NARRATIVE TOOLS

Characterization

There are two major ways of revealing the traits of a character traits in fiction : telling or showing. The narrator can either tell us what the characters are like, or show us how they behave, what the say or think, and let us draw our own conclusions from it.

Telling can be done through direct exposition or description by an authoritative voice in the novel, or even associations ( name of the character, his/her external appearance, his/her direct environment)

Showing consists in describing speech characteristics, actions and/or thoughts. No comment is then given and readers have to deduce the personality traits from what they are shown.

Possible methods : speech mannerisms (the manners of speaking typical of a character and often reflecting his.her social class or circle). The use of idiolectal forms ( idiolect is the type of language used by one particular person, dialect is the one used by a community, sociolect is that of a social group) makes the character immediately identifiable

Character traits can also be revealed through the use of confidants (fem. confidantes), who are secondary characters whom the protagonists trust and to whom they confess their thoughts and feelings. Henry James called them ficelles.

The character can be flat (superficial characters) or round ( complex characters).

Characters can be : Stock characters (conventional types of characters) stereotypes (conform to fixed and oversimplified mental figures) archetypes (recurrent character types in literature) static or dynamic (static characters don't change), consistent or inconsistent ( consistent characters behave in keeping with their temperament)

Points of view

The perspective from which a story is told influences the reader's understanding of it.

Third-person point of view : the narrator seems to be priviliged and to know everything about the characters' thoughts and feelings.

First-person point of view : as we enter a character's mind, the narration is more dramatic and we can identify with him/her.The view is therefore restricted.

Zero focalization : absence of focalization. There is no more restriction : the narrator is omniscient.

The narrator can be reliable or unreliable/fallible.

Internal focalization : the events are seen from inside the story through the subjective angle of vision of one of the characters in the story (= focalizer). The vision of space and the knowledge of events and people are therefore limited.

External focalization : the events are seen from the point of view of someone who is exterior to the story. It implies observation from a distance.

Extradiegetic narrator : he/she remains superior to the story he/she tells. His/her story constitutes the major narrative level.

Intradiegetic narrator : he/she tells a story which is embedded in the main story. He/she belongs to the hypodiegetic level.

Autodiegetic narrator : a first-person narrator who tells his own story.

Heterodiegetic narrator : an omniscient narrator, who is not participant in the story.

Homodiegetic narrator : a narrator who is participant in the story he tells.

Narrators can be discreet and unobtrusive ( giving the reader the illusion that there is no narrator) or they can make their presence felt clearly. A dialogue leads us to forget the narrator behind the story but with a summary of events, a description of a landscape or of a character, the presence of the narrator becomes obvious, all the more so since there is a comment or judgement on the characters' actions or on the narration itself, as with metalinguistic or metafictional comments.

How to Choose a Narrator : choosing a narrator is one of the most important steps in writing a story. To do so, you have to think about whose point of view you really want the reader to hear. Everything that a reader knows is relayed to them from the narrator, so who you choose to tell the story will decide how the story itself is understood and perceived. Through the narrator, an author can make their audience empathize with a character.

If you use a narrator who is a character in the story (intradiegetic narrator)

Your story will be told in the first person
He/she should usually be either the person who the story is about (the protagonist), or someone very close to that person
He/she typically supports and empathizes with the protagonist
He/she is usually personally involved or has some kind of stake in what goes on
The reader should be able to witness some of that persons thoughts, feelings, opinions and reactions about what goes on
Your story may be somewhat vague, exaggerated, or one-sided, since you only hear one person's perspective

If you use a narrator who is outside of the story (extradiegetic narrator)

Your story will be told in the third person
He/she essentially anonymous, though the reader can find out more about him/her from how the story is told
He/she can tell the story either subjectively or objectively (may or may not express opinion)
He/she may share the points of view of several characters
He/she may have access to the thoughts of several characters, which they share with the audience
The narration may be limited to what happens to several characters, or it may be all knowing (omniscient)

You should use a first person narrator when...

You want the reader to have an intimate experience
You want to share the personal thoughts and feelings of someone who is part of the story
You only want one, firsthand experience-based point of view
You want to create some ambiguity in terms of the reliability of the story-first person only gives a personal, subjective perspective

You should use a third person narrator when...

You want more flexibility for how the story is told
You want the reader to witness what is happening from an outside perspective, either objectively or subjectively
You want to show the thoughts and point of view of multiple characters
You want the reader to get an accurate account of the story, perhaps told from all angles or from one reliable narrator
You want your narrator to be anonymous

The functions of the incipit

Function n°1 : a programmatic function which announces the continuation of the narrative. It defines the genre of the novel and the narrative choices of the novelist.

Function n°2 : it must appeal to the reader. The attention and the curiosity of the reader must be stimulated to invite him to keep on reading.

Function n°3 : it creates a fictitious world giving information about the characters, the place, the moment, etc. It enables to answer the questions : Who? When? Where? What? Why?

Function n°4 : It enables the reader to enter the narrative presenting an important event or a secondary scene which wil bring light to some aspects of the plot.

There exist four types of incipit :

A "static" incipit : it is very informative and details the locale, the characters, the historical and social context. The great number of details pauses the action and keeps the reader waiting.

A "Dynamic" incipit : it plunges the reader in medias res : without prior explanations about the situation, the characters, the place,...

A "progressive" incipit : it distils information without answering all the questions the reader may ask.

A "suspensive" incipit: it gives little information and tries to puzzle the reader.

There exist three types of explicit:

The dramatic explicit : it finishes with a positive or negative event which brings the narrative to an end.

The moral or philosophical explicit : The writer provides the reader with a moral or philosophical lesson drawn from the adventures of the protagonist.

The inconclusive explicit : either the reader is supposed to come to a conclusion on his own or there is an epilogue in which the writer narrates the future of the protagonist

Irony

Irony is a figure of speech in which words are used in such a way that their intended meaning is different from the actual meaning of the words. It may also be a situation that ends up in quite a different way than what is generally anticipated. In simple words, it is a difference between appearance and reality.

On the grounds of the above definition, we distinguish two basic types of irony: (1) verbal irony, and (2) situational irony. Verbal irony involves what one does not mean. For example, when in response to a foolish idea, we say, "What a great idea!" This is verbal irony. Situational irony occurs when, for instance, a man is chuckling at the misfortune of another, even when the same misfortune is, unbeknownst to him, befalling him.

Dramatic irony is frequently employed by writers in their works. In situational irony, both the characters and the audience are fully unaware of the implications of the real situation. In dramatic irony, the characters are oblivious of the situation, but the audience is not. For example, in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, we know well before the characters that they are going to die. In real life circumstances, irony may be comical, bitter, or sometimes unbearably offensive.