Update

Narratology: Applying Simpson’s Modality in Kafka’s The Judgement

Author: Mohammed A Kareem
Department of Dams & Water Resources Engineering, College of Engineering, Salahaddin University-Erbil
Author: Rozgar Yousif Omar
Mathematics Department, College of Science,  Salahaddin University-Erbil
Author:Aree Ghazi Hussain
Translation Department,College of Arts and Letters,Cihan University-Erbil

http://dx.doi.org/10.24086/cuesj.v2n1a5

Abstract

The term ‘point of view’ has, in the last decades, turned out to be indispensable for literary studies, is extremely abstruse and hence is in need of discussion and elucidation. According to Chatman (1978) even the regular use of the term ‘point of view’ embodies three discrete phenomena: perceptual point of view, conceptual point of view and interest point of view. On the contrary, when it is used in a literary sense, the term ‘point of view’ carries the meaning of two dissimilar notions: that of narration and that of focalization; in Genette’s words, the one who speaks and the one who perceives.

Furthermore, whilst analysing point of view in a literary text the three different types of narration should be kept in mind: authorial narration (omniscient), figural narration (the narrator is an active participant in the story and has a limited viewpoint) and finally first person narration (either ‘I as protagonist’ or ‘I as witness’, whose perspective on the story world is also limited (Dassler 2003)).

This article sets out an encompassing framework for the analysis of point of view in Kafka’s The Judgement. Brief critical overview of the story is presented to highlight the stance of the text in the literary world, and then the position of point of view in literature is discussed, after which the different opinions on point of view are explained. Subsequently, there is a practical analysis of some excerpts in the story that shows how objective values in the story world is achieved as well as how escapism is shaped in The Judgement.

Keywords: Narratology, Point of View, First Person Narrator, Omniscient Narrator, Modality.

1. References

Berman, R. A. (2002) Tradition and Betrayal in “Das Urteil”. In: A Companion to the Works of Franz Kafka, Chatman, S. (eds.) Story and discourse: Narrative structure in fiction and film. Ithaca, NY: Cornell

Bernheimer, C. (1982). Flaubert and Kafka. New Haven:Yale University Press.

Dassler, T. (2003). Point of view in Raymond Carver’s short story ‘So Much Water So Close To Home‘. North Carolina: Grin Verlag.

Fowler, R. (1977). Linguistic and the Novel. London and New York: Methuen.

Fowler, R. (2002). Linguistic Criticism. (2nd edn.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Friedman, N. (1955). Point of View in Fiction: The Development of a Critical Concept. PMLA. 70: 1160-84.

Kafka, F. (1913). The judgment. The Complete Stories. 85: 38-43.

Leech, G. N. and Short, M. (2010). Style in fiction: A linguistic introduction to English fictional prose. (2nd edn.). Harlow, Munich: Pearson Longman.

Lorenz, V. (2008). Point of View in Alfred Edgar Coppard’s “Some Talk of Alexander”. North Carolina: Grin Verlag.

Politzer, H. (1962). Franz Kafka: Parable and paradox. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Rochester, A Companion to the Works of Franz Kafka. NY: Camden House, pp. 85-99.

Seymour, C. (1978). Story and discourse: Narrative structure in fiction and film. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University.

Simpson, P. (1993). Language, Ideology and Point of View. London: Routledge.

Stern, J. P. (1981). Re-Interpretations: Seven Studies in Nineteenth-Century German Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Sternberg, M. (1978). Expositional Modes and Temporal Ordering in Fiction. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Stockwell, P. (2013).The positioned reader. Language and Literature. 22(3): 263-277.

Szanto, G. H. (1972). Narrative Consciousness: Structure and Perception in the Fiction of Kafka, Beckett, and Robbe-Grillet. Austen, Texas: University of Texas Press.

Tauber, H. (1948). Franz Kafka: An interpretation of his works. New Haven: Yale University Press.

University Press.Booth, W. C. (1961). The Rhetoric of Fiction. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Walter, H. S. (2002). The Myth of Power and the Self: Essays on Franz Kafka. Michigan: Wayne State University Press.

Full Text

 

About admin

Check Also

التهجير القسري كجريمة ضد الإنسانية

الکاتبة : ليلى عيسـى ابوالقاسم كلية القانون والعلاقات الدولية والدبلوماسية، جامعة جيهان-اربيل DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.24086/cuesj.v2n1a2 …

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *