The narratee is the one who receives the narrator's story.
The notion of narratee is used in the context of literary theory to refer to the character who, in the universe of fiction , is positioned as the recipient of a story told by the narrator . This means that the narrator tells a story to the narratee.
Receiver of the story
The narratee, therefore, is the recipient of the story . The French theorist and literary critic Gérard Genette ( 1930 – 2018 ) is identified as the person responsible for coining the term, which is frequently used within the framework of the discipline known as narratology .
In some cases, the narrator and the narratee share the diegetic level in fiction, that is, both are part of the fictional world and the events that are related about it and its characters. The concept of diegesis , in fact, includes in its definition what was just said and the action of "remembering or telling", instead of "showing". All this is articulated along three axes , which are space, time and characters.
It is essential to differentiate between the fictional narrator and the one who eventually reads the story aloud , as well as distinguishing between the narratee (the character who listens to the narrator within the story) and the real listener (who listens to someone tell the story).
The classic example of a narratee is the sultan in "The Thousand and One Nights" . In this work, Sheherezade tells different stories (such as "Alí Baba and the Forty Thieves" and "Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp" , among others) to said sultan over 1001 nights. Therefore, Sheherezade serves as narrator and the sultan is the recipient of the stories (that is, the narratee).
Classification
If we take into account how present the narratee is in the written work, then he can be classified as a character narratee (integrates the diegesis of the story), invoked narratee (the narrator makes a direct appeal to him) or absent narratee (it is not explicit, but it exists). If there is no trace of the narratee, it is called a zero degree .
Let's start with the latter to define each type of narratee in greater depth. The zero degree is usually used as a starting point to find the narratory in a given work, since in itself it is a null type, it precisely describes the lack of this figure in the narration, at least through marks that are easy to distinguish or spot. In other words, it is a category that is more theoretical than practical, which serves to start from nothing and go towards the existence of the narrative.
The epistolary novel is an example of a work with a narrated character.
Regarding the absent (which is also known as unmarked ), it is important to distinguish it from the previous one, since it does exist but it is not easy to perceive it. This happens because the narrator does not specify his identity, he does not talk about him but he does talk to him. You can also say that this class is invisible . Then we have the invoked , which could be considered the opposite case to the previous one: the narrator speaks directly to him, making his identity clear to us. This occurs when he mentions him by name or by referring to his occupation or his role in the story, even if the narratee is the reader (a case that can generate confusion, which is why it is considered special).
The narrated character is the one who is at the same diegetic level as the narrator, since he is fictitious and maintains an exchange with him. We can think of epistolary novels , where the characters' means of communication are letters, although there may also be an external narrator. Here the link requires a series of stories that are directed from one character to another, alternating the roles of narrator and narratee, always remaining at the same diegetic level.