Research Article

Rhetorical Functions of Multiple Narrators and Focalization Shifts in Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone

Number: Special Issue: Wilkie Collins January 28, 2024
TR EN

Rhetorical Functions of Multiple Narrators and Focalization Shifts in Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone

Abstract

Exploring the rhetorical functions of the multiple-narrator structure and constantly changing focalization in Wilkie Collins’s epistolary novel The Moonstone is the focus of this study. Key events with regard to the loss of the Indian diamond are narrated in a repetitive pattern, each time with a shift in perspective depending on who remains in the focal position. Genettian concepts of alternating internal/external focalization and multifarious functionalities of narrator(s) are embodied in The Moonstone, culminating in a prevailing sense of mystery, ambiguity as well as an equivocal state of reality as generic conventions, yet on an underlying level, they reflect the ambivalent engagement with imperialism in the novel. The witness-narrator, Gabriel Betteredge, is constantly involved in a number of extranarrative roles alongside his narrating function: the directing function, communication function, testimonial function and ideological function that help to establish a relationship with the implied reader. The multiple-narrator structure and the use of focalization shifts as well as various narrative and extranarrative functions as sources of power are the main features in the novel that expose its uncertainty in response to the idea of empire.

Keywords

References

  1. Bal, M. (2017). Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of Narrative (4th Edition). University of Toronto Press.
  2. Collins, W. (1982). The Moonstone. Bantam Books.
  3. Genette, G. (1980). Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method. J. E. Lewin (Trans.). Cornell University Press.
  4. Gooch, J. (2010). Narrative Labor in Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone. Literature Interpretation Theory 21, 119-143. http://doi.org/10.1080/10436921003773835
  5. Hughes, W. (2005). The Sensation Novel. In P. Brantlinger & W. B. Thesing (Eds.), A Companion to The Victorian Novel (pp. 260-278). Wiley-Blackwell.
  6. Miller, D. A. (1988). The Novel and the Police. University of California Press.
  7. Nayder, L. (2006). Collins and Empire. In J. B. Taylor (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Wilkie Collins (pp. 139-152). Cambridge UP.
  8. Rimmon-Kenan, S. (1983). Narrative Fiction: Contemporary Poetics. Routledge.

Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

British and Irish Language, Literature and Culture

Journal Section

Research Article

Authors

Early Pub Date

January 22, 2024

Publication Date

January 28, 2024

Submission Date

November 7, 2023

Acceptance Date

January 20, 2024

Published in Issue

Year 2024 Number: Special Issue: Wilkie Collins

APA
Toprak Sakız, E. (2024). Rhetorical Functions of Multiple Narrators and Focalization Shifts in Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone. Cankaya University Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, Special Issue: Wilkie Collins, 77-86. https://doi.org/10.47777/cankujhss.1423334
AMA
1.Toprak Sakız E. Rhetorical Functions of Multiple Narrators and Focalization Shifts in Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone. CUJHSS. 2024;(Special Issue: Wilkie Collins):77-86. doi:10.47777/cankujhss.1423334
Chicago
Toprak Sakız, Elif. 2024. “Rhetorical Functions of Multiple Narrators and Focalization Shifts in Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone”. Cankaya University Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, no. Special Issue: Wilkie Collins: 77-86. https://doi.org/10.47777/cankujhss.1423334.
EndNote
Toprak Sakız E (January 1, 2024) Rhetorical Functions of Multiple Narrators and Focalization Shifts in Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone. Cankaya University Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Special Issue: Wilkie Collins 77–86.
IEEE
[1]E. Toprak Sakız, “Rhetorical Functions of Multiple Narrators and Focalization Shifts in Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone”, CUJHSS, no. Special Issue: Wilkie Collins, pp. 77–86, Jan. 2024, doi: 10.47777/cankujhss.1423334.
ISNAD
Toprak Sakız, Elif. “Rhetorical Functions of Multiple Narrators and Focalization Shifts in Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone”. Cankaya University Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences. Special Issue: Wilkie Collins (January 1, 2024): 77-86. https://doi.org/10.47777/cankujhss.1423334.
JAMA
1.Toprak Sakız E. Rhetorical Functions of Multiple Narrators and Focalization Shifts in Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone. CUJHSS. 2024;:77–86.
MLA
Toprak Sakız, Elif. “Rhetorical Functions of Multiple Narrators and Focalization Shifts in Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone”. Cankaya University Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, no. Special Issue: Wilkie Collins, Jan. 2024, pp. 77-86, doi:10.47777/cankujhss.1423334.
Vancouver
1.Elif Toprak Sakız. Rhetorical Functions of Multiple Narrators and Focalization Shifts in Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone. CUJHSS. 2024 Jan. 1;(Special Issue: Wilkie Collins):77-86. doi:10.47777/cankujhss.1423334

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