ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a survey of general theories of fictional narrative, starting with the European Formalists and structuralists, Viktor Shklovsky, Vladimir Propp, A.J.Greimas and Tzvetan Todorov, and moving on to the Anglo-American literary-linguists, Booth, Chatman, Leech and Short. The next section considers Genette’s theory of diegesis and focalization as a focus for attempts to document the relation between the narrator and the broader fabric of the novel. The chapter concludes with a consideration of the function of speech and dialogue in the fictional text.
