Narrative Discourses |
ABSTRACT The following terms are taken from Gerald Prince's Dictionary of Narratology. |
constitutive factors of communication. The elements entering into any act of (verbal) communication and essential to its operation. blucher had isolated three such elements: the ADDRESSER, the ADDRESSEE, and the CONTEXT. Jakobson, in what has proven to be the most influential model of communication in NARRATOLOGY, proposed a six factor schema including the addresser (the sender or encoder of the MESSAGE), the addressee (the receiver or decoder of the message), the message itself, the CODE (in terms of which the message signifies), the context (or REFERENT to which the message refers), and the CONTACT (the psycho-physiological connection between the addresser and the addressee):
Context
Addresser - Message - Addressee
Contact
Code
. A Narrative is the recounting (as product and process, object and act, structure and structuration) of one or more real or fictitious EVENTS communicated by one, two, or several (more or less overt) NARRATORS to one, two, or several (more or less overt) NARRATEES. Such (possibly interesting) texts as "Electrons are constituents of atoms," "Mary is tall and Peter is small," "All men are mortal; Socrates is a man; Socrates is mortal," and "Roses are red / Violets are blue / Sugar is sweet / And so are you" do not constitute narratives, since they do not represent any event. Moreover, a dramatic performance representing (many fascinating) events does not constitute a narrative either, since these events, rather than being recounted, occur directly on stage. On the other hand, even such possibly uninteresting texts as "The man opened the door," "The goldfish died," and "The glass fell on the floor" are narratives, according to this definition. In order to distinguish narrative from mere event description, some narratologists (Labov, Prince, RimmonKenan) have defined it as the recounting of at least two real or fictive events (or one situation and one event), neither of which logically presupposes or entails the other. In order to distinguish it from the recounting of a random series of situations and events, narratologists (Danto, Greimas, Todorov) have also argued that narrative must have a continuant subject and constitute a whole. The narrative media of representation are diverse (oral, written, and sign language, for example, still or moving pictures, gestures, music, or any ordered combination thereof). So are the forms narrative can take (in the domain of verbal narrative alone, we find novels and romances, novellas and short stories, history, biography and autobiography, epics, myths, folktales, legends and ballads, news reports, spontaneous accounts in ordinary conversation, and so on). As for its distribution, narrative appears in every human society known to history and anthropology. Indeed, all (average) human beings know how to produce and process narrative at a very early age. Considered as a structure or product, and following Labov's well known characterization, narrative can be said to exhibit at least a COMPLICATING ACTION and (when "complete" or "fully developed") as many as six basic macrostructural elements: ABSTRACT, ORIENTATION, complicating action, EVALUATION, RESULT or RESOLUTION, and CODA. More specifically, and following the famous two tier structuralist model, narrative can be said to have two parts: STORY and DISCOURSE. The story always involves temporal sequence (it consists of at least one modification of a state of affairs obtaining at time tO into another state of affairs obtaining at time tn)~ and this is its most distinctive feature. Of course, temporal relations between the situations and events making up a story are not the only ones possible: these situations and events may be related causally, for example. Moreover, in a "true" narrative as opposed to the mere recounting of a random series of changes of state, these situations and events also make up a whole, a SEOUENCE the first and last major terms of which are partial repetitions of each other, a structure having to use Aristotle's terminology BEGINNING, a MIDDLE, and an END. 11f the Aristotelian account of story structure has been exceedingly influential, the most seminal account of that structure in modern NARRATOLOGY has probably been that of Vladimir Propp, who developed the notion Of FUNCTION, argued that every (Russian fairy) tale consists of one or more MOVES, and categorized tale participants in terms of the fundamental ROLES they may assume. further investigation into the nature of functions and roles have led Greimas and his school to arrive at what is another influential account of story structure, according to which canonical narrative is the representation of a series of events oriented in terms of a goal (equivalent to a JUNCTION between SUBJECT and OBJECT). Specifically, after a CONTRACT between SENDER and SUBJECT (MANIPULATION) whereby the latter acquires COMPETENCE and undertakes to attain an Object (for the benefit of a RECEIVER), the Subject goes on on its OUEST and, as a result of a series of TESTS (PERFORMANCE), fulfills;IIS or fails to fulfill the contract and is (justly) rewarded or (unjustly) punished (SANCTION). The "same" given story can be told differently in narratives adopting different discourses, and conversely, different stories can be told in terms of the