Narratology is the study of narrative and

narrative structure Narrative structure is a literary element generally described as the structural framework that underlies the order and manner in which a narrative is presented to a reader, listener, or viewer. The narrative text structures are the plot and th ...

and the ways that these affect human perception. It is an anglicisation of French ''narratologie'', coined by

Tzvetan Todorov Tzvetan Todorov (; ; bg, Цветан Тодоров; 1 March 1939 – 7 February 2017) was a Bulgarian- French historian, philosopher, structuralist literary critic, sociologist and essayist. He was the author of many books and essays, whi ...

(''Grammaire du Décaméron'', 1969). Its theoretical lineage is traceable to

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phi ...

('' Poetics'') but modern narratology is agreed to have begun with the Russian Formalists, particularly

Vladimir Propp Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp (russian: Владимир Яковлевич Пропп; – 22 August 1970) was a Soviet folklorist and scholar who analysed the basic structural elements of Russian folk tales to identify their simplest irredu ...

(''Morphology of the Folktale'', 1928), and Mikhail Bakhtin's theories of

heteroglossia The term ''heteroglossia'' describes the coexistence of distinct varieties within a single "language" (in Greek: ''hetero-'' "different" and ''glōssa'' "tongue, language"). The term translates the Russian разноречие 'raznorechie'': li ...

dialogism The twentieth century Russian philosopher and literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin wrote extensively on the concept of ''dialogue''. Although Bakhtin's work took many different directions over the course of his life, dialogue always remained the "maste ...

, and the

chronotope In literary theory and philosophy of language, the chronotope is how configurations of time and space are represented in language and discourse. The term was taken up by Russian literary scholar Mikhail Bakhtin who used it as a central element in hi ...

first presented in ''The Dialogic Imagination'' (1975). Cognitive narratology is a more recent development that allows for a broader understanding of narrative. Rather than focus on the structure of the story, cognitive narratology asks "how humans make sense of stories" and "how humans use stories as sense-making instruments".

Defining narrative

Structuralist narratologists like Rimmon-Kenan define narrative fiction as "the narration of a succession of fictional events". Cognitive narratologists focus on how people experience something as narrative rather than on the structure of the text itself. The six-word story " For sale: baby shoes, never worn", is often given as an example that would not qualify as a narrative in the strictly structural approach, but that evokes a sense of narrative.

Marie-Laure Ryan Marie-Laure Ryan is an independent literary scholar and critic. She has written several books and articles on narratology, fiction, and cyberculture and has been awarded several times for her work. She attended the University of Geneva to study li ...

distinguishes between "a narrative" as an object that can be clearly defined and the quality of

narrativity Narrativity is the extent to which a media tells a story, which is a storyteller's account of an event or a sequence of events leading to a transition from an initial state to a later state or outcome. There are four theoretical foundations of narra ...

, which means "being able to inspire a narrative response”. This allows her to understand

video games Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedbac ...

as possessing narrativity without necessarily being conventional narratives. Astrid Ensslin builds upon this, explaining that "games have the potential to evoke multiple, individualized narrative scripts through world-building, causal event design, character development and other elements that players interact with the intention to solve problems and make progress".

History

The origins of narratology lend to it a strong association with the structuralist quest for a formal system of useful description applicable to any narrative content, by analogy with the

grammars In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraints, a field that includes domains ...

used as a basis for parsing

sentences ''The Four Books of Sentences'' (''Libri Quattuor Sententiarum'') is a book of theology written by Peter Lombard in the 12th century. It is a systematic compilation of theology, written around 1150; it derives its name from the '' sententiae'' ...

in some forms of linguistics. This procedure does not however typify all work described as narratological today;

Percy Lubbock Percy Lubbock, CBE (4 June 1879 – 1 August 1965) was an English man of letters, known as an essayist, critic and biographer. His controversial book ''The Craft of Fiction'' gained influence in the 1920s. Life Percy Lubbock was the son of th ...

