Narratology

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Narratology denotes both the theory and the study of narrative and narrative structure and the ways that these affect our perception.^[1] While in principle the word may refer to any systematic study of narrative, in practice its usage is rather more restricted. It is an anglicisation of French narratologie, coined by Tzvetan Todorov (Grammaire du Décaméron, 1969),^[2]. Narratology is applied retrospectively as well to work predating its coinage. Its theoretical lineage is traceable to Aristotle (Poetics) but modern narratology is agreed to have begun with the Russian Formalists, particularly Vladimir Propp (Morphology of the Folktale, 1928).

Its origins lend to it a strong association with the structuralist quest for a formal system of useful description applicable to any narrative content, the analogy being to the grammars by reference to which sentences are parsed in some forms of linguistics). This procedure does not however typify all work described as narratological today; Percy Lubbock's work in point of view (The Craft of Fiction, 1921), is a case in point. Jonathan Culler (2001) describes narratology as comprising many strands 'implicitly united in the recognition that narrative theory requires a distinction between "story," a sequence of actions or events conceived as independent of their manifestation in discourse, and "discourse," the discursive presentation or narration of events.'^[3] This was first proposed by the Russian Formalists, who employed the couplet fabula and sjuzet. A subsequent succession of alternate pairings has preserved the essential binomial impulse, e.g. histoire/discours, histoire/récit, story/plot. The Structuralist assumption that fabula and sujet could be investigated separately, gave birth to two quite different traditions: thematic (Propp, Bremond, Greimas, Dundes, et al.) and modal (Genette, Prince, et al.) narratology. The former is mainly limited to a semiotic formalization of the sequences of the actions told, while the latter examines the manner of their telling, stressing voice, point of view,transformation of the chronological order, rhythm and frequency. Many authors (Sternberg, 1993)^[4], Ricoeur, date required, and Baroni, 2007)^[5] have insisted that thematic and modal narratology should not be looked at separately, especially when dealing with the function and interest of narrative sequence and plot.

Designating work as narratological is to some extent dependent more on the academic discipline in which it takes place than any theoretical position advanced. The approach is applicable to any narrative, and in its classic studies, vis-a-vis Propp, non-literary narratives were commonly taken up. Still the term "narratology" is most typically applied to literary theory and literary criticism. Atypical applications of narratological methodologies would include sociolinguistic studies of oral storytelling (William Labov) and in conversation analysis or discourse analysis that deal with narratives arising in the course of spontaneous verbal interaction. However, constituent analysis of a type where narremes are considered to be the basic units of narrative structure could fall within the areas of linguistics, semiotics, or literary theory.^[6]

Notes

See also

• Narrative
• Narreme as the basic unit of structural narratology
• Narrative structure
• Narrative design
• Post-structuralist narrative theory
• Suspense

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Narratology

• Introduction to Narratology by Dino Felluga
• "Musical Narratology" by William Echard, review of A Theory of Musical Semiotics by Eero Tarasti, foreword by Thomas A. Sebeok.
• The Narrative Act: Wittgenstein and Narratology by Henry McDonald
• Story-Systems
• Narrative theory bibliography (A Bibliography of Literary Theory, Criticism and Philology)
• Narratology: A Guide to the Theory of Narrative by Manfred Jahn
• Narratology: The Study of Story Structure