2025 Volume 21 Issue 3 Pages 94-111
This study explores the relationship between narrative text and quoted speech by analyzing the continuity of speech styles in Haruki Murakami's novel “After Dark” and contemporary newspaper articles. The research focuses on how different types of speech—specifically quoted and unquoted dialogue—interact with narrative structures in each medium. In “After Dark”, quoted dialogue is often presented as independent from the narrative, while unquoted dialogue frequently appears within the narrative voice, resembling a “Sōshi-ji” style where the narrator's presence is explicit. This stylistic choice blurs the boundary between speech and narration, creating a layered narrative perspective.
In contrast, newspaper articles use quoted speech to enhance realism and credibility. Quoted speech in journalism serves as evidence or testimony, while unquoted speech tends to be embedded within the narrative, losing its conversational quality and merging with the reporter's voice. Both forms of speech appear in newspapers, but the unquoted form is more likely to be absorbed into the narrative structure, making it less distinguishable as dialogue.
The analysis reveals that speech and narrative are not strictly separate categories but exist on a continuum. The use of quotation marks, while significant, does not solely determine the independence of speech from narrative. Instead, the medium's communicative purpose and stylistic conventions play a crucial role in shaping how speech is integrated. Therefore, the boundary between dialogue and narration is fluid and context-dependent, suggesting that speech representation should be understood as a relative and dynamic phenomenon rather than a fixed structural element.
