The account with the first nobody is a literary technique in which the Histoire is told by one or more characters explicitly referring to themselves to the first anybody, i.e. with one “I”.

The account with the first nobody is distinguished from the Autobiographie, the Autofiction and the Autobiographical novel . In spite of the exclusive use of the first nobody of the singular or plural, the account with the first nobody represents, as in the autobiographical novel, the author in the character of the novel. Even when it is presented in the form of an autobiography, it remotely insofar as the history does not rest pas a priori ??? --> on lived of the author.

This narrative form knew a great vogue at the 18th century when the majority of the novels applied this form including several romantic kinds. The account with the first nobody is generally appeared as memories ( Histoire of the knight of Grieux and Manon Lescaut , Life of Marianne , the Nun , '' Memories of the count de Comminge ''), of a correspondence ( dangerous Connections , the Lettres Persians , Julie or the News Héloïse ), even of confessions or a diary. The writers of English language (Daniel Defoe, Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding, Laurence Tern, Frances Brooke) or allemande (the Goethe of the Sufferings of the young person Werther ) there also had recourse. The picaresque Roman is also carried out with the first anybody.

The interest of the account to the first nobody is that it implies directly or indirectly the Narrateur in the history which it tells. An advantage of the use of the first nobody is that while allowing the character to express his feelings, his thoughts and his experiments, the reader is also put capable to be introduced into the life of the narrator who reveals himself with him. Another advantage of the account to the first nobody is that it can also be used to dissimulate information with the reader, in particular those which are inaccessible to the narrator.

The achievement of the account to the first nobody creates a denominational intimacy of an intensity such as it can be striking. This kind of accounts can arise in several forms: the stream of consciousness, as in Notebooks of the basement of Dostoïevski; the dramatic monolog, as in the Fall of Albert Camus or explicitly, as in Adventures of Fine Huckleberry of Mark Twain.

The presence of the narrator in the history preventing it from being informed of all the events, the Detective novel is often carried out with the first anybody, which makes it possible to the reader to discover the truth at the same time as the narrator.

The narrators with first person plural tell their history by saying “us” i.e. in the absence of individual identification, the narrator belonging to a group acting as a unit. Although it is seldom used, first person plural can be employed effectively, sometimes like means of increasing the concentration on the main characters. Thus, in a Rose for Emily of Faulkner (impassioned by the experimentation, Faulkner employed not very common prospects for narration; to see, for example, its mouchetés Chevaux writes with third person plural), Frederik Pohl in Man more and, more recently, in the Virgin Suicides of Jeffrey Eugenides.

The narrators with the first nobody can also be multiple, as in Rashōmon of Akutagawa and the Noise and the fury of Faulkner where each source tells the same event in various manners. The narrator with the first nobody can be the main character or a character close to the main character (see Tops of Hurlevent of Emily Brontë or Gatsby splendid the of Francis Scott Fitzgerald, both reported by a minor character).

The account with the first nobody can tend to a Courant of conscience, as in With the research of time lost of Marcel Proust. The entire account can even be presented like a false document, like a diary, in which the narrator refers to the fact explicitly that he writes or tells a history. The narrator can be more or less conscious of his condition of narrator just as the reasons which control this situation as well as the public to which it believes to be addressed are prone to variations. In extreme cases, the framework of the history introduces the narrator as a character extradiegetic who starts to tell his own history.

The narrative form of the account to the first nobody feels reluctant either to make use of enchased accounts where the narrator tells with the first anybody his history of which one of the characters will tell his own history with the first nobody, like the knight of Grieux with the Man of quality in Manon Lescaut or Tervire with Marianne in the Life of Marianne .

References

• Francoise Barguillet, the Novel with the XVIIIe century , Paris, PUF Literatures, 1981, ISBN 2130368557;

• Emile Benveniste, Problems of general linguistics , Paris, Gallimard, 1966, ISBN 2070293386;
• Belinda Cannonades, Narrations of the interior life , Paris, Klincksieck, 1998, ISBN 2911285158;
• Rene Démoris, the Novel with the first nobody: classicism with the lights , Paris, A. Colin, 1975, ISBN 2600005250;
• Pierre Deshaies, the Peasant arrived like novel at the first anybody : s.n., 1975;
• Beatrice Didier, the Voice of Marianne. Test on Marivaux , Paris, Corti, 1987, ISBN 2714302297;
• Philippe Forest, the Novel, it I , Nantes, Full fires, 2001, ISBN 2912567831;
• R.A. Francis, The Abbot Prévost' S first-person narrators , Oxford, Voltaire Foundation, 1993, ISBN 072940448X;
• Jean-Luc Jaccard, Manon Lescaut. The Character-novelist , Paris, Nizet, 1975, ISBN 2707804509;
• Annick Jugan, Variations of the account in Life of Marianne of Marivaux , Paris, Klincksieck, 1978, ISBN 2252020881;
• Marie-Paule Laden, Coil-Imitation in the Eighteenth-Century Novell , Princeton University Near, 1987, ISBN 0691067058;
• Georges May, the Dilemma of the novel to the XVIIIe century, 1715-1761 , New Haven, Yale University Near, 1963;
• Ulla Musarra-Schrøder, the modern Novel-mémories: for a typology of the account to the first nobody, preceded by a model narratologic and a study of the traditional novel-mémories of Daniel Defoe in Gottfried Keller , Amsterdam, APA: Holland University Near, 1981, ISBN 9030212365;
• Vivienne Mylne, The Eighteenth-Century French Novell, Techniques off illusion , Cambridge, Cambridge University Near, 1965, ISBN 0521238641;
• Valerie Raoul, the fictitious Newspaper in the French novel , Paris, university Presses of France, 1999, ISBN 2130496326;
• Michael Riffaterre, Tests of structural stylistics , Paris, Flammarion, 1992, ISBN 2082101681;
• Jean Rousset, Form and significance , Paris, J. Corti, 1962, ISBN 2714303560;
• Jean Rousset, Narcisse novelist: test on the first nobody in the novel , Paris, J. Corti, 1986, ISBN 2714301398;
• English Showalter, Jr., The Evolution off the French Novell (1641-1782) , Princeton, NR. J.: Princeton University Near, 1972, ISBN 0691062293;
• Philip R. Stewart, Imitation and Illusion in the French Memoir-Novell, 1700-1750. The Art off Make-Believe , New Haven & London, Yale University Near, 1969, ISBN 0300011490;
• Jean Sgard, the Prévost Abbot: Labyrinths of the memory , Paris, PUF, 1986, ISBN 2130392822;
• Loïc Thommeret, creative Memory. Test on the writing of oneself with XVIIIe century , Paris, Harmattan, 2006, ISBN 9782296008267;
• Martin Turnell, The Small channel off the French Novell , New York, New Directions, 1978, ISBN 0241101816;
• Will go O. Wade, The Structure and Form off the French Enlightenment , Princeton, NR. J., Princeton University Press, 1977, ISBN 0691052565;
• Ian Watt, The Small channel off the Novell , Berkeley & Los Angeles, University off California Near, 1965, ISBN 0520013174;
• Arnold L. Weinstein, Fictions off the coil, 1550-1800 , Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Near, 1981, ISBN 0691064482;
• Agnes Jane Whitfield, Problems of the narration in the Québécois novel with the first nobody since 1960 , Ottawa, National library of Canada, 1983, ISBN 0315083271.

See too

Related articles

• Autobiography;

• Autofiction ;
• Autobiographical novel;
• Romance picaresque;
• subjective Camera

External bonds

• processes of the traditional novel