Analyzing the Concept of Narrative Time in Kamala Markandaya’s Nectar in a Sieve: A Narratological Study

Abstract

This study endeavors to explicate Nectar in a Sieve (1954) by Kamala Markandaya through the perspective of narratology to study the narrative of Rukmani. Kamala Markandaya is prominent storyteller who is interested in both ‘what’ and ‘how’ of narratives which becomes the basis of this study. Narratology being the study of narratives focuses on how the narrative are presented, what are its structures and the ways it affect our perception. The study follows the framework by Gerard Genette to analyse narrative time in the chosen novel. The nature of this study is twofold; first, it discusses the framework of narratology and its constituent tenets, which provides the framework to investigate any narrative and second, it analyzes Nectar in a Sieve in the light of narratology. Narratology comprises many tenets such as focalization, discourse, narrative modes, narrator, characters, and time. Among these characteristics, this study focuses on ‘time’. This study emphases on the Genette’s two fundamental oppositions of discourse time and story time and how Markandaya has employed it in Nectar in a Sieve to assist the reader in understanding the narrative of Rukmani which has the backdrop of exploitation and dispossession of the peasants from the intrusion of industrial tannery. The study allows for critical implications, both for the readers who wish to understand Markandaya better and for the researcher who aims to understand the narrative analysis of the novel.