Facets of Focalisation in James Joyce’s A Painful Case: A Narrative Analysis

Abstract

The present paper deals with modern narrative theory concentrating on focalisation and its facets in the short story A Painful Case by James Joyce. The cognitively minded narratological notion of focalisation, a term coined by Genette (1983), developed by Uspenski? (1973) and broadened and refined by Rimmon-Kenan (2003), discusses the perceptual, psychological, and ideological positions adopted by the narrator(s) or character(s) in the tale (s). In recent years, there has been considerable interest in focalisation and its implications for narrativity and fictionality. The present paper is an endeavour to analyse the short story A Painful Case by James Joyce through perceptual, psychological, and ideological facets of focalisation. The reader can better understand the text and deduce how the characters at the two levels of discourse and story view the fictitious world and how they are connected via this study. In conclusion, the study of focalization enables us to perceive the story as a network with several layers and consolidates our appreciation of Joyce’s narrative environment design.