Internal Focalization and Seeing through a Character’s Eyes

Abstract

In fictional narratives, what is said can be presented from the perspective of a character. Thus, in passages of ‘internal focalization’, the narrative ‘mimics’ the character’s perspective and tells only what is accessible to the character. This narrative technique is pervasive in fictional narratives but it is notoriously hard to define. In this article, we argue that ‘internal focalization’ can be defined as the mandate to imagine perceiving from a character’s point of view. In investigating how internal focalization lets us see through a character’s eyes, we develop an account of internal focalization that relies on a particular type of imagination as its defining feature.

Keywords

• focalization
• narrative perspective
• imagination
• fiction