WHO TELLS THE STORY? A NARRATOLOGICAL STUDY OF NARRATION IN PALACE WALK

Abstract

This paper analyzes the type of narrator and narration in Naguib Mahfouz's Palace Walk, the first part of his renowned Cairo Trilogy. Using the narrative analysis framework proposed by Herman and Vervaeck (2005), this qualitative, interpretative study examines four key aspects of narration: narrator level (extradiegetic vs. intradiegetic), narrator involvement (heterodiegetic vs. homodiegetic), temporal relations (subsequent, prior, simultaneous, or interpolated), and narrator visibility (covert vs. overt). The findings reveal that the narrator in Palace Walk is extradiegetic (standing outside the fictional world), heterodiegetic (not experiencing the events he narrates), subsequent (narration takes place after the events, predominantly in past tense), and covert (absent from the narrative and not presenting himself in the first person). The study concludes that Mahfouz employs a single, consistent narrative voice that makes the novel an accessible and enjoyable read, in contrast to the multiple, fragmented voices typical of postmodern fiction. This paper also recommends applying the same narratological model to other novels and short stories for comparative analysis.