- Shuoshu.org
- Storytelling Database
- About the Wu Song Project
- Textual Analysis
The narrator types are defined according to the system of Gerard Genette (GENETTE 1980: 228-248. See also BØRDAHL 1996: 181-2, 189): undefined, extradiegetic, intradiegetic, heterodiegetic, homodiegetic, covert, overt:
| Undefined, as in some drama texts consisting exclusively of dialogue | |
| Intradiegetic, i.e. narrator is a person inside the story told | Extradiegetic, i.e. the narrator is on a level above the story told |
| Homodiegetic, i.e. the narrator tells about events in which he has participated | Heterodiegetic, i.e. the narrator tells about events in which he has not participated |
| Overt, i.e. the voice of the narrator is overt, referring to itself in the first person | Covert, i.e. the voice of the narrator is covert, usually under third person narration |
Definitions can be combined, apart from the opposite pairs which exclude each other. Most narratives of the Wu Song Collection are told from the perspective of an ‘omniscient’ third person narrator who stands above the tale and plays no part in it, i.e. the extradiegetic, heterodiegetic type in Genette’s system. However, in some of the texts the narrator intermittently speaks in the first person, ‘I’, wo, and may even point to his own name as the performer of the tale. In such cases the narrator of the text changes from covert third person narrator to overt first person narrator.
