The subjective structure of the narrative literary text and the "I" character

Abstract

This article is devoted to the analysis of the construction and composition of the subject structure of the narrative literary text. At present, the question of the interaction between the narrator and the character (author and hero), as different subjects of speech and subjects of consciousness, has been studied a lot, but the analysis of the positions of different subject components in the subject structure needs to be further developed. Based on the interpretation of the narrative structure, this article attempts to build the subject structure of the narrative literary text. Clarification of the level hierarchy of the subject structure is necessary to pin down the location of subject components and analyze the nature and types of communication between subjects. Taking the character as an example, this article describes several different situations, in which a character refers to himself in the first person as "I" within the subject structure, and also explains the differences between the narrator as a speaker and the character as a speaker. At the end of the article we conclude that the character’s "I", appearing on the plane of discourse, does not have "subjectivity" in the strict sense, but is essentially related to the narrator's strategic operations in terms of voice, consciousness and point of view. The functional sphere of the character's subjectivity is limited only on the plane of story. The voice and consciousness of the characters on the plane of discourse do not belong to the "I"-sphere, but to the "He"-sphere, as some citations by the narrator. Accordingly, the opinion that "the narrator can step in the story" is also misleading. The "character-bound narrator" has a dual identity — "character" and "narrator", and only one of them functions on the plane of story or discourse.