A Study of Focalization in Woolfs Mrs. Dalloway

This study is primarily concerned with applying genette snarratological framework of focalization to the study of virginia woolf'smrs. dalloway. it aims to pursue an approach for insights about theworking of narrative by looking into indicators of subjectivity. the studyfalls into two parts.the first part deals with theoretical considerations concerning thegenesis of the term and typology. as far as genesis of the term isconcerned, there is number of labels suggested by well-known scholars asequivalent to focalization. genette uses focalization to avoid the visualconnotations of brook's 'focus of narration', stanzel`s ' narrativesituation', pouillon`s 'vision', and todorov`s ' aspect'. as far as typologyis concerned, there are two main types of focalization, namely internaland external focalization. internal focalization, in turn, is divided intothree sub-types (fixed, variable and multiple).the second part applies genette`s focalization to woolf's mrs.dalloway. as a modernist novel, mrs. dalloway reflects the heavy use offocalization. although this novel is written with the third personnarration, in so many instances point of view differs and a number offocalizers operate. the reader is invited to enter the story and experienceit without frequent interruptions from external narration. this is veryobvious in the adopting of variable internal focalization. every characteris given a significant voice, which produces the sense that peopleexperience realities differently, have unique ways of making sense of itand different ways of seeing it.