The Intradiegetic Narrative Level
An intradiegetic narrator is one who exists within the storyworld of a particular text and transmits a story that is framed by the extradiegetic narrative level. Here, one of the primary narrative's characters is the narrator of a story within that narrative, and his or her audience is another character. In other words, when a character of the extradiegetic narrative tells another character a story, he or she becomes an intradiegetic narrator.
It is at the intradiegetic narrative level of Charlotte Lennox's The Female Quixote, for example, that the story of Sir George's history is shared. This interior story is first introduced by the novel's extradiegetic narrator: "When Sir George, after having paused a Quarter of an Hour longer, during which all the Company observed a profound Silence, began his relation in this Manner, addressing himself to Arabella . . ." (208). Thus framed within the extradiegetic narrative, the intradiegetic narrator, Sir George, is free to begin sharing his tale with Arabella, the intradiegetic narratee: "Though at present, Madam, you behold me in the Quality of a private Gentleman, in the Possesssion only of a tolerable Estate; yet my Birth is illustrious enough . . ." (208). |