Focalization as Transmedial Category

Abstract

In the last decades formalistic and structuralist narratology has been intensively recovered and reinterpreted in a cognitive perspective, and with a new focus on transmedial dissemination. The goal is, as Marie-Laure Ryan and Jean-Noel Thon state, a media-conscious narratology. In particular focalization appears to be a crucial category to define the various narrative techniques through different media. The paper will deal first with the theoretical debate on focalization, analyzing the shift from Genette’s canonical triadic pattern to the more fluid scale proposed by cognitive narratology (for example by Manfred Jahn), and the coexistence between different meanings and applications (basically: perceptual, emotional, informational). The second part will be devoted to some significant examples: the iconographic motif of the character (usually a woman) at the window; Alfonso Cuaron’s recent movie Roma, as a vivid example of central focus in cinema; focalization in videogames; and the 360° multifocalization practiced by new media, which radically change the notion of point of view itself. In the last decades formalistic and structuralist narratology has been intensively recovered and reinterpreted in a cognitive perspective, and with a new focus on transmedial dissemination. The goal is, as Marie-Laure Ryan and Jean-Noel Thon state, a media-conscious narratology. In particular focalization appears to be a crucial category to define the various narrative techniques through different media. The paper will deal first with the theoretical debate on focalization, analyzing the shift from Genette’s canonical triadic pattern to the more fluid scale proposed by cognitive narratology (for example by Manfred Jahn), and the coexistence between different meanings and applications (basically: perceptual, emotional, informational). The second part will be devoted to some significant examples: the iconographic motif of the character (usually a woman) at the window; Alfonso Cuaron’s recent movie Roma, as a vivid example of central focus in cinema; focalization in videogames; and the 360° multifocalization practiced by new media, which radically change the notion of point of view itself.