Focalization in Amy Tan's The Hundred Secret Senses

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Foreign Languages at Azad Islamic University of Tehran-South, Iran.

2 Ph.D. Assistant Professor in the Department of Foreign Languages at Azad Islamic University of Tehran-South, Iran

3 Ph.D. Assistant Professor in the Department of Foreign Languages at Azad Islamic University of Tehran-South, Iran.

Abstract

According to Genette's narrative theory, there are two levels of story and discourse in fiction. The story level deals with the events, and the discourse level is the image of them the narrator narrates at the level of a text. The person who narrates is the narrator, and the person who sees is the focalizer in the diegesis. The narrating instance is constant, but the focalizing changes. By focalization, the character observes the other characters and perceives useful idea that takes her to a higher level of understanding. In a first-person narrative, the narrator, with a particular voice, recounts the conception of the focalizer's manner to reveal the perception through variable internal/external focalization. In The Hundred Secret Senses, Olivia is the first-person narrator and the main focalizer. Thus, the narrator and the focalizer coincide. She comprehends Kwan's hundred secret senses through experiencing and interior monologue. The present paper investigates new insight into the workings of narrative by looking at Olivia's focalizations in this text under the light of Genette's narrative theory.  The article examines how the author/narrator establishes the story's structure through Olivia's focalization and shares the perception with the reader.

Keywords

Literary Discourse Analysis
Volume 1, Issue 2 - Serial Number 2
December 2023
Pages 121-141

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