A narratological approach to literary journalism: how an interplay between voice and point of view may create empathy with the Other

Abstract

The aim of this article is to present a model for analyzing the interplay between voice and point of view in literary journalism/reportage. The model can be used to nuance previous researchers’ discussions about „subjective” and „objective” journalism. It also problematizes the reporter’s special role as an eyewitness by highlighting how narrative techniques can create empathy with the Other and move the reader’s gaze away from the reporter, away from the one who is witnessing. Using tools from classical narratology, I focus on the form of the texts. The tools help me investigate the narrator’s as well as the characters’ subjectivity and interpret the narrative’s construction as an expression of a journalistic mission. I systematize variables such as the narrator’s visibility, the relation between an experiencing reporter and a narrating reporter, the interplay between the experiencing reporter and other characters in the text, and in what way a level with a director (an implied author) can facilitate a comparison between various kinds of literary journalism. I also examine whether it might be time to abandon the theory that a fi rst-person reportage is more subjective in general than a third-person reportage. I explore whether it is instead the narrator’s visibility that determines the position of the text on a scale between „subjective” and „objective” forms.