Narrative in Story and History

Narrative tellings stories (true or false), factual or fictional, in any medium Narration process of telling stories, rather than product different ways to tell stories, jokes to adverts, comics to novels

actual writer ◄► 'external‘ narrator ◄► character as narrator ◄► narratee ◄► actual reader

actual writer historical person 'external' narrator image of how the writer projects him or herself character-as-narrator relates to and participates in action narratee addressee of narrative, person it appears to be directed at, ('dear reader') actual readers person who engages with narrative

writers define themselves through dialogue with narrators characters with 'external' narrator narration is a negotiation between these elements, not a thing points of view and centers of attention are never fixed reader tells a tale, but we play a part too, are a part of the text

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884), by A. Square (Edwin Abbott) I CALL our world Flatland, not because we call it so, but to make its nature clearer to you, my happy readers, who are privileged to live in Space. Imagine a vast sheet of paper on which straight Lines, Triangles, Squares, Pentagons, Hexagons, and other figures, instead of remaining fixed in their places, move freely about, on or in the surface, but without the power of rising above or sinking below it, very much like shadows - only hard and with luminous edges - and you will then have a pretty correct notion of my country and countrymen. Alas, a few years ago, I should have said "my universe": but now my mind has been opened to higher views of things.

In such a country, you will perceive at once that it is impossible that there should be anything of what you call a "solid" kind; but I dare say you will suppose that we could at least distinguish by sight the Triangles, Squares, and other figures, moving about as I have described them. On the contrary, we could see nothing of the kind, not at least so as to distinguish one figure from another. Nothing was visible, nor could be visible, to us, except Straight Lines; and the necessity of this I will speedily demonstrate. Place a penny on the middle of one of your tables in Space; and leaning over it, look down upon it. It will appear a circle.

But now, drawing back to the edge of the table, gradually lower your eye (thus bringing yourself more and more into the condition of the inhabitants of Flatland), and you will find the penny becoming more and more oval to your view; and at last when you have placed your eye exactly on the edge of the table (so that you are, as it were, actually a Flatlander) the penny will then have ceased to appear oval at all, and will have become, so far as you can see, a straight line.

Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go (2005) My name is Kathy H. I'm thirty-one years old, and I've been a carer now for over eleven years. That sounds long enough, I know, but actually they want me to go on for another eight months, until the end of this year.

Structural aspects of narrative some formalist dichotomies: story/plot. Story - what is told, Plot - how it is told tell events from Bible or Blade Runner, but won't help how it was told Fabula/sjuzet. (Formalist) Fabula raw narrative events, dates, places etc. Sjuzet chronological sequencing and structural logic of telling. discours/skaz discours (French) and skaz (Russian) when teller is acknowledged (character as narrator). Distinct from historie/historia where narrator is invisible. In English: yarn,anecdote vs report, account

Types of narrative: first-person omniscient, partial omsiscient (remember focalization) reliable, unreliable Types of narrative episodes beginnings, middles and ends essential, optional kinetic, action static, description, state and atmosphere

Focalization Focalization- "introduced by Gerard Genette to distinguish the activity of the narrator recounting the events of the fictional world from the activity of the character from whose perspective events are perceived, or FOCALIZED. The distinction between the narrator and the FOCALIZER is commonly described in literary theory as a distinction between the agent 'who speaks' and the agent 'who sees.' (Stam et al). Focalization is different from point of view in that it is focuses on the diegetic level of the text, to the level of characters and actions... Different types defined by Genette: Internal focalization - "occurs when a narrative is presented entirely from a given character's perspective, with the limitations and restrictions this implies" (ibid.).Genette - "the angle of vision, from which the life or the action is looked at".

Also - Facets of focalization - Perceptual facet, psychological facet, ideological facet. Internal focalization can be fixed - limited to a single character, variable, when focalization shifts with a scene or film from one character to another, or multiple - one event is viewed from several different perspectives. Another type is EXTERNAL FOCALIZATION - "narratives in which our knowledge of the characters is restricted simply to their external actions and words, without the 'subjectivity' of the characters, their thoughts and feelings, being invoked. Problematic. Also, NON- FOCALIZED or ZERO FOCALIZATION - no character is privileged. Also CHARACTER-FOCALIZER. (Stam et al).

Vladimir Propp, Morphology of the Folktale (1928) 31 narrative functions, stereotypical actions based on Russian folktales hero, helper, dispatcher, villain, princess function in predicable ways, fuction 25--a difficult task is proposed to the hero function 26-the false hero or villain is exposed function 31--the hero is married and ascends the throne look at Superman, Star Wars, soap operas

Imagination in Coleridge Ah! from the Soul itself must issue forth A Light, a Glory, and a luminous Cloud Enveloping the Earth! And from the Soul itself must there be sent A sweet & potent Voice, of it’s own Birth, Of all sweets Sounds the Life & Element. - A balance, an ennobling interchange of action from within and without.