Narrative structure of literary text: Free indirect discourse as a linguistic and narratological category

The paper focuses on the analysis of free indirect discourse as a modernist narrative form. We outline the basic narrative and linguistic characteristics of free indirect discourse and examine its main functions in the literary texts. We undertake a comparative analysis of three examples of free indirect discourse (drawn from the texts of G. Flaubert, F. Kafka and V. Nabokov) and display their common and distinctive features.The paper focuses on the analysis of free indirect discourse as a modernist narrative form. We outline the basic narrative and linguistic characteristics of free indirect discourse and examine its main functions in the literary texts. We undertake a comparative analysis of three examples of free indirect discourse (drawn from the texts of G. Flaubert, F. Kafka and V. Nabokov) and display their common and distinctive features