Research Article | | Peer-Reviewed

Narrative Multiplicity as Ideological Deconstruction in George Fox’s Amok

Received: 17 September 2025     Accepted: 20 October 2025     Published: 9 December 2025
Views:       Downloads:
Abstract

Structuralist Narratology underscores theoretical and typological ideas and interests in narratives. Novelists employ various narrative modes to embellish their style of writing and captivate the attention of readers. They exemplify their power of creativity through narrative multiplicity. Interpretation of novels is closely associated with the special way in which a narrator uses language in texts. This paper examines the narrative language of George Fox’s Amok with focus on literary stylistics. The main objective of this paper is to explore and delineate George Fox’s narrative skills as a unique modern American novelist and how he applies narrative multiplicity in his novel, Amok. The literariness of this thriller cum novel lies in its structure and the effective use of language in describing events and analysing characters. The assertion that the novel’s capacity to represent plurality of voices or languages depends on the style of the novelist and his skill as an individual author undergirds this paper. Narratological concepts of Genette and Bal as guiding principles were essential reference points. Extracts from the novel served as primary data and the analytical procedure adopted was critical examination of textual content. Analysis identifies three forms of narrative multiplicity: mobile focalization, voice heteroglossia, and historical analepses and methodology that is, the application of Genette and Bal models to five excerpts from the novel, Amok. The study concludes that the interpretation and understanding of Amok are based on narratological features such as linguistic, figurative and semiotic representation exemplified by the novelist’s captivating style, his choice of words and the portrayal of the human-monster character.

Published in International Journal of Literature and Arts (Volume 13, Issue 6)
DOI 10.11648/j.ijla.20251306.14
Page(s) 139-153
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Amok, Literary Stylistics, Narrative, Narratology, Narrative Multiplicity, Structuralism

References
[1] Propp, V. I. (1968). Morphology of the folktale (2nd ed., rev. and edited by L. A. Wagner). University of Texas Press. pp. 2, 3, 4.
[2] Genette, G. (1972/1980). Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method. Kaant. Jane E. LewinCornell UP. Ithaca (Ranskan kielinen alkuteos “Discurs du récit” teoksessa Figures III. pp. 2, 3.
[3] Onega, S. & Landa, J. A. G. (2014). Narratology: An Introduction. Routledge. p. 2.
[4] Barry, J. G. (1990). Narratology’s Centrifugal Force: A Literary Perspective on theExtensions of Narrative Theory. Poetics Today, 11, (2): 295-3. https://doi.org/10.2307/1772618 p. 2.
[5] Ezzaoua, O. (n.d.) On Double Narration in Wuthering Heights” American Research Journal of English and Literature, 7, (1): 1-4. American Journals, An Academic Publishing House
[6] Todorov, T. (1969). Grammaire du Décaméron [Grammar of the Decameron]. Approaches to Semiotics, Vol. 3, The Hague: Mouton. p. 2.
[7] Greimas, A. J. (1983). Structural semantics: an attempt at a method, McDowell, Daniele, translator. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. p. 3.
[8] Gerald P. (1982). Narratology: The form and function of narrative. Berlin: Mouton. p. 3.
[9] Hoelbling, W. (2007). “The Vietnam War: (Post-) Colonial Fictional Discourses and (Hi-)Stories”. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230591769
[10] Levi-Strauss, C. (1973). Structuralism and ecology. Social Science Information, 12(1), 7 23. https://doi.org/10.1177/053901847301200101 (Original work published 1973) p. 3.
[11] Edmiston, W. F. (1989). Focalization and the First-Person Narrator: A Revision of the Theory Poetics Today, Vol. 10, No. 4 (Winter, 1989), pp. 729-744.
[12] Jahn, M. (2021b). A Guide to Narratological Film Analysis. English Department, University of Cologne. p. 3.
[13] Fox, G. (1978). Amok. Pan Books London and Sydney. p. 4.
[14] Bal, M. (2009). Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of Narrative. University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division. p. 4.
[15] Mambrol, N. (2020). “A Brief History of American Novels”,
[16] O’Brien, S. (1996). “Write Now: American Literature in the 1980s and 1990s”, American Literature, 68 (1): 1-8. p. 6.
[17] Pokrivcak, A. (2020). American Literature of the Twentieth Century: Modernism and After. Pedagogicka fakulta Trnavskej Univerzity v Trnave. p. 7.
[18] Woodcock, W. L. (1954). “A Critical Study of World War II Novels in AmericanLiterature”. Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 3335. https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/etd/3335 p. 7.
[19] Venky, (2019). November 10.
[20] Saint Martin, M. L. (1999). “Running Amok: A Modern Perspective on a Culture-Bound Syndrome”, Primary Care Companion J Clin Psychiatry, 1, (3) p. 10.
[21] Kendon, A. (2001). “Gesture as communication strategy”. [Review essay of Marianne Gullberg’s Gesture as a communication strategy in second language discourse]. Semiotica, 135: 191-209 p. 11.
[22] McNeil, D. (1992). Hand and Mind: What gestures reveal about thought. University of Chicago Press. p. 11.
[23] Levy, E. T., and Fowler, C. A. (2000). “The role of gestures and other graded language forms in the grounding of reference,” in Language and Gesture, ed. D. McNeil Cambridge University Press, 215-234. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511620850.014 p. 11.
[24] Cavanagh, D., Gillis, A., Keown, M., Loxley, J., & Stevenson, R. (Eds.) (2010). The Edinburgh Introduction to Studying English Literature. Edinburgh University Press.
Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Kyiileyang, M. (2025). Narrative Multiplicity as Ideological Deconstruction in George Fox’s Amok. International Journal of Literature and Arts, 13(6), 139-153. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20251306.14

