speaker of English, I had to rely on a knowledgeable
and critical proofreader. Such a corrector appeared in the shape of Dr. Alastair
Matthews, to whom I extend my sincere thanks.
My thanks also go to the two anonymous reviewers who gave me valuable
advice on corrections.
Contents
Preface | VII
1 Introduction: Narrator and Figure | 1
1.1 Figurally Colored Narration: Initial Definition | 1
1.2 An Example: Anton Čexov, “Rothschild’s Violin” |2
1.3 Demarcation from Related Devices | 5
1.4 The Naturalness of FCN | 9
1.5 FCN in the Torah and in Homer | 13
2 Figurally Colored Narration: Terms and Definitions | 16
2.1 Terminological Clarification | 16
2.1.1 Patterns of the Explicit Representation
of Consciousness | 16
2.1.2 Brian McHale’s Scale of Speech Reproduction | 17
2.1.3 Dorrit Cohn’s Triad of Modes for Rendering
Consciousness | 19
2.1.4 Alan Palmer’s Triad of Rendering Mind | 19
2.2 Leo Spitzer: “Contagion” | 20
2.3 Mixail Baxtin: “Anticipated and Disseminated Reported
Speech”| 22
2.4 Natal’ja Koževnikova: “Improper Authorial Narration” | 24
2.5 Elena Padučeva: “Quotation” | 28
2.6 German Slavic Studies: “Improper Narration” and “Free
Indirect Narration” | 29
2.7 Hugh Kenner, Susan Swartzlander, and Lucy Ferriss: “Uncle Charles
Principle” | 31
2.8 Franz Stanzel: “Reflectorization of the Teller-Character” | 35
2.9 Monika Fludernik: “Reflectorization” and “Figuralization” | 38
2.10 Mieke Bal and Irene de Jong: “Embedded Focalization” | 40
3 Figurally Colored Narration as Text Interference | 42
3.1 The Structure of Text Interference | 42
3.2 Types of FCN: Contagion and Reproduction | 47
3.3 How Many Voices? | 49
3.4 FCN within FID | 53
3.5 Misunderstood Text Interference (Jenninger’s Allegedly Scandalous
Speech) | 54
X | Contents
4 Functions and Areas of Application | 58
4.1 Introducing a Story | 58
4.1.1 Anton Čexov, “The Bride” | 58
4.1.2 Saul Bellow, “Looking for Mr Green” | 63
4.2 Concluding a Story: Anton Čexov, “The Student” | 64
4.3 Flashbacks | 66
4.3.1 Jurij Trifonov, The Long Goodbye | 66
4.3.2 Katherine Mansfield, “The Daughters of the Late
Colonel” | 68
4.3.3 Dieter Wellershoff, “The Normal Life” | 69
4.4 Characterizing Figures: Ernest Hemingway, “Up in
Michigan” | 71
4.5 Characterizing a Collective | 73
4.5.1 Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit | 73
4.5.2 Jane Austen, Emma | 74
4.5.3 Thomas Mann, “Tristan” | 76
4.5.4 Fëdor Dostoevskij, “A Nasty Anecdote” | 78
4.5.5 Ernest Hemingway, “Up in Michigan” | 80
4.6 Characterizing a Milieu through Colloquialisms | 81
4.6.1 Boris Pil’njak, The Naked Year | 82
4.6.2 Lev Tolstoj, “The Forged Coupon” | 83
4.7 Satirical Description | 83
4.7.1 Fëdor Dostoevskij, “A Nasty Anecdote” | 83
4.7.2 Fëdor Dostoevskij, Crime and Punishment | 87
4.8 Empathetic Description | 89
4.8.1 Fay Weldon, “Weekend” | 89
4.8.2 No FCN in Children’s Literature | 91
4.9 Feigning a Motivation: Fëdor Dostoevskij, The Eternal
Husband | 92
4.10 Parodying a Character | 96
4.10.1 Fëdor Dostoevskij, The Double | 96
4.10.2 Thomas Mann, “Tristan” | 101
4.11 Creating an Illusory Reality | 103
4.11.1 Fëdor Dostoevskij, The Double | 104
4.11.2 Katherine Mansfield, “The Daughters of the Late
Colonel” | 108
4.12 Presenting Dreams as Reality | 108
4.12.1 Aleksandr Puškin, “The Coffinmaker” | 108
4.12.2 Fëdor Dostoevskij, Crime and Punishment | 113
