Osnova sekce

  • Read the following texts and answer the questions below, using some of the terminology introduced in Jahn’s chapter.

    Manfred Jahn, ‘Focalization’ in David Herman, The Cambridge Companion to Narrative (pp. 94–9).

    and

    Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (Chapter 1)
    and Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse (Chapter 1)

    1. Compare the type of narrator we encounter in the two novels (chapters). One is a classic example of 19th-century prose narrative, the other of modernist narrative. How does the narrative situation differ between the two chapters?

    2. In which of the two extracts does it make more sense to distinguish between the narrator and ‘reflectors’ (or ‘focal characters’)? Who would these ‘reflectors’ be?

    3. What do we learn about the characters and the respective storyworlds from these opening chapters? How do they differ in terms of the prevalent narrative situation and their use of focalisation.

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    For the class:

    Q: Is that really so? Him 'a more nuanced character' and her ‘his less intelligent wife’?