    Copy | Download

    ACS Style

    Kyiileyang, M. Narrative Multiplicity as Ideological Deconstruction in George Fox’s Amok. Int. J. Lit. Arts 2025, 13(6), 139-153. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20251306.14

    Copy | Download

    AMA Style

    Kyiileyang M. Narrative Multiplicity as Ideological Deconstruction in George Fox’s Amok. Int J Lit Arts. 2025;13(6):139-153. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20251306.14

    Copy | Download

  • @article{10.11648/j.ijla.20251306.14,
      author = {Martin Kyiileyang},
      title = {Narrative Multiplicity as Ideological Deconstruction in George Fox’s Amok},
      journal = {International Journal of Literature and Arts},
      volume = {13},
      number = {6},
      pages = {139-153},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijla.20251306.14},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20251306.14},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijla.20251306.14},
      abstract = {Structuralist Narratology underscores theoretical and typological ideas and interests in narratives. Novelists employ various narrative modes to embellish their style of writing and captivate the attention of readers. They exemplify their power of creativity through narrative multiplicity. Interpretation of novels is closely associated with the special way in which a narrator uses language in texts. This paper examines the narrative language of George Fox’s Amok with focus on literary stylistics. The main objective of this paper is to explore and delineate George Fox’s narrative skills as a unique modern American novelist and how he applies narrative multiplicity in his novel, Amok. The literariness of this thriller cum novel lies in its structure and the effective use of language in describing events and analysing characters. The assertion that the novel’s capacity to represent plurality of voices or languages depends on the style of the novelist and his skill as an individual author undergirds this paper. Narratological concepts of Genette and Bal as guiding principles were essential reference points. Extracts from the novel served as primary data and the analytical procedure adopted was critical examination of textual content. Analysis identifies three forms of narrative multiplicity: mobile focalization, voice heteroglossia, and historical analepses and methodology that is, the application of Genette and Bal models to five excerpts from the novel, Amok. The study concludes that the interpretation and understanding of Amok are based on narratological features such as linguistic, figurative and semiotic representation exemplified by the novelist’s captivating style, his choice of words and the portrayal of the human-monster character.},
     year = {2025}
    }
    

    Copy | Download

  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Narrative Multiplicity as Ideological Deconstruction in George Fox’s Amok
    AU  - Martin Kyiileyang
    Y1  - 2025/12/09
    PY  - 2025
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20251306.14
    DO  - 10.11648/j.ijla.20251306.14
    T2  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
    JF  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
    JO  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
    SP  - 139
    EP  - 153
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2331-057X
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20251306.14
    AB  - Structuralist Narratology underscores theoretical and typological ideas and interests in narratives. Novelists employ various narrative modes to embellish their style of writing and captivate the attention of readers. They exemplify their power of creativity through narrative multiplicity. Interpretation of novels is closely associated with the special way in which a narrator uses language in texts. This paper examines the narrative language of George Fox’s Amok with focus on literary stylistics. The main objective of this paper is to explore and delineate George Fox’s narrative skills as a unique modern American novelist and how he applies narrative multiplicity in his novel, Amok. The literariness of this thriller cum novel lies in its structure and the effective use of language in describing events and analysing characters. The assertion that the novel’s capacity to represent plurality of voices or languages depends on the style of the novelist and his skill as an individual author undergirds this paper. Narratological concepts of Genette and Bal as guiding principles were essential reference points. Extracts from the novel served as primary data and the analytical procedure adopted was critical examination of textual content. Analysis identifies three forms of narrative multiplicity: mobile focalization, voice heteroglossia, and historical analepses and methodology that is, the application of Genette and Bal models to five excerpts from the novel, Amok. The study concludes that the interpretation and understanding of Amok are based on narratological features such as linguistic, figurative and semiotic representation exemplified by the novelist’s captivating style, his choice of words and the portrayal of the human-monster character.
    VL  - 13
    IS  - 6
    ER  - 

    Copy | Download

Author Information
  • Department of English Education, University of Education, Winneba, Ghana

  • Sections