Skaz in short stories of Stig Dagerman

In this paper I investigate the narrative techniques in short stories by Stig Dagerman, one of the leading Swedish writers of the 1940s.
I focus on the auctorial narrative situation, in which the narrator exposes his presence in the literary text, taking a position between fiction and reality outside the literature. My observation is that this phenomenon is characteristic for Dagerman’s short stories and that it can be further examined through the perspective of skaz, the oral form of narration.
In the first part of my article I briefly discuss different concepts of skaz presented by different scholars, e.g., Eikhenbaum, Vinogradov and Bakhtin, and I point out their limitations. In my analysis I use Titunik’s model of skaz, which makes it possible for me to describe this narrative device in the most complex way with different kinds of determinants, namely grammatical, situative, expressive, allocutive, dialectical and semantic ones. In the second part of my article I show how these determinants manifest themselves in Dagerman’s short stories. The third section of the article includes my conclusions from the analysis.
Dagerman uses the technique of skaz in his short stories frequently and intentionally, both in homodiegetic and in the heterodiegetic narration. He applies all determinants of skaz from Titunik’s model, a number of different ones at the same time. He uses dialectical determinants of skaz at the lowest pitch, he rather concentrates on expressive and allocutive ones. The narrator does not only mark his position in the literary text, but he also draws the attention to the presence of the narratee. In this way the very act of communication is stressed in Dagerman’s short stories. The analysis of skaz can therefore make an interesting contribution to the studies of communication strategies in Dagerman’s short stories.

Skaz in short stories of Stig Dagerman

In this paper I investigate the narrative techniques in short stories by Stig Dagerman, one of the leading Swedish writers of the 1940s.
I focus on the auctorial narrative situation, in which the narrator exposes his presence in the literary text, taking a position between fiction and reality outside the literature. My observation is that this phenomenon is characteristic for Dagerman’s short stories and that it can be further examined through the perspective of skaz, the oral form of narration.
In the first part of my article I briefly discuss different concepts of skaz presented by different scholars, e.g., Eikhenbaum, Vinogradov and Bakhtin, and I point out their limitations. In my analysis I use Titunik’s model of skaz, which makes it possible for me to describe this narrative device in the most complex way with different kinds of determinants, namely grammatical, situative, expressive, allocutive, dialectical and semantic ones. In the second part of my article I show how these determinants manifest themselves in Dagerman’s short stories. The third section of the article includes my conclusions from the analysis.
Dagerman uses the technique of skaz in his short stories frequently and intentionally, both in homodiegetic and in the heterodiegetic narration. He applies all determinants of skaz from Titunik’s model, a number of different ones at the same time. He uses dialectical determinants of skaz at the lowest pitch, he rather concentrates on expressive and allocutive ones. The narrator does not only mark his position in the literary text, but he also draws the attention to the presence of the narratee. In this way the very act of communication is stressed in Dagerman’s short stories. The analysis of skaz can therefore make an interesting contribution to the studies of communication strategies in Dagerman’s short stories.