Synchronic and Diachronic Study on the Narrative Structure of Homodiegetic Fictions

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The aims of this study are (1) to propose a synchronic model for describing narrative situations, which can cover possible homodiegetic fictions, and (2) to circumscribe the transformation of the narrative structure of pre-modern homodiegetic fictions to that of post-modern ones.(1) Our model is intended as a typology for homodeigetic narrative situations, which is a compromise between Stanzel (1979; 1982) and Genette (1973; 1982), with due attention to O'Neill's remark that "the storyis presented -transformed into the narrative text -through a double mediation, namely a 'voice' that 'speaks' and 'eyes' that 'see'(O'Neill 1984, 85). It consists of these four articulating categories: (a) the category of the locus of narrative communication; (b) that of voices that speak, (c) that of eyes that see, or that of focalization, and (d) that of relationships between narrator 'I' and character 'I', which is, above all, of significance.(2) By means of the fourth category, we recognize that pre-modern homodiegetic narratives, which assume the forms of autobiography, travel writing, journal, or epistle, are apt to establish some solid relationships between narrator 'I' and character 'I' that affirms the reliability of narration. In post-modern homodiegetic narratives, on the other hand, we find such relationships abandoned on purpose, which phenomenon should not be treated as the problem of narrative reliability but as that of the transformation of the conception of "subject".