Chapter 2
Present tense in fiction
A historical overview
Present-tense narrative is expanding its boundaries
beyond prototypical narrative conventions. In producing a present-tense
narrative, writers give the grammatical tense more diverse and versatile
meanings than before, making the distinction between the narrating time and
the narrated time unclear. This chapter surveys how the present tense has
taken on the function of a narrative tense alongside the
past tense in relation to the textual realisation of narrative time. Section 2.1 gives a very brief
historical sketch of its usage in English literature from Middle English
verse narrative to contemporary present-tense narrative. Section 2.2 illustrates the typical
usages of the present tense in past-tense narrative whose narrative premise
is set explicitly in past time: the deictic present (2.2.1), the historical
present (2.2.2), and
the character-deictic present (2.2.3). Their relation to the narrative time
frames, and their narrative functions and effects are also discussed. Section 2.3 focuses on the expanded
usage of the present tense in contemporary narrative fiction, that is, the
narrative present which is used in narrative throughout
and functions as the primary narrative tense. This diachronic overview of
the narrative use of the present tense will support the more detailed
corpus-stylistic analysis of contemporary uses.
Article outline
- 2.1Literary use of the present tense
- 2.2Present tense in past-tense narrative
- 2.2.1Deictic present
- 2.2.2Historical present
- 2.2.3Character-deictic present (in direct discourse presentation)
- 2.2.4Summary
- 2.3Present tense in present-tense narrative
- 2.3.1Narrative present
- 2.3.1.1Extended use of the deictic present: Deictic narrative present
- 2.3.1.2Extended use of the historical present: Retrospective narrative present
- 2.3.1.3Extended use of the character-deictic present: Figural narrative present
- 2.3.2Summary
- 2.4Heterogeneous functions of the narrative present
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Notes