Narrative Theory

Question 1

What is Narrativity, Story, Plot, Events, and Discourse?

Answer 1

Narrativity: Distinguishes narrative texts through features like storytelling, plot, and narrative mediation.

Story: Chronological sequence of events (“What is narrated?”).

Plot: A story with events linked causally

Events: Smallest plot units causing changes in the situation.

• Kernels/Cardinal Functions: Propel the plot and open narrative options.
• Catalysts/Satellites: Supplement the narrative but aren’t essential to its logic.

Discourse:

• How the story is narrated or mediated (“How is it narrated?”).
• Allows for the same story to be presented differently based on emphasis, perspective, and narrative techniques.

Question 2

What Communication Modell is there for Narrative Stories?

Answer 2

Extratextual Level:

• Real Author: Addresser of the text.
• Real Reader: Addressee of the text.

Intratextual Level of Narrative Transmission:

• Fictive Narrator: Speaks within the narrative.
• Fictive Narratee: Implied audience within the narrative.

Intratextual Story Level:

• Includes characters’ dialogue and actions within the fictional story world.
• This differentiation separates the narrator from the historical author and the fictive narratee from the real reader.

Question 3

What parts are there to Stanzas Modell?

Answer 3

Person: First Person vs. Third Person

Mode: narrator vs. reflector

Perspective: external vs internal

Question 4

What types of Narrative Situations are there?

Answer 4

Authorial Narrative Situation:

• Characteristics: External perspective; narrator is omniscient and omnipresent. The narrator comments, generalizes, and addresses the reader directly.
• Privileges:

  * Psychological: Access to all characters' thoughts and feelings.
  * Spatial: Presence in all locations.
  * Temporal: Awareness of past, present, and future.

First-Person Narrative Situation:

• Characteristics: Narrator is part of the story, recounting events as a protagonist (I-as-protagonist) or witness (I-as-witness).
• Limitations: Cannot access other characters’ internal thoughts directly or observe events they are not present for.

Figural Narrative Situation:

• Characteristics: Narrator recedes; events are presented through the perspective of a character (the “reflector”). Focuses on sensory impressions and subjective experiences.
• Mode: Viewing frame rather than storytelling; immerses the reader in the character’s consciousness.

Question 5

How can narratives start?

Answer 5

• Ab ovo: Starts with a detailed origin (e.g., protagonist’s birth).
• ** In medias res**: Begins mid-action.
• In ultimas res: Starts at the end, revealing prior events gradually.

Exposition: Introduces time, place, characters, and prehistory, either:

• Isolated: At the beginning, separate from the main action.
• Integrated: Woven into the narrative.

Question 6

How can narratives end?

Answer 6

• Closed Ending: All conflicts resolved, plot logically concluded.
• Open Ending: Conflict remains unresolved, leaving characters’ fates uncertain.
• Expected Ending: Features poetic justice, rewarding/punishing characters appropriately.
• Deus ex Machina: Sudden resolution by an external, previously uninvolved force.

Question 7

What are Key Concepts: Genette’s Structuralist Taxonomy?

Answer 7

Narration: Answers “Who speaks?” (the narrator’s role in presenting the story).

Focalization: Answers “Who sees?” (the perspective through which the story is experienced).

Question 8

What types of Narrators are there and what involvment do they have? (Ge)

Answer 8

Types of Narrators:

• Extradiegetic: Narrators outside the story, responsible for narrative transmission.
• Intradiegetic: Characters within the story who narrate events to other characters.

Involvement in the Story:

• Heterodiegetic: Narrator is not part of the story world.
• Homodiegetic: Narrator is part of the story world.
• Autodiegetic: A homodiegetic narrator who is also the protagonist.

Narrator Presence:

• Overt: Narrator is clearly identifiable, provides commentary, and addresses the reader directly.
• Covert: Narrator is anonymous, offers minimal personal input, and focuses on transmitting information neutrally.

Unreliable Narrators:

• Characteristics: Narrator’s account is questionable due to contradictions, emotional involvement, or unreliable values.

Question 9

What types of focalization’s are there?

Answer 9

Types of Focalization:

• Zero focalisation: Narrator knows more than the characters
• Internal focalisation: Narator knows as much as the characters.
• External focalisation: Narator knows less than the characters

Internal focalisation:

• Fixed: Events are seen through one character’s perspective throughout the narrative.
• Variable: Perspective shifts among multiple characters.
• Multiperspectivity: Combines multiple viewpoints or narratives

Question 10

What is Freytag’s Pyramid

Answer 10

Exposition

Initial Incident

Rising Action

Climax

Falling Action

Resolution

Denouement