Abstract
by examining how the narrative voice in A Tale of Two Cities changes between
its serialized and volume versions. Narratorial drift is a slow but cumulative
shift in the narrator’s epistemic position due to reading contexts and small
textual changes, beyond the basic importance of suspense and plot. The serial
version also takes place in a temporality of interruption, anticipation, and
reader reorientation that is characterized by incursions, modal uncertainty, and
dialogic address, based on narratological frameworks that Gérard Genette and
Mieke Bal developed. The volume edition, on the other hand, suppresses these
characteristics in favor of a retrospective, authoritative narrative voice that is
distinguished by structural coherence, declarative certainty, and continuity. By
paying particular attention to segmentation, duration, focalization, and microlevel stylistic modifications, the article demonstrates that reader temporality
and the material constraints of publication co-produce narratorial identity,
which is not fixed. The codex form resurrects this voice as one of coherence
and omniscient, but serialization also implies a contingent and processual
narrator who can be delayed and disrupted. This study reframes narrative voice
as a dynamic feature and a feature of the text, which makes the connection
between textual form and reading habit key. Finally, it argues for a more
comprehensive narratological approach that incorporates media in the analysis
of narrative discourse.
Keywords
Dickens; Narratology
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