Construct · 1 fields · 4 citations

focalization: a standalone construct

One name. One construct. A landmark on the map.

● anchor · a standalone construct Nearest construct by meaningnarrativecompare the meanings
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focalization1 CONSTRUCTFocalizationGENETTE · POINT OF VIEW

A single standalone construct; nearby constructs are located against it in the Collider. Tap a field for its definition, unit, and measures.

Narratology

The perspective through which a narrative is presented

Gérard Genette introduced focalization in Figures III (1972; translated as Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method by Jane E. Lewin in 1980) to separate two questions that earlier talk of point of view had run together: who perceives the events of a story, and who tells them. The focalizer is the position from which the narrated world is seen, felt, or known, while the narrator is the voice that puts it into words, so a story can be told by one agent yet seen through the eyes of another. Genette sorted narratives into zero focalization, where the telling ranges freely and knows more than any character; internal focalization, where perception is anchored in a single character's viewpoint; and external focalization, where the reader is shown only outward behavior and is denied access to any character's inner life. Mieke Bal (1985) and Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan (1983) refined the idea, distinguishing the focalizing subject from the focalized object and extending it to the visual and psychological facets of perspective. Focalization is a landmark of narratology because it supplies a precise vocabulary for perspective in fiction, film, and other narrative media, replacing the looser notion of point of view with a working distinction between seeing and speaking that can be applied consistently across texts.[1][2][3][4]

Unit
A property of narrative discourse: the vantage point from which the story world is perceived, classed as zero, internal, or external
Recovery means
Not applicable
Measured by
Identified by narratological analysis of a text or film, tracing whose perception governs each passage and whether that perception is unrestricted, anchored in a character, or limited to outward observation

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Nearby constructs

narrative5 fields · 6 citationsjingle · one word, five constructsperspective3 fields · 6 citationsjingle · one word, three constructssubject3 fields · 4 citationsjingle · one word, three constructs

References

  1. Genette, G. (1972). Figures III. Éditions du Seuil.
  2. Genette, G. (1980). Narrative discourse: An essay in method (J. E. Lewin, Trans.). Cornell University Press. (Original work published 1972)
  3. Bal, M. (1985). Narratology: Introduction to the theory of narrative (C. van Boheemen, Trans.). University of Toronto Press.
  4. Rimmon-Kenan, S. (1983). Narrative fiction: Contemporary poetics. Methuen.

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