Introduction

This number of New Literary History offers a reconsideration of the critical term "narrative voice." It is a term that has considerable currency in contemporary theory, especially in writings about narrative, film, and drama. But reservations have begun to be expressed about the usefulness of the term, not least because the notion of "voice," as Jonathan Rée suggests, "may have strayed a little too far from home." The sound of the human "voice" is not always distinguishable or decipherable.

In this collection, therefore, the aim has been to place the discussion of narrative voice within the larger discussion of voice in human behavior. To achieve this, essays have been included by philosophers, scholars of music, psychology, medicine and neurology, as well as by literary scholars in the United States and abroad.

The current views of "narrative voice" are presented in a symposium of five authors who have previously written on the subject and here offer their most recent perspectives. They were assembled, and the symposium was organized, by Monika Fludernik, who in addition to preparing her own essay has thoughtfully collected essays by Richard Aczel, Andrew Gibson, Manfred Jahn, and Brian Richardson. These contributors not only offer their own views of narrative voice but helpfully comment upon each other's papers.

Although the papers suggest subtle reservations about narrative voice, most still find the term usable. But some literary scholars are prepared to abandon the term. Anthony Spearing argues that the telling of a narrative does not necessary involve a subjective voice. In his essay on Chaucer's Man of Law's Tale, he demonstrates that narrative conventions rather than a specific narrator introduce the tale.

There are three papers that address narrative voice in terms of particular historical moments. Elizabeth Tolbert inquires into the origin of language and its relation to music. Bruce R. Smith deals literally with human voices and describes what he identifies as "native American voices." Steven Connor considers the change in postmodern music in which human sounds, not human language, become part of music.

These historical papers indicate issues that are connected with narrative and with voice, and they pose questions about the changing implications of narrative. There are also three papers on a medical illness known as Tourette Syndrome that are of considerable significance for students of narrative. James Miller, a neurologist, and medical historian Howard Kushner in collaboration with Kate Brown describe the medical condition in which an individual erupts into uncontrolled linguistic behavior. This condition can lead to cursing or to language practices totally unintended by the patient. It has implications relevant to the expression of narrative by drawing attention to it as "free" speech, as relief from repression, and as identification of unanticipated connections. Ronald Schleifer explores and illustrates the significance of this condition for an understanding of poetry.

Another example of the non-conscious control of narrative voice is analyzed in David Schur's study of Freud's use of hypnotism in treating a patient. In this treatment, a patient who consciously resisted the views of Freud not only accepted them when under hypnosis, but thereafter embraced and even defended them. There is cause to question whether the views narrated by the patient were then her views. This case of hypnotism is important not only as a treatment, but as a suggestion that narrators are not in control of their narratives. This is often the case of political discourse in dictatorial countries and is frequently the case in advertising notices inserted in non-advertising narratives. There is no essay in this collection about the political suppression of voice, nor is there any essay which discusses the relation of narrative voice to a translated text. But we hope the range of essays in this collection will encourage readers to pursue such inquiries.

One such direction is that of technology. Two papers--the essay by Juan A. Suárez and that by John Picker--deal with the consequences for narrative voice resulting from the inventions that made recording possible. The recording of Tennyson's actual voice distinguished his...