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Handout Narratology PDF

This document discusses concepts in narratology including focalization, narration, characterization, and narrative situations. It addresses who sees and tells the story through focalization and narration. Characterization is presented directly through definition, indirectly through actions and speech, and through analogy. Three narrative situations are outlined: first person where the narrator is part of the story; authorial where the narrator is removed; and figural where the perspective is of a character.

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127 views

Handout Narratology PDF

This document discusses concepts in narratology including focalization, narration, characterization, and narrative situations. It addresses who sees and tells the story through focalization and narration. Characterization is presented directly through definition, indirectly through actions and speech, and through analogy. Three narrative situations are outlined: first person where the narrator is part of the story; authorial where the narrator is removed; and figural where the perspective is of a character.

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nguyen thanh trung
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BM7 Introduction to the Critical and Scholarly Discussion of Literature Narratology

Narratology I: Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan (after Gérard Genette)

1. Focalisation and Narration

1.1. FOCALISATION: WHO SEES?


Position of the focaliser relative to the story:
 External focalisation vs. Internal focalisation
 View of the focalised from outside vs. from within

1.2. NARRATION: WHO SPEAKS?


Temporal relations between narration and story:
 'ulterior narration' [after the events]
 'anterior narration' [before the events]
 'simultaneous narration' [during the events]
 'intercalated narration' [narration and events alternate, e.g. in epistolary novels]
Narrative Levels:
 extradiegetic level: The level "immediately superior to the first narrative and concerned
with its narration".
 diegetic level: "the events themselves" [diegesis = story]
 hypodiegetic level: "stories told by fictional characters [...] a second degree narrative"

"The diegetic level is narrated by an extradiegetic narrator, the hypodiegetic level by a diegetic
(intradiegetic) one" (p. 92)

Functions of hypodiegetic narratives:


 Actional function: the hypodiegetic narrative contributes to the development of the plot
 Explicative function: the hypodiegetic level offers an explanation of the diegetic level
 Thematic function: the hypodiegetic narrative is in analogy to main narrative

1.3. A TYPOLOGY OF NARRATORS


Narrators may be distinguished in the following respects:
By Narrative Level: extradiegetic narrators, intradiegetic narrators, hypo- and
hypohypodiegetic narrators.
By the Extent of Participation in the Story: Homodiegetic narrators are involved in the story,
heterodiegetic narrators are not.
By their Degree of Perceptibility:
 Description of setting.
 Identification of characters.
 Temporal summary.
 Definition of character.
 Reports of what characters did not think or say.
 Commentary.
By Reliability: Signs of unreliability are:
 the narrator has limited knowledge;
 is personally involved;
 represents a problematic value-scheme.

Source: Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan. Narrative Fiction. Contemporary Poetics. London, New York: Routledge.
1994 [1983]. 71–105.
BM7 Introduction to the Critical and Scholarly Discussion of Literature Narratology

2. Characterisation
[= the modes by which information about individual characters is conveyed]

2.1. Direct definition of character


 Who defines? (narrator, characters, about self or others?)
 In what situation is the definition stated?

2.2. Indirect presentation


 Actions (commission / omission / contemplated action)
 Characteristics of Speech
 External appearance
 Environment
physical: room, house, street, town.
human: family, social connections.

2.3. Reinforcement of Characterisation by Analogy


 Names (telling names, symbolic names, etc.)
 Landscape.
 Contrasts and similarities between characters.

Source: Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan. Narrative Fiction. Contemporary Poetics. London, New York: Routledge. 1994
[1983]. 59–70.

Narratology II: Franz K. Stanzel

1. First-person narration (Ich-Erzählsituation)


 first-person narrator: the narrator is part of the world of the characters
 tendency towards subjective / unreliable presentation
 narrating self (erzählendes Ich) vs. experiencing self (erlebendes Ich)
 narrator-as-protagonist vs. narrator-as-witness
 typical genres: diaries, letters, essays, (fictional) autobiographies
Example: I shook my head at this unpleasant surprise, for indeed I should have anticipated it.
I had it coming. It was always the same.

2. Authorial narration (Auktoriale Erzählsituation)


 third-person narrator: the narrator is not part of the world of the characters
 tendency towards objective / 'reliable' presentation
 'omniscience'
 omnipresence
 'telling' rather than 'showing': intrusive comments
Example: The paranoid shook his head at the unpleasant surprise – the way that whiny people
always do - and he thought: "I had it coming."

3. Figural narrative situation (Personale Erzählsituation)


 third-person narrator assuming the perspective of a character: perceptions, emotions,
thoughts, vocabulary are the character's, not the narrator's
 tendency towards subjective / immediate presentation
 'showing' rather than 'telling': no intrusive comments
Example: The paranoid shook his head at the unpleasant surprise. Why on earth was it always
him? Why him? Again and again! He had it coming!
Source: Franz Stanzel. Die typischen Erzählsituationen im Roman. Wien, Stuttgart: Braumüller, 1955.

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