narrativity Flashcards
What is Ubiquity?
constantly being present (omnipresent)
What is the Ubiquity of Narratives?
- being omnipresent
- story-telling is a fundamental human activity, constantly taking place
- meaning-making process, a way to make sense of the world -> cognitive view on literature
- story-telling occurs in all areas of life & in ALL genres/media
What are the two essential Principles of Narrativity?
- Chronology: sequence of events
- Causality: connectedness of events -> one thing leads to another
Events: change of state, from A to B
What is a Narrative?
multiple events in a time sequence (Chronology), that build on each other (Causality)
What does mediation mean?
no direct access to story -> we experience it through a narrator, who shapes our experience
distance between story and reader
What is a story?
mediated succession of events
What is the narrator/speaker?
NOT the author
fictional audience
What happens in literary story telling (regarding the narrator)?
Author creates an innerfictional speaker/Narrator/Lyrical I who tells a story about something which is directed to an innerfictional audience/addressee
What is the story level from a discourse perspective?
- Action
- Local setting
- Characters
- Temporal setting
What are the different types of stories regarding Action - Plot Structure?
- teleological plot
- cyclical
- episodic
- static
- internal (psychological) vs. external (physical) plotlines
What are examples for teleological plots in different types of stories?
- Freytag Triangle Quest
- Coming of Age story (=Entwicklungsroman)
(telos = goal, towards a goal)
What is a cyclical type of story?
everything is fine, something disrupts harmony, get back harmony; story ends where it started
e.g. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
What is an episodic type of story?
no overall trajectory, but hero who stubles to one adventure ot the next, no deeper connection
TV series
What is a static type of story?
nothing changes
Samuel Beckett ist da so ein Patient
What are the five elements of freytag’s pyramid/triangle?
- Exposition
- Rising action
- Climax
- Falling Action
- Resolution/Denouement
general structure of tragedy
Expo - intro world, characters, backstory, ends in inciting incident
Rising Action - majority of text conflict and complications, build up
Climax - highest tension, turning point, success/failure
Falling Action - aftermath/consequence of climax
Resolution - the end, tying up loose ends
What’s the principle of the Quest?
goal is practically being told to the characters/reader
LOTR, Zelda
What is a plot?
string of events relating to each other through cause and effect
What are multiple plot lines connected through?
causally connected through
- character(s)
- common theme
- hierarchy: main plot vs. subplot
hierarchy in Hunger Games: revolution (main) vs. romance (sub)
contrast (=two plotlines are very different from each other in tone, theme, stakes, or character goals e.g. subplot is funny and main plot is sad asf) vs. correspondence (subplot mirrors elements of subplot -> Harry Potters friendship helps him in fight)
What is the local setting?
- fundamental cognitive pattern to understand the world
- notions of space used to make sense of the abstract
- semanticised space (=carries meaning), text gives space meaning
- text as a spatial system -> correspondences & constrasts
- only when character transgresses form one semanticised space into another is it a process
e.g. LOTR - hobbit cave to Saurons fkn mountain
What is Characterization?
character grouping (acc. to correspondences & contrasts) -> age, attitudes, behaviour
-> Character’s position within a system of characters
- flat vs. round = one-dimensional vs. pluri-dimensional
- static vs. dynamic (changes or doesn’t)
- main character vs. minor character
- Protagonist vs. Antagonist
- Character types (acc. to function) -> Confidant/e, blocking character, foil character
confidante = someone to confide in
blocking character = 2 ppl want to marry -> parent blocks
foil character = emphasize a feature of the MC e.g. Dr. Watson
What are the types of characterisation?
Who characterises whom how in what context?
- narratorial (by the narrator) vs. figural (by a character)
- explicit vs. implicit
- auto- vs. altero-characterisation
- unreliable characterisations
context: private, public, absent other, present other
What’s the difference between explicit & implicit types of characterisation?
- explicit: descriptive statements, adjectives
- implicit: non-verbal/verbal behavior, appearance (‘show don’t tell’)
What’s the difference between auto- and altero-characterisation?
- auto-characterisation: they characterise themselves
- altero-characterisation: someone else characterises them
What is an unreliable characterisation?
discrepancy between contents of characterisation and actual state of affairs -> reader decides on basis of context and world knowledge
What are the categories of Time in Literature?
- Order (When?)
- Duration (How long?)
- Frequeny (How often?)
literary art: time is vital dimension, language & meaning construction
concerns relation between discourse time and story time, many potential author choices
What characterises Order in temporal narrative Fiction?
- Chronology (in order) vs. Anachrony (out of order)
- Flashback (analepsis)
- Flashforward (prolepsis)
- objective vs. subjective anachrony (factual vs. imaginary)
Anachrony includes Analepsis & Prolepsis
What are the functions of Anachrony?
