המקום והזמן׃ איתור הסיסואציה-האפית של אורח נטה ללון לש"י עגנון
The primary function of a narrator in a work of fiction — recounting a story; dramatizing events by reproduced speech; telling about himself — are rarely mutually exclusive but rather are blended in a proper proportion to suit the goals and circumstances of the particular tale. Far from being an exc...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | Hebrew |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
1983
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| In: |
Hebrew studies
Year: 1983, Volume: 24, Pages: 155-167 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The primary function of a narrator in a work of fiction — recounting a story; dramatizing events by reproduced speech; telling about himself — are rarely mutually exclusive but rather are blended in a proper proportion to suit the goals and circumstances of the particular tale. Far from being an exception to the rule, S.Y. Agnon's novel 'Oreah nata lalun, however, relegates the plot's external action — i.e., the story of the visit — to a secondary position of importance — in keeping with a characteristic of modern fiction — wherein one of its functions becomes that of suggesting the chief character's personality and psyche as revealed through contact with a particular, and significant, experience. This study enumerates and illustrates the means whereby the novel's primary subject is not the town of Shibush and not the guest, but his twenty-years-older self in the role of the primary narrator. Since this narrator is a discernible personality in the novel, his reactions to the tale he tells and the numerous means he employs to focus attention on himself at the time and place of narration — known variously as his epic situation, narrating stance or narrating position — enhance and "round-out" his image and personality. The all-too-frequent interruptions of the story of the visit allow the narrator to comment or pass judgment on an event or character. Thus we also discover that many biographical details of S.Y. Agnon the man have been explicitly or implicitly incorporated into the person of the fictional narrator, such as name, age, family and religious background, and personal experiences such as Agnon's own 1930 visit to his home town. A further blurring of the boundaries between the fictional and the historically verfiable is achieved by making the narrator's profession that of an author, much as Agnon is, and attributing to him some of Agnon's own works. Thus the narrator is free to emply many literary devices to enhance consciously, as it were, the aesthetic quality of his tale, using symbols, analogies, foreshadowing techniques and even discussions about poetics. The study demonstrates how the highly tangible and intrusive narrator defines his epic situation and thereby enhances the novel's believability, between past — the narrator's recollections — and present — his reactions, interpretations, judgements and realizations. The "rounded" narrator in his epic situation brings greater attention to this aspect of the novel as being the areana of the true plot. It is in his narrating position where the hero becomes the true subject of the narrative as he reacts dramatically and emotionally to his own account, thereby exposing the psyche of a man torn between a bygone world of tradition and his present existence. |
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| ISSN: | 2158-1681 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Hebrew studies
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