Naratorial strategy in GE

Question 1

The identity of the narrator is authentified right from the first line of the novel

Answer 1

“My father’s family name being Pirrip, and my Christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip. So, I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip.”
⇒ act of self creation: he calls himself pip = he is a creator

Question 2

GE being written in the 1st person singular.

Answer 2

Collusion btw the narratorial stance and the main protagonist. The extradiegetic narrator and the protagonists are one and the same same person. The events that happen and all the other characters are seen through Pip’s eyes and this may affect our views of them. It is also written in past tense and with hindsight (= recul).

⇒ This means that the reader and the narrator (“an older, wiser Phillip Pirrip” ) both know more than the younger Pip who is experiencing the events of the novel.

Question 3

YET he doesn’t judge the characters

Answer 3

Thackeray always adds moralistic comments. But very rarely Phillip Pirrip comments on Pip’s adventure because of course he knows more than Pip.

Question 4

The older narrator looks back at Pip but tries to see the world as he saw it when he was 6.

Answer 4

He doesn’t show that he knows more than us.

Question 5

See Gerard Genette, Figures IIII p 238 Paris Seuil col poetique et for a reminder of the narrative levels

Answer 5

“the narrator is always a fictional role. The narrator isn’t alway part of the story he is telling” (omniscient & extra)

Pour Genette dire diegetic narrator = permet de dire que narrator est inclut dans l’histoire alors que meta ou extra : narrateur pas dans l’histoire qu’il raconte.

Question 6

The narrators :

Answer 6

1) Metadiegetic narrator // extradiegetic narrator : addresses the real readership VS diegetic or intradiegetic narrator

An intradiegetic narrator is one that is inside (intra) the narrative (diegetic). This narrator may be represented by a character telling his story from the 1st person perspective (ex : Huckleberry Finn). You may even have a narrator (as in Great gatsby) who tells the story of someone else. As long as the narrator exists in the story, he is an intradiegetic narrator.

Question 7

2) Dans intra diegetic :

Answer 7

Homodiegetic narrator = the narrator is also one of the character of the story

VS heterodiegetic narrator = the narrator is absent from the story he is telling

Question 8

3). Within the homodiegetic type there are two différent levels :

Answer 8

autodiegetic narrator : the narrator is not just a character but also the main character. The autodiegetic situation is one of the components of the autobiography but is not the only determining criterion

Question 9

To sum up : relationship : narrator/ Characters :

Answer 9

Narrator is a character in the story = homodiegetic narrator
N is NOT a character in the story = heterodiegetic narrator
N tells his/her own story = autodiegetic narrator

Question 10

Which one in GE ?

Answer 10

Here we may say that Pip is the homodiegetic N and Mr Pirrin is an heterodiegetic narrator. ⇒ Dans GE on a Philip Pirrip : un personnage qui n’est pas dans l’histoire racontée

⇒ Dickens joue la dessus : j’ai été David Copperfield est ce que peut être Pip aussi ?