Focalization
Focalization is a term from narrative theory coined by Gérard Genette in 1972 , which describes the relationship between the knowledge of a narrator and that of a character . Genette differentiates between three cases: With zero focus , the narrator says more than any of the characters knows; in internal focussing he says exactly what one of the characters knows; with external focussing he says less than the figure knows. The focus is independent of the narrative perspective .
Genette does not assume that literary works can always be clearly assigned to one of the three types of focus. In the course of a work, the focus can change; in addition, certain types of focussing cannot always be distinguished from one another. For example, zero focalization cannot be sharply delimited from variable internal focalization, in which the reference figure changes at a rapid pace. In addition, the internal focusing by one figure can also be understood as an external focusing on other figures.
Zero focus
The zero focus (or unfocalized narrative ) occurs when a text uses an omniscient narrator who has insight into the thoughts and feelings of each of his characters and describes contexts that the individual characters know nothing about. This narrative form is widespread in nineteenth-century novels, for example. More recently, Genette's notion of zero focus has been criticized in part. Since a narrator basically has a certain horizon and can never be accepted as an absolutely objective instance, it is possible to view the zero focus only as a hypothetical construct.
Internal focussing
With internal focussing , the narration is largely from the point of view of a single character, and connections that this character knows nothing about are not narrated either. However, this must not be equated with the narrative in the first person ; Although this is a frequent field of application of internal focussing, it can also occur with narratives in the third person. Extreme forms of internal focusing are the internal monologue and the stream of consciousness . Genette, in turn, distinguishes three different types of internal focalization, the fixed (in which one narrative perspective is never abandoned), the variable (in which the person changes through whom the focus is made) and the multiple (in which a single event from the point of view of different people can be told, for example in a letter novel). The figure that is used to focus is commonly referred to by the English term Focalizer .
External focussing
In the external focalization finally the narrator has no insight into the inner life of a character and describes their actions. These actions remain incomprehensible to the reader at first.
literature
- Gérard Genette : The story (“Discours de récit”). Fink Verlag, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-8252-8083-7 ( UTB ; 8083).
- Franz Karl Stanzel : Theory of storytelling. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1989, ISBN 3-8252-0904-0 (UTB; 904).
- Michael J. Toolan: Narrative. A Critical Linguistic Introduction . Routledge, London 1988, ISBN 0-415-00868-9 .