Theory and Text: Frames of narrative techniques employed in Jeffrey Eugenides Middlesex

Abstract

Jeffrey Kent Eugenides, the American born novelist, short story writer and essayist who has won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2003 emerged as a post modern icon among the contemporary writers. His most discussed work, Middlesex(2006) unfolds the family saga of Cal Stephanides, who is born as intersex and the work occupies a significant position in the literary canon of intersex literature. The book mirrors the conflicts and problems faced by the protagonist Cal during his puberty and finally his exile to San Francisco.Through this paper I extend a deep reading of Middlesex withspecial reference to the narratological devices introduced by recent narratologists Gerald Prince, Gerald Genette and Monica Fludernik. This study tries to frame the structural elements of the novel under the principles voice, tense and mode introduced by Genette. It also examines the role and functions of the narrator, voice and naratee in the novel in a narratological perspective. The paper aims to find out the relevance of the handling and treatment of time sequences and the peculiar chronological order of the novel. Here,I also focus on the method of narration adopted and its significance with the thematical and narratological aspect