Finding Narrated, Unnarrated and Disnarrated in James Joyce’s “The Sisters”

Abstract

“The Sisters” is the first story in the Dubliners, a collection of fifteen short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914. Most of the stories in the collection are in descriptive style either by the characters in first person narration or by omniscient in third person speech. The descriptive narrative is incorporated with fewer dialogues selectively at some crucial event. Story, “The Sisters” is one of the most perfectly crafted narratives from the point of view of a young boy who is also the character. The narrative of the story deals with multiple issues of religion, relationships, belief, paralysis (an abnormal physical state denoting mental illness as well) death and freedom and choose to disnarrated many events to create a sense of suspense and illusion in the story. Unnarrated and disnarrated is one of the emerging new techniques in the field of narrative theory. These narrative tool are discussed in great detail by Gerald Prince an American academic and literary theoretician, in an brief essay published in first issue of Style in 1988 This paper will analyse these narrative techniques and their application in the text and their after effects to the new kind of meaning they provide to it.