Does alternation of narrative voices and font...

Does alternation of narrative voices and font style justify the ways Toni Morrison (an implied author) intended to? : A Narratological dissection of Toni Morrison‟s novel, Home

Author Name : Balwan Singh

ABSTRACT  The novelist uses different narrative techniques for telling stories; some relevant to style, others to plot, or narrative perspective. Toni Morrison in her novel, Home alternates the narration of her novel between the omniscient narrative voice, and the protagonist Frank Money’s, through which most of the story is told. This alternation of narrative voices raises many questions in this paper: What are the types of narrative voices used? To what extent does the use of multiple narrative voices affect the novel? What is the purpose behind this use? To answer these questions, the writer undertook some hypothesis. One such method which the writer expounded is the theory of Narratology of Gérard Genette and Wayne C. Booth’s concepts of the function of narrator in relation to the author, text and reader. For internal analysis two characteristics are exhibited; firstly, it is concerned with narratives as independent linguistic objects. Secondly, it aims to reveal an underlying structure that can be identified in many narratives. The aim of this paper is to deal with “the underlying structure” by following the concepts enunciated by Genette, i.e., Narrative Voice, Narrative Distancing and focalization and to find out through this, the intended purpose of Toni Morrison; the implied author, to press upon her technique of alternation of narrative voice and changing font style.