Based on the context of the excerpt what does the word protracted mostly clearly mean

i believe the answer is b: the narrator.

biographical remarks present the shifting perception and re-interpretation of figures projected by the authors, or by the society represented by the authors. the portrayals in biographical accounts thus reflect the turning view-of-value in course of history. this paper particularly explores the ways in which “heretical” figures are represented in their biographical accounts, focusing on arabic zindīq poets who flourished in the 2nd century a.h. and are known for their extreme or heretic behavior. it will be discussed that the marks of their heretical deeds are presented in different ways, and the actuality of their activity, such as the association with the early theological thinkers (or mutakallimūn in arabic), is occasionally replaced by more narrativized and unrealistic anecdotes in later sources, the tales being reproduced to underscore the value of poets such as humor or quick-wittedness. the anecdotes also can highlight the qualities of their opponents who appear as their refuters. the chronological tracing of their biographical information from multiple sources reveals the fluctuating value of discourses of “heresy,” mirroring the turning religious reality and the imagined quality of the figures lived in the early period. the paper eventually aims to historically contextualize the functions of “speaking-about-heretics” as a subject of narratives, which works as a tool for writers to express manifold contemporar

may i have the passage?