narrative function |
Working Definition:
A narrative function is a role defined by an inter-action between one figure and another in a narration.
Disciplinary Definitions:
"functlon. 1. An ACT defined in terms of its significance for the course of the ACTION in which it appears; an act considered in terms of the role it plays at the action level; a MOTIFEME. Propp, who developed the notion in his study of the (Russian) folktale, showed that the same act can have different roles (be subsumed by different functions) in different tales ("John killed Peter," for instance, might constitute a villainy in one tale and the hero's victory in another); conversely, different acts can have the same role (be subsumed by the same function) in different tales ("John killed Peter" and "The dragon kidnapped the princess," for example, might both constitute a villainy). For Propp, functions constitute the fundamental components of the underlying structure of any (Russian) fairy tale." Prince, Dictionary of Narratology
"as Claude Bremond emphasized, every narrative function opens an alternative, a set of possible directions, and every narrative progresses by following certain directions as opposed to others." (Herman, Story Logic, 2002, 57)
Comments:
Narrative functions are usually culturally coded because they are associated with legends and myths specific to the culture in which archetypal figures have functions.
Because we tell stories about ourselves, the relations between the self-figure and other-figures provide functions (& hence, subject-positions) for persons other than ourselves who belong to our personal storyworld (personal history).
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last revised:
June 13, 2007
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