's work in point of view (''The Craft of Fiction'', 1921) offers a case in point. In 1966 a special issue of the journal ''Communications'' proved highly influential, becoming considered a program for research into the field and even a

manifesto A manifesto is a published declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party or government. A manifesto usually accepts a previously published opinion or public consensus or promotes a ...

. It included articles by Roland Barthes, Claude Brémond,

Gérard Genette Gérard Genette (7 June 1930 – 11 May 2018) was a French literary theorist, associated in particular with the structuralist movement and such figures as Roland Barthes and Claude Lévi-Strauss, from whom he adapted the concept of '' bricol ...

Algirdas Julien Greimas Algirdas Julien Greimas (; born ''Algirdas Julius Greimas''; 9 March 1917 – 27 February 1992) was a Lithuanian literary scientist who wrote most of his body of work in French while living in France. Greimas is known among other things for th ...

and others, which in turn often referred to the works of

Herman, David and Jahn, Manfred and Ryan, Marie-Laure (2005
''Routledge encyclopedia of narrative theory''
pp.574–5Bamberg, Michael G. W. (1998
''Oral Versions of Personal Experience: Three Decades of Narrative Analysis. A Special Issue of the Journal of Narrative and Life History''
p.40 (1895–1970). Jonathan Culler (2001) describes narratology as comprising many strands

implicitly united in the recognition that narrative theory requires a distinction between "story," a sequence of actions or events conceived as independent of their manifestation in discourse, and "discourse," the discursive presentation or narration of events.'

The Russian Formalists first proposed such a distinction, employing the couplet

fabula and syuzhet In narratology, fabula ( rus, фабула, p=ˈfabʊlə) equates to the thematic content of a narrative and syuzhet ( rus, сюжет, p=sʲʊˈʐɛt, a=Ru-сюжет.ogg) equates to the chronological structure of the events within the narrative. ...

. A subsequent succession of alternate pairings has preserved the essential binomial impulse, e.g. ''histoire''/''discours'', ''histoire''/''récit'', ''story''/''plot''. The Structuralist assumption that one can investigate fabula and syuzhet separately gave birth to two quite different traditions: thematic (Propp, Bremond, Greimas, Dundes, et al.) and modal (Genette, Prince, et al.) narratology. The former is mainly limited to a semiotic formalization of the sequences of the actions told, while the latter examines the manner of their telling, stressing voice, point of view, the transformation of the chronological order, rhythm, and frequency. Many authors (Sternberg, 1993, Ricoeur, 1984, and Baroni, 2007) have insisted that thematic and modal narratology should not be looked at separately, especially when dealing with the function and interest of narrative sequence and plot.

Applications

Designating work as narratological is to some extent dependent more on the academic discipline in which it takes place than any theoretical position advanced. The approach is applicable to any narrative, and in its classic studies, vis-a-vis Propp, non-literary narratives were commonly taken up. Still, the term "narratology" is most typically applied to

literary theory Literary theory is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for literary analysis. Culler 1997, p.1 Since the 19th century, literary scholarship includes literary theory and considerations of intellectual history, m ...

and

literary criticism Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...

, as well as

film theory Film theory is a set of scholarly approaches within the academic discipline of film or cinema studies that began in the 1920s by questioning the formal essential attributes of motion pictures; and that now provides conceptual frameworks for und ...

and (to a lesser extent) film criticism. Atypical applications of narratological methodologies would include

sociolinguistic Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any or all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and society's effect on language. It can overlap with the sociology of ...

studies of oral storytelling (

William Labov William Labov ( ; born December 4, 1927) is an American linguist widely regarded as the founder of the discipline of variationist sociolinguistics. He has been described as "an enormously original and influential figure who has created much of ...

