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NARRATOLOGY

 Narratology: theory

 Narratology: examples

 Narratology: phases

 Genette: narratology

 Narratology - Key takeaways

 References

 Frequently Asked Questions about Narratology

 Final Narratology Quiz

 Narratology Quiz - Teste dein Wissen

Whether you are a gamer or not, you must be familiar with the workings of a video game. As technology
advanced, video games evolved to incorporate life-like characters and in-depth backstories. This is why
some cultural theorists like to describe them as narratives and study them as such. However, some
argue that games warrant a unique analytical framework and cannot be studied like literary texts.
Students of narratology argue otherwise.

The theoretical methodology known as narratology looks for underlying narrative structure in texts. By
the liberal definition of the word 'text', anything with discernible content can be described as a text,
including film and games. Therefore, the study of narrative has a wider scope other than literary studies.
Most things carry a narrative. By the same logic, narratives existed long before narrative theory and
narratology emerged.

Let's dive into the theory and examples of narratology (and the popular debate on ludology vs
narratology)!

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Narratology: theory

Narratology is the study of narrative and narrative structure and the ways they affect our
perception. It involves elements such as plot, characters, narrative point of view, and themes. This study
is applicable to any narrative form, including novels, films, theatre, and more. It's an approach often
used in literary theory and criticism to dissect and understand the underlying structure of a narrative.

Although the term narratology is relatively new, the discipline dates back to the classical period of Plato
(c. 428–c. 348 BCE) and Aristotle (384–322 BCE). Aristotle's narrative theory in Poetics (C. 335 BCE) is
believed to be one of the earliest texts in narratology. The Bulgarian-French philosopher Tzvetan
Todorov (1939–2017) coined the French term narratologie (translated as narratology) in his 1969
book Grammaire du Décaméron. Narratology grew remarkably during the twentieth century and
subsequently attracted the attention of literary critics, linguists, philosophers, folklorists, and
anthropologists across the world.

Narratology is the study and analysis of narratives and narrative structure.

A narrative can be defined as a fictional or non-fictional recreation of events presented in a time

sequence.

In narratology, a narrative is analysed through its components. The focus of narratology is finding what
is common— and different— in all narratives. Therefore, narratology is not particularly concerned with
the content of a text, its social and historical contexts, or its aesthetic value. The study of narrative is
especially important as we construct meaning from the way time and space are ordered in our narrative
forms.

Narratology focuses on the formal or structural aspects of a work through its components, such as
characters, setting, plot, conflict, and resolution. Not all narratives are obediently chronological; they
can also be of different types, such as linear, non-linear, circular and so on, in terms of time.

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Fig. 1 Narratology involves the study of narratives by examining elements like plot structure, narrative
perspective, and time.

Academics sometimes focus only on written narratives, but the principles of narratology are applicable
to all kinds of narratives, irrespective of the medium. As a methodology, narratology transcends the
boundaries of media and disciplines.

The central concerns of narratology include:

 What are the recurring features of a narrative? Do these features help us to identify similar
narratives?

 What would be an accurate model that accounts for these features and recurrent patterns in
different narratives?

 What factors influence our understanding and evaluation of a narrative?

Narratology: examples
Narratology offers a framework to analyze the structure and elements of a narrative. Let's look at a few
examples:

1. Pride and Prejudice (1813) by Jane Austen: The book is a prime example of a linear narrative
structure, where events unfold chronologically. However, Austen cleverly weaves in her
characters' perspectives, showing how different narrative voices can shape the readers'
understanding of the story.

2. The Catcher in the Rye (1951) by J.D. Salinger: This novel utilises first-person narrative point of
view. The entire story is told from Holden Caulfield's perspective, which allows readers to delve
deeply into his psyche, highlighting the effect of narrative voice on a story.

3. The Great Gatsby (1925) by F. Scott Fitzgerald: The use of Nick Carraway as a first-person
narrator who is also a character in the story provides an interesting study in narrative
perspective and reliability. His interpretations and perceptions of events shape the readers'
understanding of the story.

These examples provide insight into how different narrative techniques and structures can shape and
influence a reader or viewer's understanding and interpretation of a story.

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Narratology: phases

For the sake of comprehension, narrative theory can be classified into different groups as they evolved
in time. Broadly, narratology evolved in two phases: classical and postclassical. Originally, narratology
was preoccupied with finding universal narratives and repetitive narrative patterns.

In the post-classical stage, narratology began to acknowledge its scope in more disciplines other than
literature. This led to the rise of interdisciplinary approaches like postmodern narratology and feminist
narratology.

Postmodern writers often like to toy with our perception by blurring the boundaries between fiction,
reality, and the process of creating a text itself. Postmodern narrative theory is a contemporary
analytical approach that tries to establish a direct link between the world of fiction and non-
fiction instead of treating them as separate.

