ABSTRACT

The main question in the process of identifying the speaking voice in narrative is reducible
to solving two problems, first, detecting cues indicating linguistic and perceptual subjectivity
(Benveniste, 1970; Kerbrat, 1980) and second, being able to contextualise them (Margolin, 1984)
by attributing them to their respective centres. Chapters one to seven inventory the most salient
forms acting as such indices. Both deictic and modal categories have strong affinities with
Jakobson's (1956) shifters.
One fundamental premise in the search for clues is that spatially based proximity to ego or
distance from it provides the underlying mechanism for all other affective effects. A distinction is
made between three centres in the genesis of self. The deictic centre (Fillmore, 1973) is a formal
concept of the individual in the structures of space and time. The cognitive centre (Greimas and
CourtŠs, 1976) is an affective locus of consciousness responsible for value judgments and
influenced by cultural values, upbringing, subconscious associations which create a unique manner
of looking at the world. The perceptual centre (Adamson, in progress) is a concept of the
individual's interaction with the environment involving one or more of the five senses. In chapters
eight to eleven it is argued that perception is affected by spatio-temporal, affective and ideological
factors (Fowler, 1986; Gibson, 1966). The interplay between these three centres is vital in the
detection of narrative voice.
Despite their interdependence the distinction between these centres is vital as it allows for
various combinations in the speaker's mediatory process of the "not-I"'s deictic and/or cognitive
and/or perceptual centre(s). Mediation is basically the result of a confrontation of two selves with
each self being defined, deictically, perceptually and cognitively. In view of the hierarchical one-
way direction of mediation, eight possibilities obtain in the narrator's mediation of a character's self
ranging from total to least narratorial control allowing for all gradations in between. However,
when a character mediates another character's self, which mediation is in turn mediated by the
narrator, the confrontation of three selves produces a complex set of possible relationships between
the various centres belonging to each self. The higher the number of confronted selves the more
complex the embedding process. A typology of narrative voice should take the various layers of
embedding as a starting point.