) and in

conversation analysis Conversation analysis (CA) is an approach to the study of social interaction, embracing both verbal and non-verbal conduct, in situations of everyday life. CA originated as a sociological method, but has since spread to other fields. CA began wit ...

or discourse analysis that deal with narratives arising in the course of spontaneous verbal interaction. It also includes the study of videogames, graphic novels, the

infinite canvas The infinite canvas refers to the potentially limitless space that is available to webcomics presented on the World Wide Web. The term was introduced by Scott McCloud in his 2000 book '' Reinventing Comics'', in which he suggested that webcomic cre ...

, and narrative sculptures linked to

topology In mathematics, topology (from the Greek words , and ) is concerned with the properties of a geometric object that are preserved under continuous deformations, such as stretching, twisting, crumpling, and bending; that is, without closing ho ...

and

graph theory In mathematics, graph theory is the study of ''graphs'', which are mathematical structures used to model pairwise relations between objects. A graph in this context is made up of '' vertices'' (also called ''nodes'' or ''points'') which are conne ...

. However, constituent analysis of a type where

narreme Narreme is the basic unit of narrative structure. According to Helmut Bonheim (2000), the concept of ''narreme'' was developed three decades earlier by Eugene Dorfman and expanded by Henri Wittmann, The narreme is to narratology what the sememe ...

s are considered to be the basic units of narrative structure could fall within the areas of linguistics,

semiotics Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes (semiosis) and meaning making. Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates something, ...

, or

Narratology in new media

Digital-media theorist and professor Janet Murray theorized a shift in storytelling and narrative structure in the twentieth century as a result of scientific advancement in her 1998 book '' Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace''. Murray argues that narrative structures such as the multi-narrative more accurately reflected "post-Einstein physics" and the new perceptions of time, process, and change, than the traditional linear narrative. The unique properties of computers are better-suited for expressing these "limitless, intersecting" stories or "cyberdramas." These cyberdramas differ from traditional forms of storytelling in that they invite the reader into the narrative experience through interactivity i.e. hypertext fiction and Web soap ''The Spot.'' Murray also controversially declared that

– particularly

role-playing games A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal a ...

and life-simulators like ''

The Sims ''The Sims'' is a series of life simulation video games developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. The franchise has sold nearly 200 million copies worldwide, and it is one of the best-selling video game series of all time. The game ...

'', contain narrative structures or invite the users to create them. She supported this idea in her article "Game Story to Cyberdrama" in which she argued that stories and games share two important structures: contest and puzzles.

Electronic literature and cybertext

Development and exclusive consumption of digital devices and interactivity are key characteristics of

electronic literature Electronic literature or digital literature is a genre of literature encompassing works created exclusively on and for digital devices, such as computers, tablets, and mobile phones. A work of electronic literature can be defined as "a constru ...

. This has resulted in varying narrative structures of these interactive media. Nonlinear narratives serve as the base of many

interactive fiction '' Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, is software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives, either in the f ...

s. Sometimes used interchangeably with hypertext fiction, the reader or player plays a significant role in the creation of a unique narrative developed by the choices they make within the story-world. Stuart Moulthrop's ''

Victory Garden Victory gardens, also called war gardens or food gardens for defense, were vegetable, fruit, and herb gardens planted at private residences and public parks in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Germany during World War I ...

'' is one of the first and most studied examples of hypertext fiction, featuring 1,000 lexias and 2,800 hyperlinks. In his book ''Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature,''

Espen Aarseth Espen J. Aarseth (born 1965) is a Norwegian academic specializing in the fields of video game studies and electronic literature. Aarseth completed his doctorate at the University of Bergen. He co-founded the Department of Humanistic Informatics ...

conceived the concept of cybertext, a subcategory of ergodic literature, to explain how the medium and mechanical organization of the text affects the reader's experience:

...when you read from a cybertext, you are constantly reminded of inaccessible strategies and paths not taken, voices not heard. Each decision will make some parts of the text more, and others less, accessible, and you may never know the exact results of your choices; that is, exactly what you missed.