Feminist narratology is the study of narratives from a feminist perspective. It recognises how gender
influences narratives by highlighting the limitations of conventional narratology as it evolved over the
years.

Narratology: ancient narrative theory

The discourse on narrative forms originated from ancient philosophers like Aristotle. Aristotle is
considered to be the founder of modern narratology. Aristotle's Poetics is believed to have laid the
foundation for narrative theory and criticism in the West.
Debates are held among scholars as to whether Aristotle should be given sole credit for coming up with
the idea that the narrator must be distinguished from the author. Aristotle is a top contender for the
title 'the founder of narratology' as this distinction is now a central principle of modern narratology. He
is widely cited for his recognition of plot (muthos), story (praxis), and narrative discourse (lexis).

Aristotle was also the first to posit that there is a distinction between the story and the way it is told,
which is now one of the basic principles of narratological analysis. Aristotle's theory was so influential in
narratology that the Russian formalist literary critic Boris Tomashevsky (1868–1939) famously described
his own work on narrative forms as 'simply Aristotle's old theory of literature.'1

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Narratology: Russian formalism

Modern genealogies of narratology often locate its beginnings in the structuralist project of the 1960s,
overlooking the work of formalists. The narratological theories of Russian formalism played a significant
role in the evolution of narratology as well as its reception.

Formalism: an aesthetic movement centred in St. Petersburg and Moscow around 1914–29 that
favoured form over the content of a text.

Structuralism: a critical approach that focuses on the underlying structures and relationships that make
up the world. The structuralist approach has a wider scope in the study of human behaviour and social
organisation in addition to literary analysis.

Formalist contribution to narratology is most associated with theorists Viktor Shklovsky (1893–1984),
Boris Tomashevsky, and Vladimir Propp (1895–1970). The formalist movement explored the transmedial
aspect of narratology ahead of its time by considering the evolution and morphology of different
narrative forms such as the anecdote, the short story, the novella, and film, in addition to poetry, drama,
and the novel.

Both Russian formalists and narratologists placed emphasis on literary form over its content. They were
more concerned with how a story is told rather than what it talks about. The concern for the manner
rather than the matter is evident in formalist concepts like the syuzhet (plot) and fabula (story).

Narratology: structuralism

The structuralist approach in narratology was launched with the publication of a special edition of the
French journal Communications in 1966. It featured contributions from theorists like Roland
Barthes (1915–1980), Claude Bremond (1929–2021), Umberto Eco (1932–2016), Tzvetan Todorov, and
Gérard Genette (1930–2018). Unlike formalists, these theorists saw themselves as a close circle engaged
in the structural analysis of narrative. However, they borrowed important concepts
like fabula and syuzhet from their formalist predecessors to reformulate them within the structuralist
framework.
Emphasis was placed not only on the ‘structural’ approach but also on their reliance on structural
anthropology and on the structural linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913). Structural
narratologists like Genette built on the concepts of diegesis and mimesis from classical narrative theory.
Genette is arguably the most important theorist in structural narratology who wrote copiously on the
subject.

Mimesis is an imitative representation that involves portrayal rather than narration.

Diegesis is the narration or the act of telling a story by a narrator.

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Genette: narratology

In the field of literary theory, narratology plays a vital role in enhancing the understanding and
interpretation of a text. By examining elements like plot structure, narrative perspective, and time,
narratology provides a systematic approach to analysing how stories are told and how they influence
readers. Gerard Genette, a French literary theorist, is one of the foremost figures in the development of
narratology, introducing key concepts like narrative mood, narrative voice, and narrative time.

Genette has written extensively on the study of narrative to try and establish that the literary text is
autonomous in nature. According to Genette, the narrative voice is multifaceted and is constituted by
elements like the narrative instance, narrative time, and narrative levels.

Genette replaced the traditional framework of 'point of view' with 'focalisation' by introducing the
concept of the 'narrator-foculiser'. Foculisation is based on the narrator's position with regard to the
story (inside or outside the story) and the degree of persistence, based on whether the narrator-
foculiser remains the same or changes over the course of narration.

For Genette, every narrative contains histoire (story or the order of events in the text), récit, which is
the narrative text itself, and narration (the act of telling the story). There may be different types of
narrators, such as homodiegetic, heterodiegetic, intradiegetic, extradiegetic, and autodiegetic.

 If one or more characters become the narrator, they are called intradiegetic.

 If a character tells the story from their point of view, they become a homodiegetic narrator.

 When the narrator tells their story to another character within the novel, then they are called
a homodiegetic-intradiegetic narrator.

 If a homodiegetic narrator is also the protagonist of the story, then they are called
an autodiegetic narrator.

