ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates some of the ways in which homodiegetic narratives provoke hesitation. In revealing that a significant number of the same devices are used in both heterodiegesis and homodiegesis, it establishes these as essential tools in the genre. The chapter also attempts to develop understanding about the fantastic and homodiegesis by analysing the role played by narrator personality. It illustrates how the presence of even a single additional voice can be used to cast doubt upon the interpretation of events offered by the primary narrating voice. The traits and beliefs of the first-person narrator are considered from two principal angles: their role in the construction of an image of the narrator-protagonist as an essentially reasonable figure and the contrast this image offers to the nature of events being described. Both these factors entail significant consequences for the degree of hesitation experienced by the reader.
