Presenter(s): Rory Allen
Faculty Mentor(s): Mark Hennion
Oral Session 1 DL
When writing a story, an author usually tries to erase all trace that the world and characters have been constructed so the reader seamlessly slips into the fictional realm without being reminded that a writer exists and is directing the story from behind the curtain. However, second person narration has the potential to disrupt this dynamic. My essay argues that the second person narrative style as utilized by Italo Calvino’s metafictive novella, If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler, redefines the fictional space that the protagonist and narrator inhabit. This, in turn, forces the reader to confront the roles of the author and narrator and exposes the construction of ‘story-telling’ in both the fictional and real realities.