An Application of Gérard Genette''s Theory in Character Analysis

The book makes a comparative analysis of the Russian novelist Mikhail Lermontov''s A Hero of Our Time and the English Novelist Emily Bronté''s Wuthering Heights in the light of the narratological model introduced by Gérard Genette in Narrative Discourse. Through an analysis of the narrative methods employed in both novels, the study offers a discussion of the characterization of the protagonists, Pechorin and Heathcliff, who belong to different cultures and whose stories have nothing in common, and shows how similar narrative strategies used in both novels play an active role in the formation of similar character traits. Pechorin and Heathcliff are complex characters inspiring contradictory feelings, which is possible due to the complex narrative mechanism of the novels. The book presents the narratological analysis to decipher the narrative codes that render the protagonists similar, and to reveal the impact of the methods on the reader''s reactions to the protagonists. The study should be useful and interesting for the specialists of literature who are interested in character analyses and/or narratological survey.