Abstract
This article examines the narrative point of view in two autobiographical texts, pointing out the diverse effects the narratives achieve by means of different focalization strategies. After a short explication of the split between the narrator and protagonist in life stories, I look at focalization techniques in Günter Grass’s Peeling the Onion (2006), where the perception of the present self continuously interferes in the depiction of the past. The superior knowledge available to the narrator at the time of narration leads to an interpretation of the depicted events that the experiencing self could not provide. I argue that although the book calls attention to the constructive nature of memory and narrative that necessarily affects retrospective accounts of the past, it also states its preference for the lens of the present by employing focalization through the narrating I. I subsequently contrast Grass’s text and its narrative strategies with Mary Karr’s childhood memoir The Liars’ Club (1995) and demonstrate how this narrative attains its realistic effect by engaging the child protagonist as the predominant focalizer. By shifting focalization between the narrating I and the experiencing I, involving either the suspension or application of the narrator’s current
 knowledge, Karr manipulates readers’ engagement with the narrative, such as their empathy and moral judgement. Furthermore, the text communicates a sense of identity and continuity between the experiencer and the teller, which stands in sharp contrast to the emphasis Grass’s narrative puts on the distance between these two positions. Finally, I briefly address the challenges presented by recent conceptions of identity construction to the distinction between the narrating I and the experiencing I, suggesting that these narratological concepts retain their relevance to discussions of autobiographical texts as literary works rather than stages of self-creation.
Highlights
Rtykuł dotyczy punktu widzenia w dwóch tekstach autobiograficznych i zróżnicowanych efektów, jakie przynoszą różne strategie fokalizacji
This article examines the narrative point of view in two autobiographical texts, pointing out the diverse effects the narratives achieve by means of different focalization strategies
I will subsequently juxtapose Grass’s text and its narrative strategies with The Liars’ Club, a childhood memoir by American author Mary Karr, and demonstrate how this narrative attains its realistic effect by engaging the child protagonist as the predominant focalizer
Summary
In Beim Hauten der Zwiebel[2] (Peeling the Onion), Grass presents memories of his childhood and youth up to the publication of the novel that brought him fame, Die Blechtrommel (1959; The Tin Drum). This opposition is not reserved for literary texts only, and appears in the life stories people tell themselves and others − stories that form the base of their self-understanding and sense of identity.[5] In her sociolinguistic study of life stories, Charlotte Linde points out that this split enables self-reflection by allowing “the narrator to stand apart from and comment on the actions of the protagonist.”[6] In other words, the narrating I views the experiencing I as if from the outside − “as an object or as an other.”[7] In Grass’s memoir, the external view of oneself becomes even more pronounced when the narrator refers to his past self as “the son,” imitating his parents’ viewpoint.[8] In life stories, the objectification of the past self facilitates a positive evaluation of oneself at present, as past mistakes can be attributed to the protagonist of the life story rather than its teller.[9] The narrating self disassociates itself from the experiencing self and criticizes it as an “other,” flaunting the narrator’s current wisdom or standards of morality In accordance with these insights, the narrator of Peeling the Onion uses the third person to draw attention to the incongruity of the younger version of himself with his present self-concept, highlighting a feeling known to most autobiographers. In Peeling the Onion, focalization through the narrating I rather than the experiencing I and the self-conscious reflection of using this perspective largely contribute to the book’s powerfulness both as a work of art and as a commentary on the human condition
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