 An extradiegetic narrator is one who is above or beyond the story.

 A heterodiegetic narrator is one who is outside the story and does not participate in it.

Ludology vs narratology
Narrative structures shape our perception of the world and the cultural artefacts in it. At a time when
our lives are flooded by media, especially narrative media like television, film, and fiction, narratology is
a useful tool to analyse popular culture. As you may know, every game contains a narrative framework.
Narratology approaches games from the point of view that their underlying narratives can be studied
using theories of literary analysis that already exist.

Ludology: the study of games, players, and the cultures surrounding them.

However, ludologists reject the notion as they believe games require a separate set of theories and
cannot be analysed using the theoretical paradigm used for literary texts.

Narratology - Key takeaways

 Narratology is the study of narrative forms.

 As an analytical method, narratology examines narrative elements within a text.

 The origins of narrative theory can be traced back to ancient philosophers like Aristotle.

 Narratology has emerged as an interdisciplinary tool in the study of narratives in different

aspects of culture.

 Famous narratologists include Gérard Genette, Roland Barthes, and Vladimir Propp.

References

1. Boris Tomashevsky, ‘Letter to Shklovsky’, 1925

Frequently Asked Questions about Narratology

What is narratology?

Narratology is the study and analysis of narrative forms. In literature, narratology analyses the form of
narratives found in a text to compare and contrast them with other texts.

What is the purpose of narratology?

The purpose of narratology is to identify patterns in narratives and find common or recurring narratives
in texts from different time periods and geographical origins.

What are the basic principles of narratology?

The principles of narratology are narrative syntax or narrative coherence, narrative semantics, and
intentionality.

What is an example of narratology?

Narratology is an analytical methodology that places importance on narrative elements in a text.

Narratology looks for common narratives in different texts to find universal patterns.

What is the difference between narrative and narratology?

A narrative is a fictional or non-fictional representation of events as a time sequence. Whereas
narratology is the study of narrative forms.

Final Narratology Quiz

Question

What is narratology?

Show answer

Answer

The study and analysis of narratives.

Show question

Question

What is the earliest known narrative theory?

Show answer

Answer

The earliest known narrative theory in the West is that of Aristotle.

Show question

Question

What book contains Aristotle's narrative theory?

Show answer

Answer

Poetics (c. 335 BCE)

Show question

Question

Principles of narratology are only applicable to literature: true/false.

Show answer

Answer

False. The methodology of narratology has wide-ranging applications in many fields.

Show question

Question

What influenced narratology?

Show answer

Answer

Modern narratology was influenced by Aristotle's narrative theory, structuralism, and the linguistics
of Ferdinand de Saussure.

Show question

Question

What is the purpose of narratology?

Show answer

Answer

Narratology seeks to identify common or recurring patterns in narratives in texts from different time
periods and locales so as to recognise predictable models of narrative.

Show question

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Question

What is a narrative?

Show answer

Answer

A narrative is a fictional or non-fictional representation of events as a time sequence.

Show question

Question

What are the common elements in a narrative?

Show answer

Answer

Narratives usually have a plot, characters, setting, crisis, and resolution or climax.

Show question

Question

Are narratology and formalism the same?

Show answer
Answer

No, narratology and formalism are different theoretical disciplines even though they have some
overlapping concerns such as a preference for form over content.

Show question

Question

Name structural narratologists.

Show answer

Answer

Gerard Genette, Roland Barthes, and Claude Bremond made important contributions to structural
narratology.

Show question

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Structuralist Narratology
BY NASRULLAH MAMBROL ON MARCH 21, 2016 • ( 3 )
Espoused by Tzvetan Todorov and Roland Barthes, Structuralist Narratology
illustrates how a story’s meaning develops from its overall structure (the langue)
rather than from each individual story’s isolated theme (the parole). According
to Aristotle, all narratives develop longitudinally, from beginning to middle and
the end through the casual selection and temporal combination of events. This
means that narratives can be analysed horizontally, at what Barthes calls the
syntagmatic level. But narratives are also complex “representations” of events,
whose meaning requires interpretation. This complexity of meanings calls for a
vertical, paradigmatic, hermeneutic analysis. It is this vertical axis of narrative
which the Russian Formalists had in mind when they differentiated between a
“fabula” and “siuzhet” (Todorov’s “story” and “discourse”) as the two main
analytical levels.
Drawing on Saussurean linguistics, the French structuralists defined literature as
a kind of langue of which each specific work is an instance of parole. Roland
Barthes, Claude Bremond, A.J. Greimas and Tzvetan Todorov chose to develop
an underlying structural approach to literature. Consequently,.the main aim of
their structural activity was to identify the general codes that structure literary
language as a whole. In this abstract type of approach, the individual work is
relevant only as the concrete materialisation, among many possible virtual ones,
of the general codes. On the contrary, the surface structure of the discourse
approach to narrative pays attention primarily to the analysis of the functioning
of individual works as langue in their own right. This approach is dominated by
the work of Gerard Genette.

