Chapter 1. Perspectivization as a link between narrative micro- and macro-structure

Abstract

This chapter holds that the basic principle of narrative discourse structure can be deduced from cognitive-linguistic principles of perspectivization, which are manifested on different levels of linguistic structure in a recursive manner. This is shown in an analysis of point of view in grammar, on the sentential level as well as on the level of narrative discourse. In this connection, it is argued that the grammatical distinction between ‘speaker’ vs. ‘observer’ pervades the whole discourse and is reflected in the narratological differentiation between ‘narrator’ vs. ‘character’. Furthermore, it is argued against a background of ‘theory of mind’ that phenomena of focalization ought to be analyzed analogously to recursive embedding of epistemological levels of intentionality, i.e. hierarchical relations of propositional attitudes. As a consequence, it is the cognitive principle of perspectivization that can offer a tertium comparationis for an alignment of grammatical and textual levels and, thus, of narrative micro- and macro-structure. This line of analysis is illustrated in a final step by examining the perspectivization of Humbert Humbert’s reality in Nabokov’s Lolita .