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.

Abstract

There are two levels of story and discourse in fiction, according to Genette''s narrative theory. 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 the image is focalizer in the diegetic world. The narrating instance is constant, but the focalizing is momentary. By focalization, the character observes the other characters and perceives precious 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 fiction in light of Genette''s narrative theory and to answer how the author/narrator establishes the story''s structure through Olivia''s focalization and shares the perception with the reader.

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References

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

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