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NARRATOLOGY. G.M. Adhyanggono, S.S.,M.A. Definition. 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.
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NARRATOLOGY G.M. Adhyanggono, S.S.,M.A.
Definition • 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.
Key words • 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.”
Three main theories of Narratology • Aristotle (Aristotelian analysis) • Vladimir Propp (Proppian analysis) • Gerard Genette (Genettian analysis)
Aristotelian analysis • ‘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’
Proppian 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.
Propp’s seven spheres of action • The villain • The donor (provider) • The helper • The princess (a sought-for-person) and her father • The dispatcher • The hero (seeker or victim) • The false hero
Genettian analysis • Gives weight more on how the story is told. • Proposes 6 areas: • 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 • 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 • 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 • 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 Single-ended • How is the story packaged? Double-ended Frame/primary/ narrative Embedded/secondary/meta/main narrative Intrusive
Genettian analysis • 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.
What narratologists do • They look at individual narratives seeking out the recurrent structures which are found within all narratives. • They focuses more on the teller and the telling; disregard the content. • They take categories derives mainly from the analysis of short narratives which are expanded later on novel-length narratives. • They foreground action and structure than character and motive.
