Abstract
Narratology constitutes a vital component of literary criticism and theory. A prime goal of narratology teaching is to build a systematic conceptual framework of key narrative concepts for students. A good command of the core concepts of narrative theory ensures profound narratological textual criticism. Taking focalization as a case study for Chinese college students, this paper analyzes the evolution and current state of focalization theory with the aim of helping them to acquire a systematic conceptual framework of focalization theory. This paper adopts both synchronic and diachronic approaches to examine the conceptual evolution of focalization, focusing on the early exploration of focalization, the focalization study in classical and postclassical narratology, and the analysis of nonhuman focalization. Focalization is an issue of “who sees” which is often conflated with the issue of “who speaks” in the early stage of its conceptual evolution. Genette has made a distinction between them, and scholars of classical narratology developed variegated focalization theories. Postclassical narratology made major improvements, emphasizing readers’ reception and the context of focalization. Nonhuman focalization, a distinctive dimension of focalization theory, also counts as an important interpretative perspective concerning focalization for students. An elaborate discussion of the conceptual evolution of focalization seeks to reveal to students a multi-dimensional conception of focalization as a way to enhance their ability to perform a narratological reading of literary texts.
Highlights
Students taking narratology courses have some knowledge of narrative theory, and able to give a narratological reading of literary texts
Many narrative concepts Chinese college students learn in their narratology courses, including story and discourse, narrative situations, time, and space, are geared toward some primary narratological textual criticism and practice, but they still need to know the evolution and current state of these key narrative concepts to ensure that they can gain a systematic conception of narrative theory
The concept of focalization marked by a complex conceptual development is an appropriate case study for Chinese college students who are unable to assimilate the theoretic evolvement of this concept and fail to acquire a systematic conceptual framework of focalization theory
Summary
Students taking narratology courses have some knowledge of narrative theory, and able to give a narratological reading of literary texts. Rimmon-Kenan argues that external focalization can appear in first-person narratives as well, “either when the temporal and psychological distance between narrator and character is minimal [...] or when the perception through which the story is rendered is that of the narrating self rather than that of the experiencing self” [7] These phenomena aren’t cases of zero focalization proposed by Genette as it only refers to “narrative with an omniscient narrator” [8]. There is often a time lag enabling readers to separate the narrator I (‘‘”) from the filter-character I (“back ”) [11] Both Rimmon-Kenan and Chatman have ascertained the perceptual and ideological aspects of point of view, which lays foundation for the development of focalization theory in postclassical narratology attaching great importance to ideology and context. It can be seen from the above analysis that Herman exploits reader-oriented and linguistic theory to develop a theory of “Hypothetical focalization” as Jahn has done to establish the theory of “windows of focalization.”
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