Narratology Lecture Course 2024-25 PDF

Narratology Session 1 Lecture Course Winter Semester 2024-25 Monika Fludernik What is Narrative?  What is Narrative? ANSWERS from the context or perspective of:  Literary Studies  Linguistics  Social Sciences  Cognitive Sciences  What is Narrat...

Narratology Session 1 Lecture Course Winter Semester 2024-25 Monika Fludernik What is Narrative?  What is Narrative? ANSWERS from the context or perspective of:  Literary Studies  Linguistics  Social Sciences  Cognitive Sciences  What is Narrative? ANSWERS from the context or perspective of:  Literary Studies Epik, Lyrik, Dramatik (narrative, poetry, drama)  Linguistics  Social Sciences  Cognitive Sciences  What is Narrative? ANSWERS from the context or perspective of:  Literary Studies narrative, poetry, drama  Linguistics argumentative texts, instructional texts, narrative texts, description, expository texts, explanatory texts, conversation,...  Social Sciences  Cognitive Sciences  What is Narrative? ANSWERS from the context or perspective of:  Literary Studies  Linguistics  Social Sciences performance, ‚face‘, purposes,...  Cognitive Sciences  What is Narrative? ANSWERS from the context or perspective of:  Literary Studies narrative, poetry, drama  Linguistics argumentative texts, instructional texts, narrative texts, description, expository texts, explanatory texts, conversation,...  Social Sciences performance, ‚face‘, purposes,...  Cognitive Sciences modes of explanation: narrative, metaphor Pros and Cons of the Literary Perspective Basic distinction: narrative (novel) vs. drama mediacy of narrative vs. immediacy of drama the narrator ? film, cartoon, ballet,... dramatic narrative  Pros and Cons of the Linguistic Perspective  The list of text types (text modes etc.) is open  distinction between global text type and genres and subgenres as well as discourse modes: e.g. narrative – novel, short story, film,... – Gothic novel, detective story, etc. – narrative clauses (followed by descriptive clauses, dialogue etc.)  linguistic analysis of text types tends to look at shorter texts (obituary, recipe, application letter, etc.)  text grammars more focused on syntactic model (Chomsky)  pragmatics looks at context and use Pros and Cons of the Social Science Perspective Central Question: why do people tell stories?  Pros and Cons of the Social Science Perspective Central Question: why do people tell stories? tellability and point – conversation analysis  Entertainment / Performance  Self-Presentation  Illustration of current argument  Positioning (Michael Bamberg)  Expression of Ideas and Emotions Pros and Cons of the Cognitive Perspective Central Question: What is the mental/cognitive purpose of storytelling? Explanatory value of narratives (cause and effect, temporality) vs. metaphor, diagrams or other visualizations experientiality (model Fludernik) Moving towards a definition Sometimes where you get it they wrap it up in a clock and you take it home with you and since you want to see it it takes you the rest of your life to unwrap it trying harder and harder to be quick which only makes the bell ring more often. W.S. Merwin, "A Thing of Beauty", in: The Miner's Pale Children, New York: Atheneum, 1970. John Keats, „Endymion“ Trees old, and young sprouting a shady boon For simple sheep; and such are daffodils A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: With the green world they live in; and clear rills Its loveliness increases; it will never That for themselves a cooling covert make Pass into nothingness; but still will keep 'Gainst the hot season; the mid forest brake, A bower quiet for us, and a sleep Rich with a sprinkling of fair musk-rose Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet blooms: breathing. And such too is the grandeur of the dooms Therefore, on every morrow, are we We have imagined for the mighty dead; wreathing All lovely tales that we have heard or read: A flowery band to bind us to the earth, An endless fountain of immortal drink, Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth Pouring unto us from the heaven's brink. Of noble natures, of the gloomy days Of all the unhealthy and o'er-darkened ways Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all, Some shape of beauty moves away the pall in : Jack Stillinger (ed.) The Poems of John Keats, From our dark spirits. Such the sun, the London: Heinemann, 1978. p. 103, 1. 