Narratology And The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock Essay

Narratology and â€Å"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock† Seymour Chatman writes of showing and telling as the distinctions that have been made when one is describing the narrative process (97). Although he goes on to explain how, in the study of the narrative discourse and narrative statements, the differences create ramifications that run much deeper than merely acts of showing and telling, the overall message remains the same: The narrative of any given story relates to how it is being shared, to the perspective with which a certain text is presented. As an example of the functions of narration, T.S. Eliot’s â€Å"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock† will be worked through a narratological analysis based on focalization. In order to do so, the guidelines of Narratology as a literary theory will first be explained which will then lead to the use of focalization as the leading principle for the analysis. The principles of Narratology can be divided into two big categories. First, there is the distinction between the tale and the telling. The tale is the guideline of the text; it shows the sequence of events in the order they take place. As such, the tale is rarely objectively observable in a text since the events are not often found in a linear order. This brings the telling. The telling shows the tale as it is presented. This includes analepsis and prolepsis, memories, but also different points of view. A series of events might be repeated multiple times if it is seen through a