1 An Introduction to Narratology Text 1. Language level: Phones, Word, sentences, paragraphs; selection of words, designation, syntax etc. 2. Thematic level: motives, characters, settings, fictional world, ideas, plot etc. 3. Composition level: language + theme 4. Semantic level (incl. in all of levels) Fictional Worlds • 1970´s = Theory of Fictional Worlds: L. Doležel, U. Eco, R. Ronen, T. Pavel etc. • L. Doležel: Heterocosmica • U. Eco: Six Walks in the Fictional Woods • Fictional worlds of literature are "a special kind of possible worlds; they are aesthetic artifacts constructed, preserved, and circulating in the medium of fictional texts" (Doležel 1998, 16). • A fictional possible world - a fictional world - may be regarded as a frame of reference for all entities constructed by the fictional text. • A fictional world is a macrostructure consisting of entities (characters, objects and places) and relations between them. It is however subjected to certain restrictions shaping its nature in a crucial way: 1. fictional worlds are worlds existing only by virtue of the semantic energy of the text; in other words: a fictional world is accessible through semiotic channels only (reinstated in the act of reading); 2. fictional worlds and their individual components have the status of unused possibilities; 3. fictional worlds are "small worlds" (see Eco 1989; 1990, 64-81); 4. fictional worlds inevitably contain gaps as they are constructed by finite texts (which themselves contain many a gap); 5. these gaps arise in the act of creation of the fictional world and their nature is therefore primarily ontological. 2 Fable and Sujet; Story and Plot B. Tomashevsky: Boris Tomasevsky: Theory of Literature, 1925 Fable: events arranged in their time sequences; but also causality Sujet: fable is material for sujet; sujet = artistic construction of events E. M. Forster: Aspects of the Novel, 1927 Story: The King died and then the Queen died. (story = events arranged in their time sequences) Plot: The King died and then the Queen died because of grief. (chronology and causality = narrative) Narrative • Definition: 2 components: 1. story + plot 2. story + text 3. fable + sujet 4. histoire + discours 5. histoire + récit Příběh + xyz (vyprávění) • Definition: 3 components 1. histoire – récit – narration 2. story – plot – discourse Structuring narratives Structural pattern: • Exposition • Complication • Climax • Reversal • Catastrophe Narrator • Is the agent, the agency or „instance“ that tell or transmits everything (existents, fictional entities, states, events) Real Author – Text – Real Reader Real Author – Implied Author – (Narrator) – (Narratee) – Implied Reader - Real Reader Types of Narrators: G. Genette: 1. Homodiegetic narrator (included in the narrative) = personal, direct 2. Heterodiegetic narrator (excluded from the narrative) = nonpersonal, nondirect; 3 3. Extradiegetic narrator 4. Intradiegetic narrator (narration included in other narration) Wayne Booths: Reliable x Unreliable narrator Implied Author Omnipresent narrator = “This is a common form of third-person narration in which the teller of the tale, who often appears to speak with the voice of the author himself, assumes an omniscient (allknowing) perspective on the story being told: diving into private thoughts, narrating secret or hidden events” Auctorial Narrator (Ich form; narrator often comments the story, the plot) Nonpersonal Narrator (camera eye narrator) Reflector (in K. Stanzel´s works) (opposite of camera eye narrator) Vševědoucí vypravěč: deskriptní pauza „Dvouramenný lustr plynový nejjednodušší konstrukce osvětluje dvěma mírně plápolavými plameny místnost asi osm kroků dlouhou a tolikéž kroků širokou. Stěny jsou moderně malovány na dvě patrony; místy však jest malba vlhkem a plísní nerozeznatelna. Klenutý strop jest natřen temně hnědou barvou a ve středu jeho, kde sbíhá se klenutí v jeden bod, viděti primitivní začmoudlou arabesku nejnevkusnějšího tvaru. Čtvero podlouhlých stolů jest rozestaveno podle stěn, podle kterých jsou připevněny lavice, jejichž pozadí jest kryto dřevěným přepažením na stěně, aby hosté zády svými stěnu neotřeli. Pátý, čtverhranný stolek stojí uprostřed jizby, šestý nalevo ode dveří, kdežto napravo od nich viděti prostou kredenci s několika kávovými, punčovými a pivními sklenicemi, plechovými tácky, malými lžičkami a mističkami na cukr.“ (Arbes 1969) “The room was dark and plainly furnished, with an enormous fireplace and some vicious-looking pistols hangling on the wall. In one corne , a huge hound was curled up in a basket, sourrounded by a mass of squealing puppies, and I could just make out some other large dogs hiding in the shadows.” (Brontë) Focalisation Focus / perspective / point of view Hledisko, úhel pohledu Zero focalisation (omnipresent narrator) Internal focalisation (by homodiegetic narrator) External focalistation (by heterodiegetic narrator) Narration G. Genette: Narrative Discours. An Essay on Method, 1972, transl. 1980. The main concepts: Order, Duration, Frequency // pořádek, trvání, frekvence 4 Order: analepsis prolepsis flashback flashforward analepse prolepse retrospektiva prospektiva Prolepse Tu píseň zařadí Julinka do svého programu – mohli bychom říci s povolením románového přirovnání – na celý život: bude ji zpívat, kdykoliv si v životě vzpomene na pobyt v lázních, kde se seznámila s doktorem Arnoštem. (Součková, Bel canto) Subjektivní (fantazijní) prolepse „Budou u hajných čekat, táta nikde. I obuje se hajná, hodí si přes hlavu šátek a běží: Otevřete, to jsem já, hajná, muž se mně z lesa nevrátil! Jestlipak se mu něco nestalo, jestlipak nám ho tam nezabili! – Ach bože, hajná, a jak! Darmo vám nebylo ouzko: podívejte se, co vám z něho udělali.“ (Čapek, Stín kapradiny) Duration: narrative speed • = the relation between „story time“ (the durationn of events on the level of action) and „discours time“ (the time it takes to reount the events). • Storytelling slows down when action is presented scenically (description) and speeds up in summary. 1. Summary 2. Elipsis 3. Prologue 4. Scenic narration Frequency How often any event is mentioned in a story. 1. Singulative 2. Repetitive 3. Iterative (jednou vyprávěno to, co se událo víckrát)