Narrative and form

Abstract

‘Narrative’ is a word that has become very fashionable in recent years so far as criticism of the novel is concerned, but like many other fashionable things it has existed under other names as a topic for discussion for a long while. A novel is narrated: that is to say, the information we receive from its pages comes to us from a particular point of view or ostensible source (or, of course, from a number of such sources). Just as it makes a difference in a film or a television play where the director puts his cameras, what angles they have on the action, how they move, so too the way we read a novel is fundamentally directed by the nature of its narration.