Narration

When reading short stories and novels it is very important to look at the narration of the story? Why is that? Well, because it is from the narrator´s point of view that we come to understand the story? Ask a former slave and a Caucasian American about slavery and you will emerge with two very different narratives as they come from very different backgrounds and thus have different stories to tell.

The discourse situation of narrative is rather complicated, but you will need it in order to understand The Catcher in the Rye as there are many different layers in the narrative which are important for the interpretation of the story.

Production: Author → implied author → narrator →
Reception: narratee → implied reader → reader

Author: The actual author  (J.D. Salinger)
The implied author: The "seeming author"of the narrative who works "behind the scenes" shaping the values that the narrative projects onto his audience. You must not identify with the real author as they may have different beliefs and attitudes.
Narrator: The one inside the text narrating the story, could be a third person (omniscient in which a main character is focalized or non-omniscient/limited) or a 1st person narrator.
Narratee: The narratee is the person to whom the narrator is speaking inside the text.
The implied reader: the mirror image of the implied author thus not in the text. The implied reader is the 'reader' addressed by the narrative, but whose views may be quite different from those of the flesh-and-blood reader.
Reader: The actual reader - us

We can all agree on the fact that Holden Gaufield is narating the story thus we are dealing with a major first person narrator. First person narrators tend to be unreliable, but is Holden unreliable and can you find examples of this? Who is he talking to (Narratee)? and who might the implied reader and author be? This should be considered throughout the novel and is something we will discuss at the seminar.