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300634

Narrative Deviations: The Role of the Unnatural Narrator in James Hannaham’s Delicious Foods (2015)

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Last updated: 03 Jan 2025

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Abstract

Based on the critical concepts of unnatural narrative theory, this paper investigates narrative deviations and their functions in James Hannaham's novel Delicious Foods (2015). According to unnatural narrative theorists, aspects of unnaturalness in realistic fiction can be traced in four elements: narrators, characters, time, and space. Unnatural scenarios in a narrative can be interpreted through certain reading strategies. More specifically, this paper focuses on investigating the aspects and roles of the unnatural narrator in Hannaham's narrative which has several third-person and first-person narrators. The most fascinating among those narrators is an unnatural object-narrator, namely cocaine, which narrates almost half of the novel. Although cocaine is an inanimate object, it is both first-person narrator and focalizer in the narrative. Moreover, though a first-person narrator naturally does not have access to other characters' thoughts and other places, cocaine can easily seep into the minds of characters and move freely among locations. Applying the reading strategies of unnatural narrative theory, the current paper interprets the meaning and function of these narrative deviations, showing how they are eventually conventionalized by blending cognitive frames.

DOI

10.21608/jssa.2023.185335.1464

Keywords

Unnatural narrative theory, unnatural narrator, James Hannaham, Delicious Foods, crack cocaine, Human Trafficking

Authors

First Name

Ashraf

Last Name

Kouta

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

قسم اللغة الانجليزية - کلية الآداب - جامعة دمياط - دمياط - مصر

Email

ashrafkouta@du.edu.eg

City

دمیاط

Orcid

0000-0001-5780-7372

Volume

24

Article Issue

3

Related Issue

41339

Issue Date

2023-04-01

Receive Date

2023-01-03

Publish Date

2023-04-01

Page Start

82

Page End

105

Print ISSN

2356-8321

Online ISSN

2356-833X

Link

https://jssa.journals.ekb.eg/article_300634.html

Detail API

https://jssa.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=300634

Order

3

Type

المقالة الأصلية

Type Code

653

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

مجلة البحث العلمي في الآداب

Publication Link

https://jssa.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Narrative Deviations: The Role of the Unnatural Narrator in James Hannaham’s Delicious Foods (2015)

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Article

Created At

24 Dec 2024