ADAB AL-BASRAH

This study is primarily concerned with applying Genette`s narratological framework of focalization to the study of Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway. It aims to pursue an approach for insights about the working of narrative by looking into indicators of subjectivity. The study falls into two parts.
The first part deals with theoretical considerations concerning the genesis of the term and typology. As far as genesis of the term is concerned, there is number of labels suggested by well-known scholars as equivalent to focalization. Genette uses focalization to avoid the visual connotations of Brook's 'focus of narration', Stanzel`s ' narrative situation', Pouillon`s 'vision', and Todorov`s ' aspect'. As far as typology is concerned, there are two main types of focalization, namely internal and external focalization. Internal focalization, in turn, is divided into three sub-types (fixed, variable and multiple).
The second part applies Genette`s focalization to Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway. As a modernist novel, Mrs. Dalloway reflects the heavy use of focalization. Although this novel is written with the third person narration, in so many instances point of view differs and a number of focalizers operate. The reader is invited to enter the story and experience it without frequent interruptions from external narration. This is very obvious in the adopting of variable internal focalization. Every character is given a significant voice, which produces the sense that people experience realities differently, have unique ways of making sense of it and different ways of seeing it.