Narrative focus in selected novels by Vassilis Vassilikos

This thesis examines the manipulation of point of view by Vassllis Vassilikos to focus on characters' inner lives. A summary of studies by seven major critics provided in Chapter I sets the critical framework for exploring in Vassilikos' fiction the technical and thematic implications of such terms as protagonist-narrator, undramatized narrator, montage, multiple selective omniscience, indirect and direct interior monologues, and stream of consciousness. Chapter II examines in The Plant, The Well, The Angel Vassilikos' use of point of view and symbolization to portray the alienated protagonists' inner lives. Chapter III examines in The Photographs the shifting point of view and the time- and space-montage of the poet-protagonist's real and imagined experiences. Chapter IV examines in Z the arrangement of empirical and fictional elements and of characters' thoughts, actions, and speech. Chapter V concludes that Vassilikos' portrayals of inward-turning protagonists reflects the Romantic and Existential traditions.