Chapter 4. The double-layered structure of narrative discourse and complex strategies of perspectivization

This chapter aims to illustrate the dynamic functioning of the recursive double-layered structure – which this volume sets as constitutive for the narrative discourse – by means of exemplary analysis of complex strategies of perspectivization in narrative texts. The focus of the chapter thus lies on the narrative macro-structure on the one hand and the relation between narrative micro- and macro-structure on the other.The key premise here is the assumption that meta-discursive strategies reveal the underlying double structure of narrative discourse, since they are based on the constitutive distance between the narrator- and character-level (cf. Chapter 1 in this volume). In order to make obvious the recursive embedding of perspectives and the crucial function of the narrator as a dynamic instance of mediation, evaluation, and perception, the chapter introduces a three-staged model of narrative communication. This model builds the foundation for two exemplary analyses of narrative texts which show a very distinct presence and manner of their respective narrator: E.T.A. Hoffmann’s Romantic-era novella The Golden Pot (orig. Der goldne Topf, 1814) and Wolf Haas’ contemporary series of detective novels.