Literary Narratology:The Politics of Narrative Viewpoint and Perspective
Two-week, Seminar-based, Course at Lahore College for Women University,
Department of English Language and Literature
Course Instructor: DrMahrukhSaeed Khan,
Department of English, University of Auckland, New Zealand
e-mail: mahrukh_khan32@yahoo.com
Introduction to the Course
[Reality] as we experience it…is a human creation; all our experience is a human version of the world
we inhabit….We “see” in certain ways—that is, we interpret sensory information according to certain
rules—as a way of living. But these ways—these rules and interpretations—are, as a whole, neither
fixed nor constant.1
This course provided an introduction to narratology, narrative theory and the politics of
viewpoint and perspective in literary texts, specifically focused towards nourishing abilities in
participants to develop critical engagement and response.The course highlighted the
intertwined and cohesive relationship between narration, narrative style and literary
work.Significantly, through specific narrative choices and styles, literary representations
embody and construct cultural histories and provide an insight into cultural production across
race, class, gender and sexual boundaries. Literary production traces the historical imagination
of people and nations. Thus, there is a close link between literary representation and the
development of a collective consciousness: exploring a connection between the two can shed
light on societal evolution and the subsequent development of socio-economic and political
systems. Literary production focuses on some of the surfaces and structures of everyday reality
and provides the option to engage with certain modes of interpretation/misinterpretation or
representational tendencies.
1
Zunshine, Cognitive Cultural Studies, 6.
Critical Co-ordinates
Postcolonial Theory and Postmodernism were employed as critical co-ordinates to enhance and
establish the significance of narratorial strategies and perspectives. Texts from two postcolonial
writers, whose work also demonstrates a postmodern stance, were chosen to practically take
the participants through the process of critically evaluating a text while also simultaneously
keeping them engaged with the technical, structural and thematic value of the style of
narration involved. The participants were able to explore the polyphonic nature of literary texts
to have an insight into the, fraught and contradictory, postmodern and postcolonial social
reality inhabited today.
Coming from a colonial past, it was significant that the participants reinterpreted the terms
colonial and postcolonial and what these two may mean in a now postcolonial Pakistani
context. We came to an understanding that the applicability and interpretative nature of the
terms had changed in the 21st Century but were equally, if not more, essential to identify
contemporary forms of power and prerogative—forms of power which are unconstrained by
geographical boundaries and extend beyond physical force in the way these shape and control
individual lives and communities. We employed examples from the spheres of race, class and
gender to understand and highlight the literary thematics deployed behind particular
perspectives and viewpoints.
Specifically, focusing on the delineation of female narrators, the course attempted to highlight
psychological entrapment throughexposing the implicit or explicit imperialist or orthodox
indoctrination contained in constructions such as race and gender. The focus was on the use of
gender by some authors; and on how their use of gendered perspective symbolizes the need for
cultural change.
A substantial reading list, along with the selected texts for hands-on activities, was provided to
the participants significantly in advance.
List of Topics
 Identifying the Genre
Defined genre, what are some of the sub-genres, provided examples of genres or texts
adhering to a particular set of conventions
 Defining narratology, narrative theory, viewpoint and perspective in literary texts
Narratorial Stance and Strategies
Critical engagement with ‘point of view’ and first, second and third-person voice
Language features
 Characterization
Round or flat characters
Socio-economic statement through characterization
Portrayal of mood and creation of literary worlds
 Intertextuality and Postmodernism
Defining intertextuality
Intertextuality and “the death of the author

Redefined Poscolonialism/Postcoloniality
Narrative as Political Strategy or Device
Mediums of Communication Perspective-based
Rewriting History—writing viewed as a perspectival medium
Some Key Preoccupations:
 Polyphony of voices
 Layered perspective (Embedding and Embedded Voices)
 Narrative as resistancestrategy
 Sympathetic identification
 Cultural transition, alternative viewpoint
 Language introduced as an ambiguous medium
 Rewriting history
 Mediums of communication are perspective-based
 Implications for Language Teaching and Learning Practice among other disciplines i.e.
History, Sociology, Anthropology, Ecological philosophy etc.
 This particular approach to Narrative Theory seeks a closer engagement with the text
 Encourages a reflexive literary practice and textual engagement
 Extending the range of meaning and signification
 Our discussion brought to the forefront issues relating to the efficacy of literary practice
and of normative ethics and aesthetics.
Aim and Purpose of the Course
The subject of how one writes is intimately tied to the question of why one writes. Narrative writing
provides the reader with a tentative understanding into why one may want to write in the first place. It
is primarily the poetic realization of ‘another side of the self’, which implies freedom for both the reader
and the author while also becoming an assertion of the transformative power of writing. Predominantly,
then, (narrative) writing is perhaps the evolution of another deeper self; it is about liberation and selfinvention and questions the acceptable boundaries of representation. Significantly, then, the use of a
particular narratorial structure and layout highlights art as a combination of both content and the formal
principles of structure and technique. The aim is to pay attention to that narrative intent and style
through this course.
Purpose

