Isän ikävä

Minäkerronnan ulottuvuuksia kuvakirjassa Tyttö ja naakkapuu ja elokuvassa Näkymätön Elina

• Mirja Kokko Tampereen yliopisto

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30665/av.74791

Abstrakti

Longing For The Father. The dimensions of homodiegetic narration in the picture book Tyttö ja naakkapuu and in the film Näkymätön Elina

The aim of this article is to examine the ways in which child’s grief and longing are presented in children’s literature and film. In particular, the article focuses on homodiegetic narration and the modes of presenting minds and consciousnesses, a growing point of interest for recent narrative theory. Furthermore, the article examines communicative aspect of narrative.

Picture book Tyttö ja naakkapuu has a first-person narrator, a little girl, who narrates the whole story. The film Näkymätön Elina involves two levels of narration: the the narrator’s world is depicted through embedded clips of consciousness representation and the other narrative level represents external events.

This article concentrates on the means of narration and visual presentation. From this perspective, I approach the topic with the aid of narratological concepts and the theory of visual representation. The analysis of the homodiegetic narration examines the following questions: (1) Is homodiegetic narrator always a communicator who performs to a certain audience? (2) Can self-narration be a way to comprehend one’s own life story (e.g. in cases in which speech does not communicate with anyone)? The ambivalent nature of homodiegetic narration is evident both in the narration and in the presentation of consciousness. In this respect, the article is linked with cognitive literary research which foregrounds the representation of consciousness.

In depicting the workings of a fictional mind, the author achieves, as it were, the ultimate illusion of an authentic experience. Fiction reveals the internal, hidden world of the individual. This is not possible in the real world. This opportunity provided by fiction is of particular importance in texts that deal with death and longing; fiction allows us to enter the internal world and thoughts of a grieving child.