The narrative structure or game-worlds of these cybertexts are compared to a

labyrinth In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth (, ) was an elaborate, confusing structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur, the monster eventually killed by t ...

that invites the player, a term Aarseth deems more appropriate than the reader, to play, explore and discover paths within these texts. Two kinds of labyrinths that are referenced by Aarseth are the unicursal labyrinth which holds one single, winding path that leads to a hidden center, and the multicursal labyrinth, synonymous with a maze, which is branching and complex with the path and direction chosen by the player. These concepts help to distinguish between ergodic (unicursal) and nonergodic literature (multicursal). Some works such as

Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (russian: link=no, Владимир Владимирович Набоков ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian-American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Born ...

's '' Pale Fire'' have proven to potentially be both depending on the path the reader takes.

Theorists of Narratology

Art critic and philosopher, Arthur Danto, refers to the narrative as describing two separate events. Narrative is also linked to language. The way a story can be manipulated by a character, or in the display of medium contributes to how a story is seen by the world.Rimmon-Kenan, S. (1989). How the Model Neglects the Medium: Linguistics, Language, and the Crisis of Narratology. The Journal of Narrative Technique, 19(1), 157-166. Retrieved September 25, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/30225242 Narratology, as defined by Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan, is a branch of narrative theory. The concept of narratology was developed mainly in France during the sixties and seventies. Theorists have argued for a long time about the form and context of narratology. American psychologist Robert Sternburg argued that narratology is "structuralism at variance with the idea of structure”. This basis goes with the French-American belief that narratology is a logical perversion, meaning that it followed a course that at the time did not seem logical.Darby, D. (2001). Form and Context: An Essay in the History of Narratology. Poetics Today 22(4), 829-852. https://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/27881. Another theorist Peter Brooks sees narrative as being designed and having intent which is what shapes the structure of a story.Felluga, Dino. "Modules on Brooks: On Plotting." Introductory Guide to Critical Theory. Date of last update, which you can find on the home page. Purdue U. Date you accessed the site. . Narrative theorist Roland Barthes argues that all narratives have similar structures and in every sentence, there are multiple meanings. Barthes sees literature as "writerly text" which does not need a typical plot that has a beginning, middle, and end. Instead, written work "has multiple entrances and exits." Theorist Greimas agrees with other theorists by acknowledging that there is a structure in narrative and set out to find the deep structure of narrativity. However, in his findings, Greimas says that narratology can be used to describe phenomena outside of the written word and linguistics as a whole. He establishes a connection between the physical form of something and the language used to describe that something which breaks the structural code that many other theorists base their research on.

Notes

References

* Phelan, James, and Peter J. Rabinowitz. A Companion to Narrative Theory. Malden: Blackwell, 2005. * Phelan, James, and Peter J. Rabinowitz. Understanding Narrative. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1994. * Phelan, James, David Herman, and Brian McHale, eds. Teaching Narrative Theory. New York: MLA Publications, 2010. * Phelan, James, ed. Reading Narrative: Form, Ethics, Ideology. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1989. * Phelan, James. Experiencing Fiction: Judgments, Progressions, and the Rhetorical Theory of Narrative. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2007. * Phelan, James. Living To Tell About It: A Rhetoric and Ethics of Character Narration. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2005. * Phelan, James. Narrative as Rhetoric: Technique, Audiences, Ethics, Ideology. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1996. * Phelan, James. Reading People, Reading Plots: Character, Progression, and the Interpretation of Narrative. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989.

External links

"Musical Narratology"
by William Echard, review of ''A Theory of Musical Semiotics'' by Eero Tarasti, foreword by Thomas A. Sebeok.
Five Analyses of the Narrative "I First Got Paid"

(A Bibliography of Literary Theory, Criticism and Philology)

by Manfred Jahn

The Living Handbook of Narratology

by Henry McDonald {{Authority control Choreography Drama Film theory Literature Storytelling