Free indirect discourse

E468419

literary concept narrative mode narrative technique

Free indirect discourse is a narrative technique that blends a character’s thoughts or speech with the third-person narrator’s voice, creating a fluid, often ambiguous overlap between character and narrator perspective.

Try in SPARQL Jump to: Statements Referenced by

Statements (49)

Predicate	Object
instanceOf	literary concept ⓘ narrative mode ⓘ narrative technique ⓘ
allows	access to character’s subjectivity ⓘ ironic distance between narrator and character ⓘ representation of consciousness ⓘ
associatedWith	Franz Kafka NERFINISHED ⓘ Gustave Flaubert NERFINISHED ⓘ James Joyce NERFINISHED ⓘ Jane Austen NERFINISHED ⓘ Virginia Woolf NERFINISHED ⓘ narratology ⓘ
characterizedBy	absence of explicit reporting clauses ⓘ ambiguity of perspective ⓘ blending of narrator and character voices ⓘ narrated monologue ⓘ shifting focalization ⓘ third-person grammatical form with subjective coloring ⓘ
combines	character’s inner speech ⓘ character’s thoughts ⓘ narrator’s discourse ⓘ
commonIn	novels ⓘ short stories ⓘ
differsFrom	direct discourse ⓘ indirect discourse ⓘ interior monologue ⓘ
enables	narrative irony ⓘ simultaneous presence of narrator and character perspectives ⓘ subtle characterization ⓘ
hasAlternativeName	erlebte Rede ⓘ free indirect speech ⓘ free indirect style ⓘ style indirect libre ⓘ
hasFeature	colloquialisms matching character’s idiolect ⓘ deictic expressions anchored in character’s viewpoint ⓘ exclamations reflecting character’s emotions ⓘ use of past tense for immediate mental experience ⓘ use of third-person pronouns for character’s thoughts ⓘ
originatedIn	19th-century European fiction ⓘ
relatedTo	focalization ⓘ point of view in narrative ⓘ stream of consciousness NERFINISHED ⓘ
studiedIn	linguistics of literature ⓘ literary theory ⓘ stylistics ⓘ
usedIn	modernist literature ⓘ narrative fiction ⓘ realist literature ⓘ third-person narration ⓘ

Referenced by (1)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Leopold Bloom → literaryDeviceAssociated → Free indirect discourse ⓘ