What Makes a Good Story?: A Workshop on Narrative Paul Simpson, Lyon – 3, 2008.

John dropped the plates and Janet laughed suddenly.

Textual medium Sociolinguistic code Characterisation 1: actions and events Characterisation 2: point of view Textual structure Intertextuality Abstract storyline Represented storyline Domain in stylistics PLOTDISCOURSE Recap from this morning

Approaching Narrative Structure Natural Narrative a method of recounting past experience by matching a sequence of clauses to the sequence of events which (it is implied) actually occurred. A minimal narrative can be defined as a sequence of two clauses which are temporally ordered: that is, a change in their order will result in a change in the interpretation of the assumed chronology of narrative events.

LABOV’S MODEL OF NATURAL NARRATIVE Labov proposes the following six narrative categories: ABSTRACTwhat was this about? ORIENTATIONwho, when, what, where? COMPLICATING ACTIONthen what happened? EVALUATIONso what? RESULT or RESOLUTIONwhat finally happened? To this we can add CODA which serves to put off any further questions.

How the natural narrative components interlock: CategoryFormFunction Abstract Signals that a story is about to begin and draws attention from the listener; gives some idea what the story is going to be about. Normally a short summarising statement, provided before narrative starts. Orientation Helps the listener to identify the time, place, persons, activity and situation (i.e. the “who, what, when, where” of the story). Often characterised by past progressive verb forms and adverbs of time, manner and place. Complicating Action The core narrative category providing the “what happened” element of a story. Realised by narrative clauses which are temporally ordered and normally have a verb in the simple past. Resolution Recapitulates the final events events of a story (i.e. the “what finally happened” element). Comprises the last of the narrative clauses which began the Complicating Action. Evaluation Functions to make the point of the story clear, to ward off responses such as “so what?” Marked by a number of different linguistic forms. Includes: evaluative commentary; embedded speech; intensifiers; comparators; explicatives; negatives; future / modal verbs. Coda Signals that a story has ended; brings listener back to the point at which s/he entered narrative. No specific linguistic features, Although frequently a generalised statement which is timeless in character.

Complicating ActionResolution OrientationCoda Abstract (after Labov 1972) Evaluation

Evaluation is situated outside the central narrative pattern and can be inserted at virtually any stage during a narrative. Although not an obligatory rule of narrative, the insertion of evaluative devices is generally very important as it helps foreground the central, reportable events of a story. Evaluation

well this person had a little too much to drink and he attacked me and the friend came in and she stopped it (Labov 1972: 360) Ill-formed narratives

[Narrative in context of conversation about dressing smartly, from woman in her fifties from West Belfast, recounting a previous experience working in a primary school canteen] I min’ in Craigavon our school got blew up, an’ we got a new one. An’ the headmaster, he says ‘Now dress up smartly to meet the Prime Minister’. An’ here’s me, ‘I’m not dressing up – sure I’m from the Falls Road!’. Could ye imagine me meeting John Major and me from the Falls Road?

REFERENCES Labov, W. (1972) Language in the Inner City University of Pennsylvania Press. Simpson, P. (1997) Language through Literature Routledge. Simpson, P. (2004) Stylistics Routledge. Simpson, P. and Montgomery, M. (1995) ‘Language, Literature and Film: The Stylistics of Bernard MacLaverty’s Cal’ In Twentieth Century Fiction: From Text to Context, eds. P. Verdonk and J. J. Weber. Routledge. pp