Article

Name: Listener as Narrative Category in “The Orphan’s Tales” by Catherynne M. Valente

Authors: E. L. Makarova

Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B. N. Yeltsyn, Ekaterinburg, Russian Federation

In the section Literary Life of the Plot

Abstract:

Created in the form of “1001 Nights” “The Orphan’s Tales” by Catherynne M. Valente is filled with intertwined stories and plots. The article is devoted to the origin of a “story within a story” and its manifestation in the novel.

The need of transferring the sacred knowledge of myth was the reason of emergence of coherent narratives, which aimed to support and approve the human beings in the unknown world around them. By his storytelling the narrator asserts the right to exist, in the verbal way he reflects the cycle of natural phenomena. He states the threefold semantic equivalence: his divine embodiment as the protagonist, the related to this his actions and gestures (acts) and his story about himself and his deeds.

As a verbal sacrifice the story is offered to the god – the only listener who is able to understand and to accept it. This kind of tale keeps the signs of sacral. The intention to verbal concealing of the sacred was implemented in the structure of “story within a story”, or embedded stories.

When we highlight the listener as the separate category in storytelling, we can describe it in the following way. Listener is an equal participant of sacral narrating. Like the storyteller the listener carries out the function of co-creating – he duplicates the storyteller on the semantic level.

As for “The Orphan’s Tales”, the unique discourse of telling-listening as stated trough the numerous characters who tell and listen to each other. They carry out some particular functions: active listener; listener-transmitter; listener-composer.

Keywords: Catherynne M. Valente, “The Orphan’s Tales”, listener, story within a story

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