STYLISTICSCHAPTER (4)

Perspective in narrative fiction *Though using the different medium of language, writers of

narrative fiction exploit this manipulate potential of perspective in a similar way to

represent characters, events, and setting of a novel or short story.

*Any change in the perspective or point of view from which a fictional world is presented will result in a different story and give rise to a different interpretation.

*We make sense of a text by relating it to the context of our knowledge, emotions, and experience .

* Since such contexts will be different for particular readers, so interpretations will vary also.

.

Stylistics is concerned with: - How far can we adduce textual evidence for a

particular interpretation, ? - How far can we assign significance to particular

textual features?Kazuo Ishiguro 's novel An Artist of the Floating World:

(1 )If on a sunny day you climb the steep path leading up from the

little wooden bridge still referred to around here as ' the Bridge of Hesitation', you will not have to walk far before the roof of my house becomes visible between the tops of two gingko trees.

Perspectives on meaning

(2 )Even if it did not occupy such a commanding position on the hill, the house would still stand out from all others nearby, so that as you come up the path, you may find yourself wondering what sort of

wealthy man owns it .(3 )But then I am not ,nor have I ever been, a wealthy

man.

(4)The imposing air of the house will be accounted for, perhaps, if I inform you that it was built by my predecessor and he was none other than Akira Sugimura.

(5 )Of course, you may be new to this city, in which case the name Akira Sugimura may not be familiar to you.

(6 )But mention it to anyone who lived here before the war and you will learn that for thirty years or so, Sugimura was unquestionably amongst the city's most respected and influential men.

(7 )If I tell you this, and arriving at the top of the hill you stand and look at the fine cedar gateway, the large area bound by the garden wall, the roof with its elegant tiles and its stylishly curved ridgepole pointing out over the view, you may well wonder how I came to acquire such a property, being as I claim a man of only moderate means.

*The first question that inevitably arises as soon as we start reading a novel or short story is: Who the narrator is, whose voice we are supposed to be hearing.

*A very distinctive individual voice expressing perspective which

gives an inside view into the mind of a first- person narrator who is also a character in the world of the story.

• *The 1st person pronoun signals subjectivity. But there is a corresponding 2nd person pronoun: the narrator is addressing somebody .

* There is no addressee apparent within the text, so a kind of 2nd person vacuum is created, and the reader is drawn in to fill it, and becomes positioned as a participant in the fictional world.

Stylistic markers of perspective and positioning : *Deixis:

-It means 'pointing' or 'showing.'

-Deictics are the technical terms for these cues: here, now, you.

-They direct the listener's or reader's attention to the speaker's or narrator's spatial and temporal situation.

-There are three types of deictics :- Place deictics: they include adverbs such as 'here.'

- Time deictics: they include adverbs such as 'now', the use of tenses .

- Person deictics: they include 1st person pronoun and its related forms and the 2nd person pronoun and its related forms.

-Deictics in a narrative text prompt the following questions : • Who is telling the story?

• Who is the narrator taking to? • Where and when do the events take place?

• From whose perspective is the story told?

*Deixis is Speaker – related, everything in the story world is experienced from the narrator's perspective.

*In the stylistic analysis , we seek to demonstrate - how an examination of specific linguistic features of the

text can help to substantiate the impressionistic awareness of its literary effect,

- it leads us to a consideration of other linguistic features which writers use to position readers in the imagined reality of the fictional world.

Given and New information: Given information: the information which the

speaker assumes to be already known to the addressee Definite article 'the‘

New information: the information which the

speaker assumes the addressee cannot have acquired knowledge from one of the three contextual factors :

- place - time

- person -Indefinite article 'a' and 'an '

Ideological perspective:

*Ideology is a set of social, cultural and political beliefs and values which form the way we think things out to be.

•The narrator talk to the 2nd person addressee with a marked familiar immediacy, using such emotive expressions as " you may find yourself wondering " "you will learn". It is as if he is talking to somebody in his presence who knows who he is.

•*Since no 2nd person addressee is identified in the text, the reader assumes that position. He does not know who he is and he has to somehow construct his identity.

*The evaluative words and phrases like ' commanding', ' wealthy', 'imposing', ' most respected and influential men', ' fine' ,' elegant', ' stylishly carved', ' only moderate'. * These words and phrases are attitudinal . They originate from the narrator's ideological perspective and convey the subjective nature of his perceptions and observation.

Modality: It provides the speakers with the linguistic means to express degrees of commitment to the truth or validity of what they are talking about, and to mitigate the effect of their words on the people they are talking to.

-Modal auxiliaries: such as, will, can, may.

-Sentence adverbs: : which express the modality of the whole sentence ,or clause such as, perhaps,

unquestionably

.

' -Ambivalence: Sometimes the narrator seems to be confidently assertive , sometimes attentive.

• Syntactic structures: Formal, carefully structured, measured correctness ) ordered analytic mind(, suggestive )coherence and logical control hiding an underlying conflict of attitude(

•A certain ambivalence on the part of the narrator about materialistic and aesthetic values

Concluding remarks:

* Reading a novel is not only a matter of finding out what is told ,but also how it is told. You cannot separate content )what( from form )how(.