With Specific Reference to Key Narratological Terms and Issues Explored in the Module, Discuss the Function of the Narrator in at Least Two of the Narrative Genres (poetry, Drama, Prose Fiction) Covered by the Set Texts in the Module.

Q3: With specific reference to key narratological terms and issues explored in the module, discuss the function of the narrator in at least two of the narrative genres (poetry, drama, prose fiction) covered by the set texts in the module.

The narrative of any literary work is the backbone from which hangs the various elements of the piece - and through the manipulation of this narrative and its narrator the author is able to enforce various themes and messages present in their writing or inject certain emotions into the reader. As a result, the specific way in which the author chooses to narrate their work plays an integral part in one's interpretation of its events and themes - as well as displaying some degree of similarity to the author's own beliefs. I have chosen to examine the function of the narrator in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and a selection of short stories from James Kelman's Not Not While the Giro collection - due to the differing sides of the narratological spectrum on which they stand.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a literary ballad encompassing the startling tale of an aged mariner and its effect upon the few people who hear its content. The most obvious narratological techniques seen in Coleridge's writing is the frame narrative form the ballad utilises - a technique that involves burying additional stories within the introductory narrative. In the case of The Ancient Mariner the main narrative (the Mariner's tale) is secondary to the narration of the Mariner's initial meeting with the wedding guests - whose actions throughout the ballad provide the Mariner's narrative with greater impetus. This can be seen in lines 17-18 as 'The Wedding Guest sat on a stone:/ He cannot choose but hear...'1 The monologue that follows also shows us that the entirety of the secondary narrative is in analepsis. Interjections offered by the wedding guests - who associate with the reader as additional listeners - further add to the poetic impact such as in lines 345-346: '"I fear thee, ancient Mariner!"/ Be calm, thou Wedding Guest!'2

The above quotation is also an example of the primary narrator interrupting the protagonist's recountal, which takes up a majority of the text in the form of a dramatic monologue. These interruptions serve as a reminder of the frame narrative structure that is in effect, whilst the presence of two narrators implies that the ballad's didactic humanitarian and spiritual messages - 'For the dear God who loveth us,/He made and loveth all.'3 - are ones that Coleridge strongly supported. Inventively, he fuels the secondary narrative of the protagonist whom embodies his own beliefs with the heterodiegetic narrator; whose sole function is to enforce the morals of the Mariner's homodiegetic narration.

A third narrative voice was introduced in 1815 when Coleridge wrote a collection of marginal glosses to accompany The Ancient Mariner - a development which added to the ballad's narratological significance. The true significance of this third narrator has been heavily contested - and whether or not it should be taken at face value is debatable. At various points throughout the Mariner's obscure tale the third narrator's simplified explanations ensure Coleridge's poetry is fully understood - such as in lines 119-120 where the marginal gloss notes that 'the Albatross begins to be avenged.'4

Coleridge's Mariner can be interpreted as a representation of his own emotional state - a literary personification of the curse that he himself felt storytelling had bestowed upon him. This can be seen in lines 584-585: 'And till my ghastly tale is told,/ This heart within me burns.'5 My belief is enforced by the research of Rosemary Ashton, who observed that 'it was during the journey to Malta that Coleridge became fixed on the idea of himself as the ancient mariner.'6 Through its narration I interpret Coleridge's ballad as a self-meditatation on his own growing despair with the world around him, represented by the stormy elements of the Mariner's narrative. Hilary Anne Clark supports this theory, recognizing The Ancient Mariner as a 'narrative of manic depressive experience... an intrapsychic representation of interpersonal relations.'7

The short stories of working-class hardship from James Kelman's Not Not While the Giro possess very different narratological qualities to those of Coleridge's ballad; though whilst written chasms apart in time parallels do exist. Both narrators account the lives of weary and weathered souls and both touch upon human themes such as mortality and isolation. Of Kelman's stories I selected Acid, He Knew Them Well and Not Not While the Giro.

Whilst Acid contains a third-person omniscient narrator the latter two short stories possess a first-person homodiegetic narrator - though in He Knew Them Well the focus is not centred upon the protagonist as the narrator recounts his meeting in a pub following a neighbour's suicide. In Not Not While the Giro Hamish Smith's narrative is filled with reflection, depression and self-hate, suggesting that Kelman has created an intrusive narrator. This can be seen when Hamish acts as his own psychiatrist - 'often I sit by the window in order to sort myself out - a group therapy within'8 - using the first-person narrative By using a first-person narrator who discloses their emotions Kelman is able to provide a more effective insight into the lives of his protagonists and maximise their stories' impact.

Kelman implements an extensive internal monologue in Not Not While the Giro, as Hamish constantly battles his inner demons and suicidal tendencies. He frequently contemplates killing himself ('Nay, enjoy. I should commit suicide.')9 and in a display of his loneliness is constantly analysing either his own life or others: 'the dutiful but pathetic aunt - a role she hates but accepts for her parents' memory.'10

In further examples of the narrator displaying the severity of his degrading mental health he discusses the prospect of homosexual intercourse with himself - 'I don't want to sleep with men right hand up... Why such strenuous denials my good fellow. No reason.'11 - and heavily contradicts himself: 'Why they viewed me with suspicion is beyond me... Although I am a suspicious character.'12 In contrast,