Complete the vocabulary of voice and focalization.
A narrator who is a character in the story is ______, and one who is not is ______. A narrative that knows more than any character has ______ focalization, while one restricted to a single character’s field has ______ focalization.
Word bank: homodiegetic · heterodiegetic · zero · internal · external · autodiegetic
Hints
- The first pair answers "who speaks"; the second answers "who sees".
- No restriction at all is called zero focalization.
Show the answer
A narrator who is a character in the story is homodiegetic, and one who is not is heterodiegetic. A narrative that knows more than any character has zero focalization, while one restricted to a single character’s field has internal focalization.
The two pairs answer different questions, and keeping them apart is the whole payoff of Genette’s scheme. A heterodiegetic narrator with internal focalization — not a character, but seeing through one — is the standard configuration of the realist and modernist novel, and neither "third person" nor "omniscient" names it.
Practise Narratology II. Duration, Frequency and Voice
The app has 6 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. Literature I is free to start.
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