same discourse (with the same chronological arrangement of events, for instance, the same FOCALIZATION, SPEED, FREOUENCY, and DISTANCE, and the same kind of inscription of narrator and narratee in the narrative text). The very depiction of a narrator recounting situations and events to a narratee emphasizes the fact that narrative is not only a product but also a process, not merely an object but also an act which occurs in a certain situation because of certain factors and with a view of fulfilling certain functions (informing, diverting attention, entertaining, persuading, etc.). More specifically, narrative is a context bound exchange between two parties, an exchange resulting from the desire of (at least one of) these parties, and the "same" story can have a different worth in different situations (A wants to know what happened, but B does not; A understands an account in one way and B in another). This sheds light on the tendency of many narrative texts to underline the contract between narrator and narratee, that contract on which the very existence of the narrative depends: I will tell you a story if you promise to be good; I will listen to you if you make it valuable; or, more literarily, a tale for a day of survival (Arabian Nights), a story for a night of love ("Sarrasine"), a diary for redemption (Vipers' Tangle). This also explains why unsolicited narratives, in particular, must awaken and maintain desire in the audience by relying on the dynamics of SURPRISE and SUSPENSE; why narrators try to make it clear that their narrative has a POINT; and why the very shape of a narrative is affected by the situation in which it occurs and the goal which it seeks to attain, with the sender of the message giving certain kinds of information, disposing it in a certain way, adopting one kind of focalization as opposed to another, underscoring the importance or strangeness of certain details, so that the receiver can better process the information in terms of certain imperatives and ends. 10f the many functions that narrative can have, there are some that it excels at or is unique in fulfilling. By definition, narrative always recounts one or more events; but, as etymology suggests (the term narrative is related to the Latin GNARUS), it also represents a particular mode of knowledge. It does not simply mirror what happens; it explores and devises what can happen. It does not merely recount changes of state; it constitutes and interprets them as signifying parts of signifying wholes (situations, practices, persons, societies). Narrative can thus shed light on individual fate or group destiny, the unity of a self or the nature of a collectivity. Through showing that apparently heterogeneous situations and events can make up one signifying structure (or vice versa) and, more particularly, through providing its own brand of order and coherence to (a possible) reality, it furnishes examples for its transformation or redefinition and effects a mediation between the law of what is and the desire for what may be. Most crucially, perhaps, by marking off distinct moments in time and setting up relations among them, by discovering meaningful designs in temporal series, by establishing an end already partly contained in the beginning and a beginning already partly containing the end, by exhibiting the meaning of time and/or providing it with meaning, narrative deciphers time and indicates how to decipher it. In sum, narrative illuminates temporality and humans as temporal beings.
Narrator: The one who narrates, as inscribed in the text. There is at least one narrator per narrative, located at the same DIEGETIC LEVEL as the NARRATEE he or she is addressing. In a given narrative, there may, of course, be several different narrators, each addressing in turn a different narratee or the same one. lA narrator may be more or less overt, knowledgeable, ubiquitous, self conscious, and reliable, and s/he may be situated at a greater or lesser DISTANCE from the situations and events narrated, the characters, and/or the narratee. This distance can be temporal (I narrate events that occurred three hours or three years ago), discursive (I narrate in my own words what a character said, or I use his or her own words), intellectual (I am intellectually superior to my narratee, or equal or inferior to him or her), moral (I am more or less virtuous than the characters), and so on. 11Whether or not s/he is overt, knowledgeable, self conscious, or reliable, the narrator may be EXTRADIEGETIC, or INTRADIEGETIC. Furthermore, the narrator may be heterodiegetic or homodiegetic and, in the latter case, function as a PROTAGONIST in the events recounted (Great Expectations, Journey to the End of the Night, Kiss Me Deadly), an important character (All the King's Men, The Great Gatsby), a minor one (A Study in Scarlet) or even a mere observer ("A Rose for Emily"). The narrator, who is immanent to the narrative, must be distinguished from the real or concrete AUTHOR, who is not: Nausea, "Intimacy," "The Wall," and "Erostratus" have the same authorSartrebut different narrators. The narrator must also be distinguished from the IMPLIED AUTHOR: the latter does not recount situations and events (but is taken to be accountable for their selection, distribution, and combination); moreover, s/he is inferred from the entire text rather than inscribed in it as a teller.
