Convincing Narrator: Identification by the Self and the Reader in three First-Person Narratives

Abstract

In psychological theory, narration is seen as a fundamental part of identification. My thesis asks: how is this depicted in fiction with a first-person narrator? I apply the psychological theory that narration can be “a tool for identity construction and identity analysis” (Bamberg 3; Dunlop and Walker 235) to three case studies, namely Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger, and Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh. In this thesis, identification in literature is approached as existing at two levels. Firstly, the narrator-protagonist is portrayed as going through a process of self-identification, and secondly, the reader identifies this narrator while observing this process. This thesis shows how the first-person narration in these novels demonstrates the presence of the aforementioned levels of identification, namely self-identification by the narrator-protagonist and the identification of this narrator by the reader, and, additionally, how orality in this narrative-style allows the reader to connect with and recognize the personality of the protagonist-narrator, thus supporting the second level of identification. I conclude that self-identification through narration by means of a gap between the narrated and narrating self as the narrator takes a reflective position towards himself is present in all novels, albeit in different ways. However, the features of orality in these novels, mostly specific phrases, repetition, and register, are similar and make the protagonists particular, and, consequently; familiar, recognizable and convincing. This thesis ends with a resulting piece of creative writing.