Who speaks and how? Voices and their impact in L'Élégance du hérisson

The aim of this study is to analyze the complexity of a narration and how a narrator can show himself in a story. In the novel L’Élégance du hérisson, (The Elegance of the Hedgehog) (Barbery 2006) there are several voices to be heard in the narration and we will analyze the differences. In all literary genres there is always a voice that tells the story. This is what Gérard Genette claims as the starting point for his narratological theory, which is the theoretical basis for this study. The study of different techniques allows sometimes to better understand the action and the meaning of a story. In this essay, we deal with the narrative instance, which is the fundamental form of the narrator, the questions of who speaks and how someone speaks in a story. Genette describes the narrative instance as the connection between the narrative voice, the time and the narrative perspective. The result shows that the thoughts and the metaphors in the time of the narration are the most important aspect, in particularly the interpolated narration. That because it’s not only the action in the story that counts but even what’s happening in between the events