- Interest
- Unpredictability
- Mystery
- Tension
What characterises Duration in temporal narrative fiction?
relation between time read (discourse time) and clocktime in fictional world (story time) -> efficiency, tension
- Ellipsis/cut
- Summary/Speed up
- Scene
- Stretch/Slow down
- Pause
What happens in Ellipsis/Cut in Duration?
0 discourse time but storytime passes -> something is left out
What happens in Summary/Speed up in Duration?
Discourse shorter than storytime -> narrator concentrates, straightens presentation, summarises things
What happens in Scenes in Duration?
Storytime and Discourse time are the same
dialogue, sports commentary
What happens in Stretch/Slow down in Duration?
Discourse time is longer than storytime
slow motion in film e.g. Ulysees
What happens in Pause in Duration?
action stops, discourse continues -> descriptions on space, narratorial comments/abstract arguments
How often does something happen & how often is it narrated (Frequency)?
- singulative: only happened once, only presented once
- repetitive: narrates several times what happens once (multi POV)
- multi-singulative: narrates multiple times what happens multiple times (repetition/repetitive effect)
- iterative: narrated once, happened more often (habitual actions)
What are the three circles regarding Narration?
- Level of fictional communication: character to character
- Level of fictional mediation: narrator to addressee
- Level of non-fictional communication: author to reader
What is the Matrix Narrative?
main narrator tells a story (frame narrative/first degree) in which character tells another story (hypo-narrative/second degree)
e.g. Canterbury Tales -> religious pilgrimage
What does the Narrative Situation do?
- shapes the level of mediation
- concerns the way a story is mediated (Mediation)
- Form, Format, Focalisation, View, Mode
What is the definition of the Form of narration?
Erzählform, voice
-> where the narrator is situated in relation to the fictional world about whom the story is told
What are the types of Form of Narration?
- Autodiegetic: 1st person narration, protagonist of story
- Homodiegetic: 1st person narration, non-protagonist character witnessing the story
- Heterodiegetic: 3rd person narration (not part of the story)
What is Diegesis?
Story/World in which story is taking place
What is the Format of Narration?
Erzählformat, shape of narrator character
- overt vs. covert
- I as narrator vs. I as character
- Degree of narrator’s knowledge compared to characters -> omniscience - same degree of knowledge - limited knowledge
- Reliable vs. Unreliable
What’s the difference between overt and covert in the Format of Narration?
- Overt: direct, talks to narratee, often addresses readership, may refer to themselves in 1st person, character in themselves, meta-narrative
- Covert: doesn’t address narratee, neutral, no comments
What is Focalisation of Narration?
Perspective/Point of View (POV)
- who sees isn’t who narrates
- point of ‘view’: seeing, feeling, knowing, believing, remembering
What are the two types of Focalisation of Narration?
- External focalisation: extradiegetic level, godlike omniscience, no limited perspective
- Internal focalisation: intradiegetic level, info which can realistically be known by focalisers, biased & limited perspective
internal e.g. Hunger Games we only read what character experiences
internal e.g. Hunger Games we only read what character experiences -> narrator becomes ‘invisible’
What is a Focaliser?
character within the story whose focus of perception is (temporarily) taken over by the narrator
What is the View of Narration?
Does the reader get to know the characters’ thoughts?
- Inside view: direct access to feelings, thoughts, etc.
- Outside view: only character actions are observed
What is the Mode of Narration?
way of presenting an event
- strong mediation vs. no/little narrational mediation
- Telling (diegesis; narrative mode): we hear narrator’s voice -> narrative mode, descriptive mode, argumentative mode
- Showing (mimesis; dramatic mode): we see character’s discourse (in direct speech)
What is Discourse in Narrativity?
words uttered & words thought
patchwork structure
narrator’s discourse & character’s discourse
What is the basic structure of Discourse?
Character’s discourse is presented within narrator’s discourse
What are the two types of Inquit-formula/tag & act of speech, thought or perception?
- Verba dicendi: Speech
- Verba cogitandi & percipiendi: Thoughts, feelings, perception
What are examples of Verba dicendi & Verba cogitandi & percipiendi?
- Verba dicendi: she said, asked, replied, muttered, confessed, announced, promised, claimed, remarked
- Verba cogitandi & percipiendi: she thought, realized, felt, heard, remembered, imagined, dreamed
How do we characterise Direct Discourse?
- Tagged & untagged
- Verbatim rendering of speech/thought
‘What are you doing?’, she shouted.
He thought: ‘I don’t know’
How do we characterise Indirect Discourse?
- 3rd person
- Tagged & Subordinate clause -> indirect speech
- summarizes, interprets, grammatically straightens the character’s language
- aligns character’s discourse to the point of view of the narrator -> compression
Mary wondered what she should do.
