Abstract
Reviews interpretations of MerT. To use Genette's terminology, the Merchant as teller is an "intradiegetic" narrator among other narrators--extradiegetic (Chaucer the pilgrim), hypodiegetic (Justinus, Pluto), hypo-hypodiagetic (Solomon)--whose interactions are at times metaleptic.
Analyzing relations among these narrators help reconcile opposed readings and suggests that the tale is what Barthes calls a "multivalent" text, marked by openness and ambiguity.