Towards A Natural Narratology

Book Cover......Page 1
Half-Title......Page 2
Title......Page 3
Copyright......Page 4
Dedication......Page 5
Contents......Page 6
Preface......Page 10
Acknowledgements......Page 13
Prologue in the wilderness......Page 14
1  Towards a ‘natural’ narratology......Page 22
1.1.1  Natural narrative......Page 23
1.1.2  The linguistic theory of naturalness: from frames to prototypes......Page 25
1.2  A REDEFINITION OF NARRATIVITY......Page 27
1.2.1  History vs. experientiality......Page 28
1.2.2  Narrativity......Page 32
1.2.3  Narrativization......Page 35
1.2.4  Realism and mimesis......Page 38
1.2.5  Fictionality......Page 41
1.3  TOWARDS A ‘NATURAL’ NARRATOLOGY......Page 44
2  Natural narrative and other oral modes......Page 52
2.1  ORAL TYPES OF STORYTELLING: A GENERIC OVERVIEW......Page 55
2.2  NATURAL NARRATIVE: THE CREATION OF STORY MEANING......Page 57
2.2.1  The features of conversational storytelling: the experiential mode......Page 59
2.2.2  Report, observational narrative and the vicarious mode......Page 65
2.2.3  Institutionalized storytelling and the link with written narrative......Page 69
2.3.1  The joke......Page 73
2.3.2  Exemplum and/or anecdote......Page 76
3  From the oral to the written......Page 81
3.1  MIDDLE ENGLISH PROSE......Page 83
3.2.1  Saints’ legends......Page 92
3.2.2  Romance......Page 98
3.3  RENAISSANCE PROSE AND POPULAR WRITING BEFORE BEHN......Page 103
4  The realist paradigm......Page 110
4.1.1  The orientation: development of report structure......Page 112
4.1.2  The narrative episode and the dramatic scene......Page 119
4.1.3  The consciousness scene......Page 128
4.2.1  Verisimilitude and effet de r el......Page 132
4.2.2  Natural parameters......Page 135
4.2.3  Authorial narrative, omniscience and reliability......Page 137
4.3  THE CONSCIOUSNESS NOVEL: THE ENGLISH NOVEL FROM BEHN TO WOOLF......Page 139
4.4  THE UNIMPASSIONED OBSERVER: NEUTRAL NARRATIVE......Page 141
5  Reflectorization and figuralization......Page 146
5.1.1  Original proposals......Page 147
5.1.2  Lawrence and Weldon: a case study......Page 151
5.2.1  Original proposals......Page 156
5.2.2  Mansfield’s ‘At the Bay’: another case study......Page 161
5.2.3  Reflectorization and figuralization contrasted......Page 164
5.3.1  The anonymous witness position......Page 168
5.3.2  Embodiment, skaz, unreliability: cognitive parameters reintroduced......Page 170
5.3.3  Consonant reflectorization......Page 172
5.4  SUMMARY......Page 175
6  Virgin territories......Page 179
6.1.1  ‘Odd’ pronouns: multiple subjects, impossible protagonists and invented pronominal morphology......Page 180
6.1.2  Alternation......Page 190
6.2  PERSON AS A NARRATOLOGICAL CATEGORY RECONSIDERED......Page 196
6.3.1  The narrative present......Page 199
6.3.2  ‘Odd’ narrative tenses......Page 204
6.3.3  Non-finite verb forms......Page 208
6.3.4  Tense alternation......Page 209
6.4  DEIXIS IN ACTION......Page 213
7  Games with tellers, telling and told......Page 215
7.1  NARRATOLOGICAL POSTMODERNISMS......Page 216
7.2  THE NARRATIVIZATION OF THE TELLER: NARRATION AS REFLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS......Page 219
7.3  THE USURPATION OF TELLING BY COMPETING DISCOURSES......Page 222
7.4  READING A STORY WHERE THERE IS NONE: AGAINST THE GRAIN OF THE TEXT......Page 229
7.5  HERMETIC WRITING: THE DECONSTRUCTION OF THE REFERENTIAL FUNCTION OF LANGUAGE. WHERE EVEN THE MOST INTREPID READER FEARS TO TREAD......Page 233
7.5.1  Plenitude and multiplicity......Page 234
7.5.2  Language disassembled into words......Page 238
7.6  NARRATIVE AND POETRY: THE CONDITION OF WRITING AS ÉCRITURE......Page 241
8  Natural Narratology......Page 247
8.1  WHAT IS NATURAL NARRATOLOGY? A THEORETICAL OUTLINE......Page 248
8.1.1  The historical side of things: narrativization and its limits......Page 250
8.1.2  What is narrative? (Part one)......Page 252
8.1.3  Degrees of narrativity, non-narrative texts and the question of historicity......Page 256
8.2  STANDARD MODELS REVIEWED: HOW TO SQUARE THE CIRCLE......Page 261
8.3.1  Story vs. discourse reconsidered......Page 263
8.3.2  Tellers vs. reflectors, agents and readers: the dramatis personae of narratology......Page 266
8.3.3  Throwing out the baby and preserving the bath water: typological categories reconceptualized......Page 269
8.4  THE MEDIUM OF NARRATIVE: GENRE REVISITED (WHAT IS NARRATIVE? PART TWO)......Page 273
8.5.1  Écriture féminine and the place of narratology in feminist studies......Page 281
8.5.2  Ideology and power......Page 286
8.6  PULLING THE THREADS TOGETHER: FINISHING TOUCHES TO THE DESIGN OF NATURAL NARRATOLOGY......Page 290
In lieu of an epilogue......Page 294
Notes......Page 296
Other texts......Page 320
CRITICISM......Page 330
Author index......Page 351
Subject index......Page 356