The Astute Exploitation of the Narrative Voice by James Joyce, Faulkner and Proust - Essay Example

of the World Literature of the Teacher 13 November The Astute Exploitation of the Narrative Voice by James Joyce, Faulkner and Proust There is no denying the fact that the art of storytelling is something that had been practiced by human beings since eons. What differentiates one story teller from other is the way one narrates a story and the eventual perspective that emerges from the narrative efforts of a storyteller. Hence, in the context of making a narrative more effective in the sense of enabling a writer to make the point one intends to make, a writer is required to make a range of decisions while contriving a narrative. A writer needs to eventually decide as to how one intends to tell a story. Thereby, a key decision in this direction happens to be the eventual choice of the narrator. Hence, it goes without saying that in one respect James Joyce’s The Dead, William Faulkner’s Barn Burning and Marcel Proust’s Swann’s Way tend to affiliate to a literary excellence that is comparative in the sense that it is the astuteness of these writers pertaining to the choice and exploitation of the narrative voice that endows these literary creations with their eventual impact and flavor. In one respect in which the craft of all the above mentioned three writers could be compared in the context of these three literary creations is the astuteness with which they manage to succeed in exploiting the chosen narrative voice as a strategy to accentuate the eventual impact and meaning that the readers draw from them. For instance, James Joyce in the short story The Dead astutely creates the persona of an external narrator to further the plot and to accentuate the impact of the varied aspects of the plot so as to give way to a desired impact on the minds of the readers. The craftsmanship of James Joyce in The Dead lies in one’s ability to use a narrative voice that could delve on a multitude of characters and events in the story from a range of perspectives in time and space. It is this capacity of Joyce to dexterously exploit the narrative voice so as to facilitate and add varied dimensions to the plot in The Dead that make one akin to Faulkner’s mastery in Barn Burning or Proust’s dexterity in Swann’s Way. The way in which James Joyce uses the narrative voice in The Dead eventually enables the writer to reveal the internal life of the varied characters in the story at multiple levels, thereby allowing one to endow the overall person of the characters with multiple facets and dimensions. If the narrative voice in Barn Burning is straightforward in the manner it unravels the story, primarily relying on a delineation of the external features of the character of Snopes to highlight the ruthlessness and savagery implied in the main character, and if the narrative voice in Proust’s Swann’s Way affiliates to a first person treatment to endow a sense of veracity and sensitivity to the plot, Joyce to a large extent matches the caliber and mastery of Faulkner and Proust by giving way to a narrator in The Dead who could not only be distinctly differentiated from other characters in the story, but proceeds as far to evince the audacity to furnish comments and judgments on the varied events and characters in the narrative. Though the narrative voice in James Joyce’s The Dead resorts to a monologue to comment on the thoughts and actions of the varied characters, this voice as in Faulkner’s Barn Burning and Proust’s Swann’s Way endows the writer with the versatility to contrive the mood and atmosphere in the plot by making varied sharp observations like,”There was a great deal of confusion and laughter and noise, the noise of orders and counter-orders, of knives and forks, of corks and glass-stoppers (Joyce 11).” For instance if in The Dead one takes into consideration as single scene when the character of Gabriel is meditating on the speech one intends to make at his aunt’s place, one simply could not help admiring the versatility of the narrative voice as it affiliates to the trinity of Psycho Narration, Interior Monologue and Narrated Monologue while delving on the plight of the character as, “Perhaps she would not be sorry to see him fail in his speech. An idea came into his mind and gave him courage. He would say alluding to Aunt Kate and Aunt Julia: “Ladies and Gentleman, the generation which is now among the wane among us may have had its faults but for my part I think it had certain qualities of hospitality, of humor, of humanity… (Joyce 12).”” One could not help marveling at the dexterity of the narrator and one’s ability to move languidly betwixt the psychological mindset of the varied characters and the physical externalities in the story. If Joyce in The Dead relies on an external narrator with a sharp sense of observation that depends on one’s a grip over the psychological makeup of the characters and the external elements in the story to bolster the overall plot, William Faulkner in Barn Burning evinces a same magnitude of literary mastery and astuteness, albeit in a different way by opting for an external narrator who is straightforward, matter of fact and linear in its approach towards elaborating on the plight of the varied characters, relying for psychological impact by making it dependent on the detail with which it elaborates on the external features of the characters so as to construct personas that are imbued with the salient traits that the writers intends to endow them with. It is their ability to select just the right narrative voice and to empower that narrative voice with a measured ability for psychological analysis, observation power and sense of omniscience to achieve the desired impact in the plot that allows for a comparative treatment of Joyce’s The Dead, Faulkner’s Barn Burning and Proust’s Swann’s Way, though these three works of literature tend to be disparate in their storyline, approach and impact. Hence, in Barn Burning Faulkner chooses a narrator that makes the story go in a linear fashion, building on the expectations of the readers by working on their sense of apprehension and fear, bringing out the savagery, darkness and brutality inherent in the character of Snopes by making it dependent on a delineation of the commensurate external features as, “his father called him, and once more he followed the stiff back, the stiff and ruthless limp, up to the slope and on to the starlit road where, turning, he could see his father… - a shape black, flat and bloodless as though cut from tin… (Faulkner 3).” While if on the one side Joyce’s The Dead tends to be a story revolving around a social situation, thereby requiring the narrator to be expansive in one’s observation and judgments, Faulkner’s Barn Burning is a story that relies for impact on a juxtaposition of the characters that are inherently ferocious and innocent, which makes the narrative voice go suffused and focused, always pointing on the physical aspects of the characters that betray their psychological makeup. A comparative analysis of the use and analysis of the narrative voice in James Joyce’s The Dead and William Faulkner’s Barn Burning, when juxtaposed with the choice of the narrative voice in Proust’s Swann’s Way, clearly evinces as to how the choice of the narrative voice in a literary work is to a large extent dependent on the genre it affiliates to. The Dead and Barn Burning being short stories do happen to be receptive of an external third person narrator, which goes well with the plot in the sense that it happens to be constrained in terms of time and space. In contrast Proust’s Swann’s Way being a novelette, by its very nature happens to be quiet averse to a linearly structured narrative form that goes contrary to the author’s intention of engaging in the expression of one’s unconscious and an expansive exploration of the characters in the storyline. Thereby, Proust in Swann’s Way adheres to a much complex narrative mode in which the protagonist happens to be the first person narrator that gets amply clear right at the start as he says, “For a long time I used to go to bed early. Sometimes, when I had put out my candle, my eyes would close so quickly that I had not even time to say “I’m going to sleep (Proust 1).” Thereby, by doing so Proust is able to tell a story that hovers around the reflective consciousness of the protagonist- his perceptions and analysis of the people he lives with and comes across the events he lived through. It goes without saying that James Joyce’ The Dead, Faulkner’s Barn Burning and Proust’s Swann’s Way happen to be disparate works of literature that defy all attempts at comparison. However, if there is a literary plane on which these three literary master pieces do yield to a comparative analysis, it is on the choice and exploitation of the apt narrative voice by the three authors to accentuate the salient elements in the plots, so as to facilitate the desired impact on the target readers. The craftsmanship of the three authors lies in an astute exploitation of the narrative voice. Works Cited Faulkner, William. Barn Burning. Web. 13 November 2013. Joyce, James. The Dead. Web. 13 November 2013. Proust, Marcel. Swann’s Way. Web. 13 November 2013. Read More