Narrative Texts
Literary Studies II
Narrative texts: tell a story, succession of events in a certain time sequence (distinguishes narrative from lyrical text
Text types: classified through • Narrativity (narrative/non narrative) • Medium (oral (radio news brodcast/written) • Form (prose/ verse (epic)) • Factivity (factual/ fictional)
Narrative text types: novel, epic, short story, tales, songs...
Non narrative text types: argumentative essay, scientific paper...
Discourse types: narrative, argumentative, descriptive, dramatic...
Difference between story and discourse: • Story level: what is narrated – deep structure of narrative text – chronological sequence of narrated events • Discourse level: how is it narrated – surface structure of a narrative text – how is the story communicated
Gerard Genette: Time and Narrative (narrative discourse)
• Order: relation between succession of events in the story and their disposition in the text – when o Discrepancies between story order ( is always chronological) and text order (can have another order) – “anachronies” o Analepsis/Retrospection/ Flashback: narration of a story – event at a point in the text after later events have been told o Prolepsis/ Anticipation/ foreshadowing: narration of a story – event at a point in the text before earlier events have been told • Duration: relation between time and events are supposed to have taken to occur and the amount of text devoted to their narration – how long o Pace (speed) – duration (Dauer) in the story (minutes, hours, days, years) and the length of text devoted to it (in lines and pages) = temporal – spatial relationship o Constancy of space = norm ( unchanged ratio between story – duration and textual length – eg. “the withered arm” 24 pages/ 6 years = 4 pages per year o 2 forms of deviation: 1- acceleration – short text devoted to longer time period (eg. summary) 2-
Narrative texts: tell a story, succession of events in a certain time sequence (distinguishes narrative from lyrical text
Text types: classified through • Narrativity (narrative/non narrative) • Medium (oral (radio news brodcast/written) • Form (prose/ verse (epic)) • Factivity (factual/ fictional)
Narrative text types: novel, epic, short story, tales, songs...
Non narrative text types: argumentative essay, scientific paper...
Discourse types: narrative, argumentative, descriptive, dramatic...
Difference between story and discourse: • Story level: what is narrated – deep structure of narrative text – chronological sequence of narrated events • Discourse level: how is it narrated – surface structure of a narrative text – how is the story communicated
Gerard Genette: Time and Narrative (narrative discourse)
• Order: relation between succession of events in the story and their disposition in the text – when o Discrepancies between story order ( is always chronological) and text order (can have another order) – “anachronies” o Analepsis/Retrospection/ Flashback: narration of a story – event at a point in the text after later events have been told o Prolepsis/ Anticipation/ foreshadowing: narration of a story – event at a point in the text before earlier events have been told • Duration: relation between time and events are supposed to have taken to occur and the amount of text devoted to their narration – how long o Pace (speed) – duration (Dauer) in the story (minutes, hours, days, years) and the length of text devoted to it (in lines and pages) = temporal – spatial relationship o Constancy of space = norm ( unchanged ratio between story – duration and textual length – eg. “the withered arm” 24 pages/ 6 years = 4 pages per year o 2 forms of deviation: 1- acceleration – short text devoted to longer time period (eg. summary) 2-