Rethinking the Text World Theory Approach to Focalisation

This paper investigates the Text World Theory (henceforth TWT) approach to focalisation. I have selected Annette Curtis Klause’s (1997) Blood and Chocolate for analysis in this paper because of the challenges it poses in terms of text-world construction. The story, which is heterodiegetic with fixed internal focalisation (Gennette 1980) and belongs to category B narrative in the reflector mode (B(R)), is told from the perspective of a werewolf, Vivian. The presentation of this particular perspective sometimes leads to the introduction of odd world builders, animal metaphors, and so on. Furthermore, Vivian’s point of view is not always reliable since she might be confused, mistaken, or misled in some cases. Hence, this story provides an interesting example for studying the implications of point of view, and particularly a non-human point of view, for the construction of text worlds. In this paper, I will particularly focus on the reliability of Vivian’s point of view and its implications on the construction of text worlds.