Narration: dialogue

[lobelia321]

gabbyhope, as part of lively discussion on matters homo and hetero, asked about dialogue.

So I scuttled away and looked some things up.



Okay, have looked at relevant sections in Mieke Bal's book 'Narratology'.

She defines dialogue as the most dominant type of 'embedded text', text embedded within the 'primary text'.

Dialogue is a form in which the actors themselves and not the primary narrator, utter language. ... Such embedded texts share that characteristic with dramatic texts. ... The dialogues embedded in a narrative text are dramatic in kind. The more dialogue a narrative text contains, the more dramatic that text is. (I find this highly interesting, btw.)

When between each utterance of an actor the primary narrator intervenes with additions like 'Elizabeth said,' or even more elaborate commentary, the hierarchical relationship between N1 and N2 remains clearly visible. When the clauses follow each other without intervention by the N1, we are likely to forget that we are dealing with an embedded dialogue.

N1 refers to the primary narrator, and N2 to the embedded narrator on the secondary level of dialogue or whatever (story within story).