Narration

Narration is an important part in novelistic discourse. A novel cannot be based exclusively

on dialogues, nor can it be a long infinite narration. Forster explains the process by which
narration takes place, summarizing Lubbock‟s idea:

The novelist...can either describe the characters from outside, as an impartial

or partial onlooker; or he can assume omniscience and describe them from
within; or he can place himself in the position of one of them and affect to
be in the dark as to the motives of the rest (Forster, 1966, p.85-86).

From this quotation, we can sort out two types of narrators: the one who is outside the story;
completely omniscient, who has nothing to do in the development of the story. The other type
is narrator-character, which implies that the narrator is inside the story, and takes part in its
events. This type can be divided in two sub-divisions: the narrator as protagonist and narrator
as a secondary character in the story.
Gerard Genette refers to the narrative activity as „diegetic‟, and thus divides it into
„homodiegetic‟ (implying narrator/character) and „heterodiegetic‟ (implying the narrator as an
outsider), then he explains that time in narration is more important than place, and he provides
four types of narration according to their temporal occurrence:
a- Subsequent narration: it is the classical narration and the most used by writers, in which
the story precedes narration.
b- Previous narration: it is predictive; it conveys a prophecy or an apocalypse. An example
would be Macbeth when the witches‟ words predict what is going to happen.
c- Simultaneous narration: the story and narration occur at the same time, without any
temporal interference.
d- Intercalated narration: the story and narration are inserted within the bulk of writing
following or preceding action according to the author‟s needs. This technique is used in the
epistolary novel. (Genette, 1996, p. 348-354)1
Genette‟s study of narration takes him further from the basic principle narrator/character. He
attempts an explanation of what is „extradiégétique‟ and „intradiégétique‟ narrator. He insists
on the fact that it is not the same as „hetero- or „homodiegetic‟, rather it is a matter of level of
narration than of the position of the narrator. He explains the prefix „extra‟ by „outside‟, and

1
Genette‟s French words for this temporal classification of narration are: ultérieure (subsequent), antérieure
(previous), simultanée (simultaneous), and intercalée (intercalated).
therefore „intra‟ by „inside‟, but at the same time he claims that an „extradiegetic‟ narrator can
be „homodiégétique‟ as Gil Blas – the narrator is outside the story but it is, still, the story of
his life. Whereas an „intradiegetic‟ narrator can be „heterodiegetic‟ at the same time, as in the
case of Schéhérazade; she narrates the story so she is „„heterodiegetic‟‟, but since she is a
character in a story that is not hers, she is „intradiegetic‟ (Genette, 2007, p. 357).
Genette proposes another typology of narration that is „metadiegetic‟. He argues that it is
based on a thematic or on direct causality relationship with the initial narration, which will
provide the second narration with an explicative function (2007, p.241-243).
According to Bakhtin‟s theory of the discourse of the novel that he characterizes as
heteroglot, narration itself cannot be composed of only one narration, his study results in the
conclusion that while narrating, the author is, indeed, providing the reader with a story within
a story, for he says:

Behind the narrator‟s story we read a second story, the author‟s story; he is
the one who tells us how the narrator tells us stories, and also tells us about
the narrator himself. We...sense two levels at each moment in the story;...the
level of the narrator...and...the level of the author. (Bakhtin, 1981, p. 314)

If the reader fails to understand the first and second narrations in the story then he “has failed
to understand the work” (1981: 314). Bakhtin speaks about double-voiced discourse, for,
since heteroglossia “is another‟s speech in another‟s language” and in a novel there is an
author and a narrator (be it a character or not), in the discourse “there are two voices, two
meanings and two expressions. All the while these two voices are dialogically interrelated...it
is as if they...hold a conversation with each other” (Bakhtin, 1981, p. 324).
Since there are two voices and two meanings, there are two narrative times, the time of the
narration by the author of the novel; the other being by the narrator of the story. Yet there is
still another narrative time, and which concerns the reader.