Focalisation in Travel Literature

Abstract

This article considers how the phenomenon of focalisation, as a narrative strategy, functions in travel literature. The article also discusses how this strategy helps to establish different perspectives of the journey and its narrated events. The theoretical framework adopted, in order to show the textual function of focalisation, is based on a Genettian model, as developed in Narrative Discourse as well as on Bal’s concept of focalisation as presented in Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of Narrative. This approach is supplemented by Precious (2000), Ryan (2001) and Lintvelt (1981).