Narrator as the moderator of the author’s intention (case study of the literary biography by W. Isaacson “Steve Jobs: Biography”)

Abstract

The article describes the difference between the author and the narrator in general, and the features of the author’s presence in artistic and biographical texts in particular. Traditionally, the difference between the author and the narrator is that the author is someone who publishes or writes a book, essay, poem, or other work. On the other hand, the narrator is a character or an observer who tells what happens in a book or movie. The narrator’s voice can be his own or the voice of a third person who does not participate in the narration. The narrator’s voice sometimes merges with the voice of the omniscient author, sometimes with the voice of one of the characters, but sometimes it separates and makes a direct appeal to the reader. It has been noted that biography is a genre characterized by the coherence of the text and the appropriateness of the presentation of the facts of famous figures’ lives in chronological order with corresponding interpretations and comments of the author. The critical and analytical review of the scientific literature proves that the question of narration and the narrator as well as the author and the narrator has been studied to a great extent and, accordingly, many viable solutions have been found. Attention is drawn to the types of narrators (heterodiegetic, extradiegetic, omniscient) and types of narration (the first-person and the third-person). The case study is W. Isaacson’s “Steve Jobs: Biography”. It has been found that the author’s intentions in the text of the literary biography are presented by the author’s digressions, which are grammatically manifested as a presentation from the first person (introduction and part of the final chapter) – the omniscient narrator, and from the third person (the main text of the biography) – the extradiegetic narrator. It has been clarified that in the literary biography “Steve Jobs: Biography” the essence of the narrator as a moderator of the author’s intention is reflected in the author’s digressions of a philosophical, journalistic and historical nature. In the digressions of a philosophical nature, we observe both the first-person and the third-person form of narration, while in the journalistic and historical digressions of the author, the third-person form of presentation prevails.