196 | nº 31, pp. 187-205 | doxa.comunicación
July-December of 2020
Literary resources used by Leila Guerriero in her journalistic profiles
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
In the last third of the book, thanks to the ellipses, the description of the arrival has already become a text with the rhythmic resonance of a poem.
The 14th of September.
My steps in the hall.
The lift.
The doorbell.
Juana.
-“Come in, come in. Mr. Gelber is expecting you”.
The corner of the hall, the living room.
- Sweeeeetheart! –he says, exaggerating the “e” while pushing the armrests of the chair with his hands, and then with his fists on the table to get up (2019: 262-263).
This introduction to the lengthy scenes that take place in Bruno Gelber’s house is like the beginning of a children’s story, as in “once upon a time”. It places the reader in a tense situation, making them wonder what will happen in the house this time around, or what new discoveries the reader will make of Bruno Gelber. It creates excitement and provides rhythm. We can see this aspect in the following example of iteration:
He calls. Juana answers.
-Yes, can you bring me some pills?
He calls. Juana answers.
-What happened to the light? Why is it dim?
He calls. Juana answers.
-Don’t forget, you have to go shopping; puree for dinner.
He calls. Juana answers.
-Turn on the balcony light, as I said before.
There are days like this (2019: 265-266).
3.2.3. Mode and voice
It is important to discern who is narrating (voice) and who is observing (mode or point of view from which it is narrated). Historically, there has been a great deal of confusion between mode and voice; between who sees and who speaks. Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren proposed the term “narrative focus” in 1943 (Genette, 1989: 241-242) as the equivalent of “point of view”, and defined four typologies: omniscient narrator, which Todorov symbolises by the formula, Narrator > Character –narrator knows more than the character– or says more than any character knows; Narrator = Character –the narrator says what such a character knows– this is the story with a point of view; or Narrator < Character –the narrator says less than the character knows, which is the objective story.
Genette, on the other hand, uses the term focalization. Furthermore, he talks about the following:
Non-focalization or zero focalization narration, which would be the classic story in which the narrator knows more than the character