To identify narrative practice as strategy

Narrative practice with a specific aim and purpose

How narration complements the main fictional idea/s

The choice of narrative voice may be politically or ideologically driven

Offers a structural or reflective analysis of the use of fictional language

Provides an insight into narratological developments made over time

Provides an insight into societal and cultural representation/evolution
Acknowledgements
In the first instance, I would like to thank HEC and the National Talent Pool for finding me
worthy of serving my country in this small capacity. Also, I am eternally grateful to Lahore
College Women University for the recommendation made on my behalf and for their gracious
invitation to come to Pakistan andconduct this course. I particularly have to thank the staff and
faculty members of LCWU who provided all the support necessary to make this venture a
success. I am especially grateful to the participants from LCWU affiliated colleges, who took out
precious time and energy to make to the sessions everyday. My sessions were interactive, full
of dialogue and discussions, and I believe as fulfilling for the participants as they were for me.
During my stay in Pakistan, I was contacted by Agriculture University Faisalabad (UAF), who
expressed an interest in my profile (as an NTP scholar) and organized a week’s workshop on
“Introduction to Feminism” and “Pakistani Feminisms” in particular, to be conducted at their
Department of Human Sciences. I received great student feedback during and after this week’s
activities and this proved to be an exceptional venture. Further, I am also pleased to state that
my academic relevanceand portfolio grew with each passing day at LCWU and I had the good
fortune to be invited for lecturing at LUMS as well.I thank all the people involved, especially the
participants, in making my trip an academically vigorous and most fulfilling one and I am
eternally grateful for the honour to serve my country in this small, humble way.
List of Relevant Reading Material
Secondary Texts
Steiner, George. After Babel: Aspects of Language and Translation. 3rd ed. Oxford
and New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Said, Edward. Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient. London: Penguin,
1995.
O’Neill, Patrick. Fictions of Discourse: Reading Narrative Theory. London and
Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1945.
Park, Jeff. Writing at the Edge: Narrative and Writing Process Theory. New York and
Oxford: Peter Lang, 2005.
Mongia, Padmini, ed. Contemporary Postcolonial Theory: A Reader. London and
New York: Arnold, 1996.
Memmi, Albert. The Colonizer and the Colonized. New York: The Orion Press,
1965.
Eagleton, Mary, ed. A Concise Companion to Feminist Theory. Oxford: Blackwell,
2003.
During, Simon. The Cultural Studies Reader. 3rd ed. London and New York:
Routledge, 2007.
Crapanzano, Vincent. Waiting: The Whites of South Africa. New
York: Random House, 1985
WaThiong’o, Ngugi. Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African
Literature. London: James Curry; Nairobi: Heinemann Kenya; Harare:
Zimbabwe Publishing House, 1986.
Zunshine, Lisa. Why We Read Fiction: Theory of Mind and the Novel. Columbus:
Ohio State University Press, c2006.
Maids and Madams.Dir. Mira Hamermesh. Production co. Channel Four
Television: United Kingdom, 1985. Documentary.
Primary Texts
JM.Coetzee’sIn the Heart of the Country (1977), Foe (1986), Age of Iron (1990), Elizabeth
Costello (2003).
The Murder of Aziz Khan (1967) by ZulfikarGhose
The Nigger of the Narcissus (1897) and Heart of Darkness (1902) by Joseph Conrad
Recommendations

As a student noted after the workshop, “I’ll pass on to my students, the interesting
aspects/manners in which I’ve learned to analyze narratives plus what created these texts’’, I
too would like the cycle of learning going. Such workshops are extremely helpful in establishing
new and improved academic criteria and introducing international standards;
however‘Literature’ is about life and such workshops could also significantly mean improved
insight into everyday reality and to a place of better self-awareness.

There has to be a closer engagement between the instructor and the likely participants’
substantially before the courses begin, through e-mail or online chats, to establish the learning
outcomes together.

I will recommend some in-person pre-course interaction between the instructor and the
participants so they get introduced and the students become aware and receptive to the
instructor’s style and course plan

Some orientation for the students on literary courses could be really helpful as these are
technologically simple but verbally and reflectively intense.

Better liaising between administration and participants could establish efficient delivery of
course material to the students and prepare them well in advance for the learning planned.

My course was planned to target a diverse audience within the Human Sciences faculty, for
future workshops students from other departments i.e. Sociology, Anthropology, Language
Teaching,Philosophy, Cultural and Gender Studies could also benefit, this would extend the
scope of relevance for not just English literature but also build helpful crossovers between
subjects to positively reflect, I hope, on our overall understanding of these subjects and their
bearing on life in general.