Saturday, March 4, 2017

What is the role of the narrator in Jean Toomer's Cane?

One of the most controversial aspects of Cane is its structure. While those who praised the book as innovative often singled out its complex, circular quality, others found the book disorganized or disjointed. The narrator, whom many assumed was the author, is one of the most challenging aspects.
The easiest assumption is to equate the narrator with the author. However, different sections of the book have their own narrators, so the question of how the various voices relate to each other arises. Is the central narrator distinct from the character Kabnis? And if so, in what ways?
The very instability of the narrator suggests that this fluctuating voice can guide the reader’s emotional and intellectual experience of the worlds created in the text. Rather than directly reflecting the author himself, therefore, the shifting narrative voice suggests the inadequacy of authority.
https://academic.oup.com/melus/article-abstract/27/4/59/944358?redirectedFrom=fulltext

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