Free indirect speech
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Free indirect speech (or free indirect discourse or free indirect style) is a style of third person narration which has some of the characteristics of direct speech. Passages written using free indirect speech are often ambiguous as to whether they convey the views of the narrator or of the character the narrator is describing. Free indirect speech is contrasted with direct speech and indirect speech.
In English literature, Jane Austen was the first author to use free indirect speech in a significant and deliberate manner. The opinions of her narrators are frequently blurred with the thoughts of her characters. This complex technique arguably leads to a multiplication of aesthetic effects such as irony.
Flaubert's use of the French imperfect tense is cited as an example of free indirect speech, or style indirect libre.
[edit] Further reading
Ann Banfield's critical work Unspeakable Sentences presents a typology of literary discourse.
[edit] External links
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