Gaps and Narrativity: Strategy and Function

Abstract

This paper examines the notion of gaps in fictional narratives in relation to the concept of narrativity. As the primary texts for this analysis, I focus on two seemingly distant works, each representing distinct conventional and authorial ‘worlds’: Milan Kundera’s The Joke and Franz Kafka’s The Castle. By analysing the gaps in these texts and exploring their relationship to narrativity, the study proposes a classification of gaps and elucidates their respective functions within the semantic and narrative structures of both novels. “The radical gap is but one of numerous devices modern and postmodern texts display in their eagerness to lay bare the properties of fiction.” (Pavel 1986, 108)