Structuralist criticism
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Conversely, a conversation between lovers may take five minutes in the story, but the narrative may describe it in five pages. Thus, duration is what produces the sense of narrative speed. c. Frequency involves the relationship between the ways in which events may be repeated in the story (the same event may occur more than once) and in the narrative (a single event may be described more than once). 2. Mood is the atmosphere of the narrative created by distance and perspective. a. Distance is created when the narrator is one of the characters in the narrative, a “go-between” through whose consciousness the story is filtered. The more intrusive the narrator, the greater the distance between narration and story. Conversely, the least distance is created when we are unaware of the narrator’s presence, when a tale seems to “tell itself.” Distance is also created by the absence of descriptive detail. The less detail given, the less the effect of reality is created, and the greater the sense of distance between narration and story. The more detail given, the less distance exists. Thus, the least distance, or the greatest imitation of life, is produced by maximum information and minimum presence of the narrator. b. Perspective refers to point of view, or the eyes through which we see any given part of the narrative. Although the narrator may be speaking, the point of view may be that of one of the other characters, and the feelings of a point-of-view character may be different from those of the narrator telling that character’s story. 3. Voice refers to the voice of the narrator. The voice we hear (the narrator’s) may not be the same as the eyes we see through (the perspective). When we analyze voice, we analyze the relationship of the narrator (the act of narration) to the story being told and to the narrative (the way the story is being told). Voice helps us determine the narrator’s attitude toward the story and reliability. It is interesting to note that tense, mood, and voice are all aspects of verbs. For in Genette’s opinion, all fiction functions like an expanded verb: all narrative reduces to action. Although his definitions may seem “cut and dried,” he gener‑ ates his categories, in large part, to be able to show when a literary text creates its effects by “violating” those categories. In his study of Remembrance of Things Past, for example, Genette shows how Proust creates an effect of intense imme‑ diacy, of great intimacy between narration and story, by combining maximum information with maximum presence of narrator, an effect that is traditionally produced by combining maximum information with minimum presence of nar‑ rator. Thus, Genette underscores the notion that systems of classification should
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