Tzvetan Todorov
Both approaches have a common origin and practice. Studies such as
Barthes’ Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narratives and
Todorov’s Poetics partake of both. When Todorov coined the term
“narratology”, in the Grammar of Decameron, he gave it the all-inclusive
meaning of “the ;cience of narratives.” Todorov, drawing on the distinction
made by Russian ‘ormalists between tabula and siuzhet, proposes working on
two major levels of descriptions, the “story” and “discourse”. The story (the
argument) comprises a logic of actions and a syntax of characters, while
discourse (the ray in which the story is told by the narrator to the reader)
comprises tenses, aspects and modes of narrative.

Drawing on Todorov’s distinction between “story” and “discourse,. Genette

goes on to distinguish three aspects of narrative reality — the story (the
narrative content or the signified), the narrative (the signifier, discourse or the
narrative text) and narrating (the narrating act itself). This distinction is crucial
as it allows Genette to organise the analysis of narrative in wholly relational
terms. Genette envisions the study of narrative as essentially a study of the
relationships between narrative and story, between narrative and narrating, and
between story and narrating.

Source: Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide, Loistyson Second

Edition, Routledge.
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%20NARRATOLOGY-,Structuralist%20Narratology%C2%A0,Critical%20Theory%20Today%3A%20A
%20User%2DFriendly%20Guide%2C%20Loistyson%20Second%20Edition%2C%C2%A0Routledge.,-Share
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narratology
literary criticism
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art criticism narrative

 See all related content →
narratology, in literary theory, the study of narrative structure. Narratology looks at
what narratives have in common and what makes one different from another.

Like structuralism and semiotics, from which it derived, narratology is based on the idea
of a common literary language, or a universal pattern of codes that operates within the
text of a work. Its theoretical starting point is the fact that narratives are found and
communicated through a wide variety of media—such as oral and written language,
gestures, and music—and that the “same” narrative can be seen in many different forms.
The development of this body of theory, and its corresponding terminology, accelerated
in the mid-20th century.

The foundations of narratology were laid in such books as Vladimir

Propp’s Morfologiya skazki (1928; Morphology of the Folk Tale), which created a
model for folktales based on seven “spheres of action” and 31 “functions” of
narrative; Claude Lévi-Strauss’s Anthropologie structurale (1958; Structural
Anthropology), which outlined a grammar of mythology; A.J. Greimas’s Sémantique
structurale (1966; Structural Semantics), which proposed a system of six structural
units called “actants”; and Tzvetan Todorov’s Grammaire du Décaméron (1969; The
Grammar of the Decameron), which introduced the term narratologie. In Figures
III (1972; partial translation, Narrative Discourse) and Nouveau Discours de
récit (1983; Narrative Discourse Revisited), Gérard Genette codified a system of
analysis that examined both the actual narration and the act of narrating as they existed
apart from the story or the content. Other influential theorists in narratology
were Roland Barthes, Claude Bremond, Gerald Prince, Seymour Chatman, and Mieke
Bal.
This article was most recently revised and updated by Adam Augustyn.
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stream of consciousness
literature
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The Waves
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Key People:

Aleksei Gogua
Related Topics:

consciousness interior monologue narrative

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stream of consciousness, narrative technique in nondramatic fiction intended to
render the flow of myriad impressions—visual, auditory, physical, associative, and
subliminal—that impinge on the consciousness of an individual and form part of his
awareness along with the trend of his rational thoughts. The term was first used by the
psychologist William James in The Principles of Psychology (1890). As
the psychological novel developed in the 20th century, some writers attempted to
capture the total flow of their characters’ consciousness, rather than limit themselves to
rational thoughts. To represent the full richness, speed, and subtlety of the mind at
work, the writer incorporates snatches of incoherent thought, ungrammatical
constructions, and free association of ideas, images, and words at the pre-speech level.

The stream-of-consciousness novel commonly uses the narrative techniques of interior

monologue. Probably the most famous example is James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922), a
complex evocation of the inner states of the characters Leopold and Molly
Bloom and Stephen Dedalus. Other notable examples include Leutnant Gustl (1901)
by Arthur Schnitzler, an early use of stream of consciousness to re-create the
atmosphere of pre-World War I Vienna; William Faulkner’s The Sound and the
Fury (1929), which records the fragmentary and impressionistic responses in the minds
of three members of the Compson family to events that are immediately being
experienced or events that are being remembered; and Virginia Woolf’s The
Waves (1931), a complex novel in which six characters recount their lives from
childhood to old age.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated
by Adam Augustyn.
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