The use of Free Indirect Style by Modernist authors to represent their characters' consciousness
What is it about?
This book explains the parameters and effects of Free Indirect Style in relation to characters' minds in fiction and the authors and narrators who tell the stories. It analyses narratives by three Modernist authors, Virginia Woolf, D.H. Lawrence and James Joyce, examining how each of these authors experiments with FIS in unique ways in order to conceptualise how their characters' minds are working and to manipulate the involvement of narratorial voice.
Why is it important?
Free Indirect Style is one of the most important, interesting and perplexing linguistic techniques in literary fiction. It allows authors to refract their narratives through the points of view of their characters and to access and express third-person subjectivities. It gives readers a view into characters' minds - not just the language area but all the different types of 'mind-stuff' that makes up human consciousness. With FIS authors can represent non-verbal thoughts, feelings and perceptions with language, and thereby show them to the reader.