How do we characterise Free Indirect Discourse (FID)?
- hybrid: direct (emotion, wording) & indirect speech (tense, pronouns)
- 3rd person
- Deixis retained but transposed (here becomes there, now becomes then)
- Tense equals indirect speech
- Main clause/syntax retained
- often untagged
- Evaluatives, expressives as in direct speech
Did she not love him at all?
What should he do?
Why for God’s sake had she not talked to him?
How do we characterise the Stream of Consciousness?
- imitates the workings of mind
- incomplete sentences, non-coherence, alogicality
- untagged
- 1st person
- ‘raw’ experience, authentic thought process
What are the typical narrative situations?
- Authorial narrative situation (auktoriale ES)
- First-person narrative situation (Ich-ES)
- Figural narrative situation (personale ES)
ES = Erzählsituation von Stanzl
also camera eye narration
How do we characterise the Authorial narrative situation?
- Form: extradiegetic, 3rd person
- Format: overt, omniscient, reliable narrator
- Focalisation: external perspective, ‘godlike’, no Focaliser
- View: both inside and outside possible
- Mode: changes between telling & showing, mode of telling dominant
How do we characterise the First person narrative situation?
- Form: autodiegetic, 1st person
- Format: overt, I as narrator has superior knowledge vis-a-vis character, generally limited knowledge, both reliability and unreliability possible
- Focalisation: external, internal possible
- View: both inside and outside view possible
- Mode: changes between telling and showing
Focalisation: External (when focus on I as narrator, erzählendes Ich), internal (when focus on l as character, erlebendes Ich)
View: inside (mostly narrator-character), outside (of other characters)
How do we characterise the Figural narrative situation?
- Form: heterodiegetic, 3rd person
- Format: covert narrator, focaliser has limited knowledge & often unreliable
- Focalisation: internal, centre of perspective lies with intradiegetic focaliser not with narrating instance = split between who sees and who speaks
- View: inside view (only focaliser’s consciousness) and outside view of all other characters
- Mode: showing dominant
internal focalisation bc focalizer character not aware he focalizer
often emotional -> flashbacks, personal past (reminiscence) and personal future (conjecture), slice-of-life story -> average day in average person’s life, familiarising articles -> the table instead of a table
What do Narratives do?
they tell a story
What is the definition of Narrativity?
Elements of form and content that characterise narrative texts that are grouped together
What does structuralist narrative theory assume?
narrative text are characterised in a chronologically organised sequence of events
narrative texts differ from lyric bc they have a plot
What is Experienciality?
Monika Fludernik defined Narrativity as Experienciality, as a kind of real-life experience because stories are always accounts of experiences
What does the term character perspective mean and what are his elements?
spectrum of characteristics and attitudes of a particular character
- knowledge of the character
- his/her psychological disposition
- his/her values and norms
What do characters function as?
agents of the action
What is a story transformed into?
a plot
‘The King died and then the Queen died.’ -> story
‘The King died, and then the Queen died of grief’ -> plot
What is the smallest plot unit?
An event, they propel the action and bring changes in the situation of characters
What did Roland Barthes do in order to classify events?
He classified them after importance within the plot
- kernels/cardinal functions
- catalysts/satellites
What are kernels/cardinal functions?
they play a constitutive, propelling role within the plot, they open narrative options
What is a Catalyst/Satellite?
Events that merely embellish the central plot sequence, their omission would not disrupt the logical sequence of narrative
Events can follow one another -> chain but can also be embedded -> story within a frame narrative
How can novels begin?
- Birth of protagonist (ab ovo beginning) -> launch of narrative is somewhere in middle of action (in media res)
- Beginning with end of story -> gradually revealing conditions of beginning (in ultimas res)
What does exposition include?
information concerning time, place, characters, necessary prehistory
integrate vs. isolated exposition
Integrated exposition works well in fast-paced, character-driven narratives where maintaining immersion is crucial.
Isolated exposition is more suited to works where detailed world-building or conceptual frameworks need to be established upfront or outside the main plot.
What are the techniques for novel endings?
- Closed: all problems are solved
- Open: conflict unresolved, fate of characters left open
- Expected ending: poetic justice, reward, punishment
- Unexpected intervention of external agency which wasn’t involved in plot before: deus ex machina ending
What is the camera-eye technique?
from film by Hemingway and is alleged to convey authenticity which is wrong because it’s not at all neutral or representation of reality
What is the second person narration?
to address a character who is involved in the events of narrative
What are signs for unreliable narration?
- Contradictions within narrator’s comments
- Repeated ocurrence of subjective comments
- addresses the reader
- memory lapses
- narrator’s instance on his/her own credibility
