NARRATOLOGY
G.M. Adhyanggono, S.S.,M.A.
The study of how narratives (stories) make meaning, and what the basic mechanisms and procedures are which are common to all acts of story-telling.
◦ Narratology ≠ the reading & interpretation of individual stories, but the attempt to study the nature of ‘story’ itself, as a concept and as a cultural practice.
Definition
Story/fabula/histoire
◦ “The actual sequence as they happen; the story has to begin at the beginning, then move chronologically without nothing left out.”
Plot/sjuzhet (pronounced
‘soojay’)/discourse/recit
◦ “A version of the story that can begin in the middle of a chain of events, and that can also provide us with flash back and flash forward.”
Key words
Aristotle (Aristotelian analysis)
Vladimir Propp (Proppian analysis)
Gerard Genette (Genettian analysis)
Three main theories of
Narratology
‘Character’ and ‘action’ are essential in a story. They must be revealed through elements of plot.
Three key elements in plot:
◦ The hamartia
◦ sin, flaw that induces tragic flaw in tragedy
◦ The anagnorisis
◦ ‘recognition’ or ‘realization’
◦ appear when the truth of the situation is
recognized by the protagonist = a moment of self-recognition
◦ The peripeteia
◦ ‘reversal’ of fortune or a ‘turn-round’
Aristotelian analysis
Proposes a 31- function that some of them may construct or form a tale.
Not a single tale/story has all functions.
Yet, the order of the function is fixed because events tend to have a due order.
This method basically wants to show that beside its ‘multiformity’ lies ‘a uniformity’.
From 31-function, Propp classifies them into “seven spheres of action” as roles, not the characters.
Proppian analysis
1. The villain
2. The donor (provider)
3. The helper
4. The princess (a sought-for-person) and her father
5. The dispatcher
6. The hero (seeker or victim)
7. The false hero
Propp’s seven spheres of
action
Gives weight more on how the story is told.
Proposes 6 areas:
1. Is the basic narrative mode mimetic or diegetic?
◦ Mimetic – ‘dramatizing’/ ‘showing’ , with direct speech and dialogue – slow telling
◦ Diegetic – ‘panoramic’/ ‘summarizing’, without trying to show it as it happens before our eyes – rapid telling
Genettian analysis
2. How is the narrative focalized?
◦ Point of view:
External focalization – from outside, focus on what the characters say and do.
e.g. Thelma stood up and called out to Mario.
Internal focalization – from inside, focus on what the characters feel & think
e.g. Thelma suddenly felt anxious that Mario was not going to see her and would walk by oblivious on the other side of the road.
Zero focalization – omniscient narration
Genettian analysis
3. Who is telling the story?
◦ Covert/effaced/non-intrusive/non- dramatized/authorial persona
Not identified at all as a distinct character with name or personal history, remains as a voice or tone – zerofocalized.
◦ Overt/dramatized/intrusive
Heterodiegetic – one distinct character telling others.
Homodiegetic – one distinct character telling himself/herself.
Genettian analysis
4. How is time handled in the story?
◦ Flash back = analeptic
◦ Flash forward = proleptic
◦ Analeptic & proleptic rarely begin in the
beginning, usually in the middle (in medias res, a theory of the classical times)
Genettian analysis
5. How is the story packaged?
Genettian analysis
Frame/primary/ narrative
Embedded/secon dary/meta/main
narrative
Double- ended
Single- ended
Intrusive
6. How are speech and thought represented?
◦ Direct & tagged
‘What’s your name ?’ Mario asked her. ‘It’s Thelma’, she replied.
◦ Direct & untagged
‘What’s your name ?’
‘Thelma’.
◦ Direct & selectively tagged
‘What’s your name ?’ asked Mario.
‘Thelma’.
Genettian analysis
◦ Tagged indirect speech
He asked her what her name was, and she told him it was Thelma.
◦ Free indirect speech
What was her name? It was Thelma. Thelma, was it? Not the kind of name to launch a
thousand ships. More of a suburban, lace- curtain sort of name, really.
Genettian analysis
1. They look at individual narratives
seeking out the recurrent structures which are found within all narratives.
2. They focuses more on the teller and the telling; disregard the content.
3. They take categories derives mainly from the analysis of short narratives which are expanded later on novel- length narratives.
4. They foreground action and structure than character and motive.