Narratee. The one who is narrated to, as inscribed in the text. There is at least one (more or less overtly represented) narratee per narrative, located at the same DIEGETIC LEVEL as the NARRATOR addressing him or her. In a given narrative, there may, of course, be several different narratees, each addressed in turn by the same narrator (Vipers' Tangle) or by a different one (The Immoralist). Like the narrator, the narratee may be represented as a character, playing a more or less important role in the situations and events recounted (Vipers' Tangle, The Immoralist, Heart of Darkness, A Change of Heart). Very often, however, the narratee is not represented as a character (Tom Jones, Eugenie Grandet, Crime and Punishment). The narratee purely textual construct be distinguished from the real READER or RECEIVER. After all, the same real reader can read different narratives (each having different narratees); and the same narrative (which always has the same set of narratees) can have an indefinitely varying set of real readers. 11The narratee must also be distinguished from the IMPLIED READER: the former constitutes the narrator's audience and is inscribed as such in the text; the latter constitutes the IMPLIED AUTHOR'S audience (and is inferable from the entire text).
Narrative Schema. A general FRAME in terms of which NARRATIVES organized. According to the canonical narrative schema, after a given order of things is disturbed, a CONTRACTS established between the SENDER and the SUBJECT to bring about a new order or reinstate the old one (MANIPULATION). The Subject, who has been qualified through the contract along the axes of desire, obligation, knowledge, and/or ability (COMPETENCE), goes through a number of TESTS to fulfill its part of the contract (PERFORMANCE) and is rewarded (or punished) by the Sender (SANCTION).
Action. 1. A series of connected events exhibiting unity and significance and moving through a BEGINNING, a MIDDLE, and an END; a syntagmatic organization of ACTS. In Aristotelian terms, an action is a process from bad to good fortune or the reverse. Two actions can, of course, constitute a larger action. 2. In Barthes' terminology, a group of FUNCTIONS subsumed under the same ACTANT(S): for instance, functions involving the SUBJECT in its movement toward the OBJECT would constitute the action we call QUEST
Event. A change of STATE manifested in DISCOURSE by a PROCESS STATEMENT in the mode of Do or Happen. An event can be an ACTION or ACT (when the change is brought about by an agent: "Mary opened the window ) or a HAPPENING (when the change is not brought about by an agent: "the rain started to fall").
Narratlve World. The set or collection of MOTIFS in a given narrative (or part thereof) that are authenticated and thus given the status of facts. lA distinction can be made between an actual (or absolute) narrative world and a possible (or relative) one: the former constitutes the sphere of "reality" for the individuals in a narrative; the llatter would result from world creating and/or world representing acts by these individuals, such as forming beliefs, wishing, dreaming, predicting, or imagining (Ryan). 1Dolezel 1976; Ryan 1985.
Chronological Order. The arrangement of situations and events in the order of their occurrence. "Harry washed, then he slept" observes chronological order, whereas "Harry slept after he worked" does not. Chronological order is very much privileged by positivistic historiography.
Narratlve Closure. A conclusion giving the feeling that a narrative or narrative SEOUENCE has come to an END and providing it with an ultimate unity and coherence, an end creating in the receiver a feeling of appropriate completion and finality.
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June 13, 2007
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