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The narrator (the answer to the question "who is speaking?") is a commonly used notion in the teaching of literature and in literary criticism, even though it is the object of a theoretical debate which is still too little known. Clarifying it requires an historical and epistemological approach to the opposition between communicational theories of narrative in general (no difference between fictional narrative, non-fictional narrative and communicational discourse) and non-communicational or poetic theories of the fictional narrative in particular (these theories are based on a thorough study of the linguistic and textual peculiarities of fictional narrative).
The articles gathered here confront the two approaches starting from problems such as the identity and difference between certain terms and concepts, the refutation of theories, the reinterpretation of old theories within new theories, the historicity of translations...

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CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 1

CHAPTER I: THE DEATH OF THE NARRATOR
AND THE INTERPRETATION OF THE NOVEL:
THE EXAMPLE OF PEDRO PµRAMO BY JUAN RULFO 13
1. Pedro Páramo: A Complex Novelistic Montage 13
2. Pedro Páramo According to Communicational Theories of Narrative
(Critical Reception of Pedro Páramo) 16
3. Pedro Páramo According to Non-communicational or Poetic Theories of
Fictional Narrative 23

CHAPTER II: HOMONYMY IN GENETTE, OR THE RECEPTION
OF THE HISTORY/DISCOURSE (HISTOIRE/DISCOURS) OPPOSITION
IN THEORIES OF FICTIONAL NARRATIVE 30
1. Homonymies and Synonymies in Todorov and Genette 31
1.1. Todorov: Story and Discourse 31
1.2. Genette: Narrative and Discourse 34
1.3. Genette: Story, Narrative (Narrative Discourse), and Narrating 35
1.4. Genette´s Revision of Benveniste´s History/Discourse Opposition 36
2. Benveniste, Hamburger: a Comparison 38
3. The Use of the Alignment between Benveniste and Hamburger
by Kuroda and Banfield 41
3.1. The Critique of the Communicational Theory of Narration 41
3.2. Banfield: The Two Sentences that Characterize Fictional Narration 42

CHAPTER III: HOMONYMY, POLYSEMY AND SYNONYMY:
REFLECTIONS ON THE NOTION OF VOICE 45
1. Voice in Communicational Theories of Narrative 46
2. Voice and Kuroda and Banfield´s Critique of Communicational Theories
of Fictional Narrative 55

CHAPTER IV: FICTIONAL NARRATIVES BEFORE 1850:
INSTANCES OF REFUTATION FOR POETIC THEORIES OF NARRATION? 63

CHAPTER V: INTERVIEW 77

CHAPTER VI: UNSPEAKABLE SENTENCES: NARRATION AND REPRESENTATION
IN BENEDETTI´S "FIVE YEARS OF LIFE" 86
1. Preliminary Remarks 86
2. An Unspeakable Ending 90
2.1. Raúl, Mirta and the "Appleton Girl" (or the False Ending) 90
2.2. Raúl, or the Recognition (The Surprise Ending) 95
3. From Description to Interpretation 98
Annex 102

CHAPTER VII: UNSPEAKABLE IMAGES: ON THE INTERPLAY
BETWEEN VERBAL AND ICONIC NARRATION
IN BENEDETTI´S "CINCO A¥OS DE VIDA" ("FIVE YEARS OF LIFE") 105
1. Preliminary Remarks 105
2. Another Unspeakable Narrative 109
2.1. A Playful Relationship to the Idea of Narrative 109
2.2. The Narrative Possibilities and Constraints of the Medium 111
2.3. Toward a Critical Use of Intermedial Comparison 116

CHAPTER VIII: TRANSLATING S.-Y. KURODA: PAST AND PRESENT 120
1. The Translatability of Kuroda´s Essays 120
2. Critique of Translations and Occasional Re-Translations 123
3. Translating Kuroda Today 130

CHAPTER IX: NARRATOLOGICAL CATEGORIES AND THE (NON-)DISTINCTION
BETWEEN SPOKEN AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE IN NARRATIVE THEORY 135

CHAPTER X: NO-NARRATOR THEORIES/OPTIONAL-NARRATOR THEORIES:
RECENT PROPOSALS AND CONTINUING PROBLEMS:
TOWARD A HISTORY OF CONCEPTS IN NARRATIVE THEORY 153
1. A Survey of Recent Proposals 153
2. A General Lack of Historical Perspective 162
3. Toward a History of Concepts in Narrative Theory 165

REFERENCES 169
1. Source of the Examples 169
2. Works Cited 169

INDEX 191

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Patron, Sylvie
Sylvie Patron is Maître de Conférences Habilitée in French Language and Literature at the University of Paris Diderot. She is the author of LE NARRATEUR: INTRODUCTION · LA THÉORIE NARRATIVE (2009; reprint. 2016) and LA MORT DU NARRATEUR ET AUTRES ESSAIS (2015), among other books. She has edited or coedited several collections on narrative theory in both French and English and translated articles on linguistics and narrative theory into French. She is currently Vice-President of the International Society for the Study of Narrative.

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