1-24. moon,  PING All known all white bare white body fixed one yard legs joined like sewn. Light heat white floor one square yard never seen. White walls one yard by two white ceiling one square yard never seen. Bare white body fixed only the eyes only just. Traces blurs light grey almost white on white. Hands hanging palms front white feet heels together right angle. Light heat white planes shining white bare white body fixed ping fixed elsewhere. Traces blurs signs no meaning light grey almost white. Bare white body fixed white on white invisible. Only the eyes only just light blue almost white. Head haught eyes light blue almost white silence within. Brief murmurs only just almost never all known. Traces blurs signs no meaning light grey almost white. Legs joined like sewn heels together right angle. Traces alone unover given black light grey almost white on white. Light heat white walls shining white one yard by two. Bare white body fixed one yard ping fixed elsewhere. Traces blurs signs no meaning light grey almost white. White feet toes joined like sewn heels together right angle invisible. Eyes alone unover given blue light blue almost white. Murmur only just almost never one second perhaps not alone. Given rose only just bare white body fixed one yard white on white invisible. All white all known murmurs only just almost never always the same all known. Light heat hands hanging palms front white on white invisible. Bare white body fixed ping fixed elsewhere. Samuel Beckett, in: Na's Knife. Collected Shorter Prose 1945-1966, London: Calder and Soyars, 1967. PL 1 [... ] when I went to see it [the house], T 2 the guy says to me rpt. 3 says 'we got a bid for thirty-three – thirty four,' rpt. 4 says, 'If you bid thirty-five,' he says, 'You'll get it.' RES 5 I said 'Okay, let me think it over.' PL(INC) 6 And I went home 7 and I called up my wife's cousin OFF 8 who's a realtor. 9 Well his partner knows XYZ very well, 10 so he called him up. 11 The bid was for twenty-seven five! RES 12 So I figured they could do the same thing I was going to do. PL(INC) 13 So he calls me up the next day OFF 14 and I figure, 15 'Look, I could always bid a little higher than the guy and work my way up.' INC 16 So he calls me the next day OFF 17 and I told my wife exactly what to say. INC 18 So he gets on the phone T 19 and so my wife says [...] (Wolfson 1978: 217) Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg | VL Narratology WS 13. November 2024 16 2024/2025 |  DEFINITIONS A Gerald Prince, Dictionary of Narratology (originally 1987) narrative. 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. COMMUNICATIVE MODEL; NARRATIVE VS DRAMA; ONE EVENT SUFFICIENT Additional criteria: 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. [→ narrative dynamics, closure, ‘point’] 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. [→ universality of narrative] The story always involves temporal sequence (it consists of at least one modification of a state of affairs obtaining at time t0 into another state of affairs obtaining at time tn), and this is its most distinctive feature. [causation] 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 [...] [communication]  ESTHER WATERS, Chapter 1 SHE stood on the platform watching the receding train. A few bushes hid the curve of the line; the white vapour rose above them, evaporating in the pale evening. A moment more and the last carriage would pass out of sight. The white gates swung forward slowly and closed over the line. An oblong box painted reddish brown and tied with a rough rope lay on the seat beside her. The movement of her back and shoulders showed that the bundle she carried was a heavy one, the sharp bulging of the grey linen cloth that the weight was dead. She wore a faded yellow dress and a black jacket too warm for the day. A girl of twenty, short, strongly built, with short, strong arms. Her neck was plump, and her hair of so ordinary a brown that it passed unnoticed. The nose was too thick, but the nostrils were well formed. The eyes were grey, luminous, and veiled with dark lashes. But it was only when she laughed that her face lost its habitual expression, which was somewhat sullen; then it flowed with bright humour. She laughed now, showing a white line of almond-shaped teeth. The porter had asked her if she were afraid to leave her bundle with her box. Both, he said, would go up together in the donkey-cart. The donkey-cart came down every evening to fetch parcels.... That was the way to Woodview, right up the lane. She could not miss it. She would find the lodge gate in that clump of trees. The man lingered, for she was an attractive girl, but the station-master called him away to remove some luggage. George Moore, Esther Waters Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg | VL Narratology WS 13. November 2024 19 2024/2025 |