The Interpreters of Reality. Objective Narration and Representations of Reality in Jan Myrdal's Report from a Chinese Village and Per Olov Enquist's The Legionnaires

摘要

The aim of this essay is to investigate and compare the methods that Jan Myrdal and Per Olov Enquist use in Report from a Chinese Village and The Legionnaires in order to reflect reality. To do so I use different theories from the field of narratology such as Gérard Gennettes theory of paratexts and Wayne C. Booths theory of rhetoric in fiction. The essay is divided into three different parts: in the first part I discuss how the two works relate to fiction and non-fiction; in the second part I explore the attempts to achieve objectivity in the two works, where objectivity can be understood in terms of neutrality, impartiality and impassibility; finally I discuss how the works go beyond reflecting and deliver different messages to the reader. My main result is that Report from a Chinese Village to a higher degree is a non-fictional work than The Legionnaires which could be described as faction or documentary novel, even though both works use epical structures and are in that way related to novels. Both of them fail in being neutral and impartial, the differences are that Per Olov Enquist admits this failure to the reader and discusses if it is possible to be neutral and lay aside personal prejudices and values, in contrast to Myrdal who doesn't consider how his personal values effects the report. The general message in Report from a Chinese Village is that the Chinese revolution has been positive for the villagers of Liu Ling, a message that is not questioned by the author in the book. In The Legionnaires the political message is less obvious, but instead it has another message which is that the reader should always be suspicious towards the narrator of the text.