Story-Narrative Relation: A Narratological Study of Distance in<i> Sūrah YūSuf</i>

Abstract

This study examined narrative distance in <i>Sūrah Yūsuf</i> – surah (chapter) 12<sup>th</sup> of the Quran, which contains a well told biography of Prophet Yusuf (Biblical Joseph). It analyzed this narrative nonfiction to determine how fully and directly the story information is presented to the reader. The study applied Gerard Genette’s linguistic subcategory of narrative distance – with supportive insights from other structuralist narratological critics - to this analysis to aid in appreciating how distance enhances the quality and quantity of story information presented to the reader. The analysis focused on the narration of both events and speech as prescribed in Genette’s approach to determine the range of distance between the narrative text with its narrator-agent and the story with its characters as well as between the story and the readers. The study revealed through this qualitative analysis that though the text – unlike the modern novel - less vividly presents the story’s setting, plot, character and conflict as well as the characters’ speech due to its non-storytelling mission of giving moral lessons to worshipers and enabling them to concentrate on that specific detail, it serves as a precursor which anticipated the emergence of the dramatic modern novel. Future researches about the mode of presentation of this narrative, especially its focalization, will shed more light on how awareness of the relationship between the story and this narrative text may enhance readers’ comprehension and appreciation of the text as well as their feeling of involvement in the story events.