Mo Yan's The Cure and Iron Child: Analysis
Introduction
According to the Living Handbook of Narratology (Walter de Gruyter, 2009), Gerard Genette coined, in 1972, the term “Focalization”, which may be defined as a selection or restriction of narrative information in relation to the experience and knowledge of the narrator, the characters or other, more hypothetical entities in the storyworld.
Genette distinguishes three types of focalization, zero, internal and external.
Knowing what type or degree of focalization is being used in a piece of literary work can be very useful to readers as it would develop their understanding of the story. Moreover, readers would be able to relate the type of focalization chosen by the author to the meaning of the story.
In this paper, two short stories by Mo Yan will be discussed, The Cure and Iron Child.
First and foremost, the type of focalization in The Cure and Iron Child will be analyzed and related to the meaning of the story respectively. Furthermore, a comparison between the uses of focalization in the two short stories will be highlighted. Finally, a theorization will be drawn from all of these pieces of information.
Focalization in The Cure
a) Internal focalization
The narrator is considered to be part of the story as being the little boy who is in fact, the main character.
That being said, the story is mostly seen through the eyes of the little boy which can be inferred by the constant utilization of the first person “I”, or even by the fourth person “we” that clearly highlights the narrator’s involvement in the story.
According to Genette and his theory on focalization, the narrator says only what the little boy knows. Therefore, the perspective is restricted to the knowledge of the little boy.
However, the father gives other pieces of narrative information even though those pieces of information are in fact delivered to the readers by the main character.
On top of that, the
According to the Living Handbook of Narratology (Walter de Gruyter, 2009), Gerard Genette coined, in 1972, the term “Focalization”, which may be defined as a selection or restriction of narrative information in relation to the experience and knowledge of the narrator, the characters or other, more hypothetical entities in the storyworld.
Genette distinguishes three types of focalization, zero, internal and external.
Knowing what type or degree of focalization is being used in a piece of literary work can be very useful to readers as it would develop their understanding of the story. Moreover, readers would be able to relate the type of focalization chosen by the author to the meaning of the story.
In this paper, two short stories by Mo Yan will be discussed, The Cure and Iron Child.
First and foremost, the type of focalization in The Cure and Iron Child will be analyzed and related to the meaning of the story respectively. Furthermore, a comparison between the uses of focalization in the two short stories will be highlighted. Finally, a theorization will be drawn from all of these pieces of information.
Focalization in The Cure
a) Internal focalization
The narrator is considered to be part of the story as being the little boy who is in fact, the main character.
That being said, the story is mostly seen through the eyes of the little boy which can be inferred by the constant utilization of the first person “I”, or even by the fourth person “we” that clearly highlights the narrator’s involvement in the story.
According to Genette and his theory on focalization, the narrator says only what the little boy knows. Therefore, the perspective is restricted to the knowledge of the little boy.
However, the father gives other pieces of narrative information even though those pieces of information are in fact delivered to the readers by the main character.
On top of that, the