Narratology studies narrative, narrative structure, and how stories shape human perception. This lesson introduces the field, explains differing definitions of narrative, and traces the development of major structural approaches.
Narratology is the study of narrative and narrative structure, including the ways these influence how people make sense of experience. The term is an anglicisation of the French narratologie, coined by Tzvetan Todorov in Grammaire du Décaméron (1969). Its intellectual roots reach back to Aristotle's Poetics, while modern narratology is commonly associated with Russian formalism and later structuralist work.
All flashcards
What is narratology?
The study of narrative and narrative structure, including how these shape human perception and understanding.
How does narrativity differ from a narrative?
A narrative is an identifiable object or account; narrativity is the quality that can prompt someone to experience or interpret something as a story.
What are fabula and syuzhet?
In Russian formalist terminology, fabula is the underlying sequence of events, while syuzhet is their arrangement and presentation.
What is the difference between story and discourse?
Story refers to events considered independently of their telling. Discourse refers to how those events are narrated or presented.
How do thematic and modal narratology differ?
Thematic narratology analyzes the sequence and organization of actions; modal narratology analyzes the manner of telling, including voice, point of view, order, rhythm, and frequency.
Quiz questions
Under a strict structuralist definition, which description best fits narrative fiction?Answer: A narration of a succession of fictional events.
What is a central concern of cognitive narratology?Answer: How people experience something as a story and use stories to understand the world.
What does Espen Aarseth mean by ergodic literature?Answer: Literature that requires nontrivial effort to traverse.
What distinguishes a unicursal labyrinth from a multicursal labyrinth?Answer: It has one winding path leading toward a center.
What does Roland Barthes's idea of writerly text suggest about literature?Answer: It can have multiple entrances and exits rather than a conventional beginning, middle, and end.
Based on the Wikipedia article Narratology, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Adapted into a summary, flashcards and quizzes.