Placements and Functions of Brief Second-Person Passages in Fiction

Abstract

‘Second-person fiction’ is traditionally defined as fiction with stable, extended use of you designating a fictional protagonist. This chapter focuses instead on brief, fluctuating passages or shifts into second-person in otherwise traditional third-person narration. Short passages of second-person are extremely effective literary devices, and their placement and effects in recent fiction are surprisingly standardised. The chapter highlights five spots where they tend to occur most often: as an initial opening, as episodes of skaz, in closing lines, as signals of changing focalization or episodes, and mixed into passages of free indirect discourse. Examples include excerpts from the writings of Russell Banks, Robert Coover, E.L. Doctorow, James Ferry, Denis Johnson, Maile Meloy, Alice Munro, Z.Z. Packer, Mark Richard, Jeanne Schinto and James Ellis Thomas.