Free Indirect Discourse

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  Contents  

1.  Free Indirect Discourse  3

2.  Free Indirect Discourse in Selected Novels  

2.1  Jane Austen: Emma  4

2.2  Henry James: Portrait of a Lady  6

2.3  Virginia Woolf: Orlando  6

2.4  James Joyce: Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man  7

3.  Conclusion  8

4.  Bibliography  9

3.1  Primary Literature  

3.2  Secondary Literature  

5.  Appendix: Selected Definitions  10

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1. Free Indirect Discourse

At the turn of the twentieth century German and French Linguists first mentioned the free indirect discourse (FID) 1 while analysing Flaubert's use of the French imperfect tense. (Cf. Fludernik, 2001). FID allows the author to embed the voice of the character into the voice of the narrator's voice (cf. Cobley, 2001). 2 The character's "habit of speech" (ibid.), its "mode of thought and speech" (Fludernik, 2001: 1), its syntax and diction (cf. Nünning, 2004) are represented without using direct speech; hence, there are no quotation marks (cf. Cobley, 2001). Nevertheless, "features of direct speech (direct questions, exclamations, fragments, repetitions, deictics, emotive and conative words, overstatements, colloquialisms) [are present]." (Fleischman, 1990: 227f; cf. Nünning, 2004).

However, the discourse is reported in the "fashion of indirect speech" (Fleischman, 1990: 228), or, at least, it is related to indirect speech (cf. Nünning, 2004), as tense-shifts are "in accordance with the basic tense of the report frame" (Fludernik, 2001: 1; cf. Nünning, 2004). Hence, the "transposition of the future into the conditional" (Bally [1912, 1914] in Herman: 1995: 143) is a necessity and pronouns are adapted to the 3 rd person narrator (cf. Fleischman, 1990), or more precisely to the actual narrating mode (cf. Nünning, 2004). However, "characteristic inquit formulas of indirect speech, such as 'X said/thought that …, wondered why, ... '" (Fleischmann, 1990: 228) are absent (cf. Schneider, 2003; cf. Marinez/ Scheffel, 1999; cf. Nünning, 2004) and adverbials of time of place are used like in direct speech (cf. ibid.); in other words, they are relative to the character.

FID is usually contrasted with DD and ID by the above mentioned markers. The following

simplified tableau shall give an overview:

free indirect discourse direct discourse indirect discourse

1 Beside FID the terms "free indirect style", "free indirect speech", "narrated monologue", "erlebte Rede" (ger.) and "style indirect libre" (fr.) also refer to the same technique. However, free indirect discourse is the most frequently used term.

2 See also: " E.R. erlaubt es daher in einer auktorialen Erzählsituation, Elemente der Ich-Erzählung zu nutzen […]." (Nünning, 2004: 154) "[…] the words or thoughts of the character are translated into the discourse of the narrator […]." (Fleischman, 1990:228)

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However, as "syntax alone can not specify what sets FID apart from DD [direct discourse] and ID [indirect discourse]" (Herman, 1995: 143), many scholars refer to the 'context' of the discourse in question. 3 The difficulties to explicitly specify FID reflect upon the ambiguity of FID, especially concerning the source of the discourse:

FID passages, unless clearly marked by syntactic or lexical features, are therefore ambiguous concerning the question of whether in a given passage there is speech or thought representation implied and, if there is, who might be the author of that speech or thought act and whether the represented discourse was uttered aloud or merely part of a sequence of internal thought. (Fludernik, 2001: 1) While the author may switch between all three styles of narration, the originality of the discourse (narrating authority or character, and which character) is not always clear and constitutes the ambiguity. Nevertheless, in FID the subjectivity of the remark or thought and the individual style of the character are more apparent than in ID (cf. Nünning, 2004). In employing FID instead of DD, the narration becomes less detached while the narrator is noticeably refrained from its authoritative position (cf. Schneider, 2003).

In contrast to the techniques of "stream of consciousness" and "interior monologue", the style is usually grammatically not as incorrect (cf. Nünning, 2004). Additionally, the narrating authority and the experiencing character are not that clearly distinguished in FID concerning the mode of speaking and the place (cf. Martinez/Scheffel, 1999).

2. Free Indirect Discourse in Selected Novels 4

2.1 Jane Austen: Emma

Many scholars refer to Jane Austen as the first English novelist "to use free indirect speech in a significant and deliberate manner." (Wikipedia, 20.03.07) 5 Austen uses FID in order to transfer opinions and feelings of the protagonists, while usually employing a third person narrator. Various passages in Emma, for instance, obviously express Emma's opinion, while the reader – led by the omniscient narrator – might have gained quite a different idea.

This becomes already clear in the first chapters, when Emma plans to refine Harriet Smith' manners and tastes and to make a match for her with Mr. Elton. Harriet, however, seems to

3 Herman refers inter alia to Cohn (1978), McHale (1978), Pascal (1977), Volosinov (1929), Bakhtin (1929), and exposes the difficulties to specify 'the context'.

4 In this chapter, the quotations that refer to the narration of the respective sub-chapter are indicated with the number of the page in brackets only.

5 See also: Daniel P. Gunn: 2004, 35.