Theory Guidelines Unit 2

UNIT 2. ANALYSING NARRATIVE TEXTS

2.1

INTRODUCTION TO THE GENRE: WHAT IS A NARRATIVE TEXT?

THE NATURE OF NARRATIVE TEXTS.

2.1 Introduction. WHAT IS A NARRATIVE TEXT?

THE NATURE OF NARRATIVE TEXTS

But this is a simple definition for the most elaborate and complex discursive

mode.

We are going to focus our revision of narrative so as we understand:

- ITS GENERAL ORGANIZATION

- ITS FORMAL AND DISCURSIVE CONSTITUENTS

A sequence of chronologically or logically related events.

NARRATIVES are one of the most frequent speech events in our daily communication:

A) Narratives of real events

(newspapers, documentaries…)

B) Narratives of fictional events

(films, tv serials…)

A reality or a fiction are presented by the narrator as an

ordered speech act: with a BEGINNING, a MIDDLE, and an END.

-Conversations with friends or people we meet -Real events in newspapers -Fictional narratives in movies or tv serials -Documentaries

What is a speech act?

Three dimensions of a the text:

LOCUTIONARY DIMENSION: what the texts says by means of the phonological, syntactic and semantic choices made by its author.

ILLOCUTIONARY DIMENSION: these choices are also conditioned by the author’s communicative intention (what the text is trying to do with readers/its communicative effect)

PERLOCUTIONARY DIMENSION: reader’s response to the text.

In the illocutionary dimension what matters is the MESSAGE and its COMMUNICATIVE INTENTION.

An utterance or proposition at work in the process of communication

2.1. NATURE OF NARRATIVE

TEXTS

Narratives are featured as macro speech-acts, as their production involves more than one single speech act.

The main communicative goal of a narrative is to present an evaluated observation about the fictional world and, by a process of extension, of the real world represented by it.

Paradoxical nature of narrative:

-On the one hand, the speaker develops certain strategies aimed at asserting the truth of propositional contents.

-On the other hand, narratives present an image of the world which is not true, and they are told by a speaker (narrator) who is also a fictional construct.

Conditioned by the narrator’s point of view: we can identify certain processes on the author’s side meant to activate specific

expectations on the readers.

A) Narrative as discourse

2.1. NATURE OF NARRATIVE TEXTS

B) Narrative as fiction

In literary communication the report of an event is always part of a

larger situational context.

Both event and situation become FICTIONAL when readers reconstruct the story which explains them all.

This reconstructive effort is undertaken by readers with the guide of the reporting speaker, the narrator.

The relation between narrator and reader is based on the authority conferred on the former by his knowledge of the events (we trust that the narrator will be a faithful and accurate reporter)

2.1 NATURE OF NARRATIVE TEXTS

The role of the narrator is double-sided:

-He must report a sequence of events: accuracy of report, faithfulnees to truth

-He must present them from his own point of view:

But in FICTIONAL TEXTS: events and participants constitute a world which is partly the narrator’s reproduction of the REAL WORLD and partly the product of HIS IMAGINATION.

Readers must be given the clues which allow them to reconstruct this fictional world:

(many of these clues are derived from the contextual knowledge the narrator and reader share.

Ex: in “Bread”, the symbolic meaning of bread, injustice in the world, human morality and

behavior..

2.1.1 NATURE OF NARRATIVE TEXTS

In literary texts the problem is more complex:

Communication is determined by DISPLACEMENT:

Ex: Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart

We ought to consider the implications derived from this absence of common discursive network in our evaluation of specific events/and or participants (characters)

Ex: Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels.

It is one of the most significant effects of fictional narratives. Real world is used by author and reader as a basis of their construction of the fictional world. But the real world may be distorted significantly in the process of fictionalisation.

-between author and reader (don’t share the same discursive network)

-between the narrated world and those of both author and reader.

2.1. NATURE OF NARRATIVE TEXTS

The displacement between narrated world and the worlds of both author and reader can be measured taking into account the two extremes:

REALISM

and

FANTASY A narrative is realistic if it presents a world closely

resembling our image of the real world.

A narrative is a fantasy if it features elements which are not acceptable or possible according to that image.

(See P. 232= Fantastic)

2.3

METHODOLOGICAL PROCEDURES FOR THE ANALYSIS OF NARRATIVE TEXTS

2.3.1 NARRATIVE STRUCTURES

William Lavob’s description of NATURAL NARRATIVES

(oral narratives):

He considers two interrelated structures:

And

EVENT STRUCTURE Centred on the report of the

events

EVALUATIVE STRUCTURE Centred on the speaker’s

evaluative position


EVENT STRUCTURE: Based on the ordered distribution of information according

to a temporal frame (defined by verb tenses and temporal references) which allows the recipient to establish a relation of cause and effect among the events.

This ordered sequence of events has been called :

And the resulting image has been called:

Not synonymous; a narrative can feature more than one plot and still constitute one single story.

PLOT

STORY


EVALUATIVE STRUCTURE: Results from the use of specific strategies of evaluation which

manifest a certain point of view on the information provided.

Made explicit by the narrator’s commentaries on the characters or the actions.

Additions to the basic story, to highlight attitudes or to command the listener’s attention at important moments.

In oral speech it includes gestures, paralinguistic features, intensifiers, negatives, repetitions, responses to the actions presented as part of the story, etc.


EXAMPLES:

Evaluative as responses to the actions:

- “ The wives and daughters lament their confinement to the island, although I think it is the most delicious spot of ground in the world”. Swift, “Voyage to Laputa”, p.209.

- “her Imperial Majesty’s apartment was on fire, by the carelessness of a Maid who fell asleep while she was reading a romance”. Swift, “Voyage to Lilliput”, p. 91.

- “If ever a man deserved his success, that man was Okonkwo”, Achebe, 19.


LAVOB’S NARRATIVE SECTIONS:

ABSTRACT ORIENTATION

COMPLICATION EVALUATION RESOLUTION

CODA


*ABSTRACT: to point out the nature of the events that the speaker is about to

report by means of a summary.

One or two clauses summarizing the whole story

In written texts: the title of the text, cover illustrations, introductory quotations, and other cotextual elements.

Examples:

- Tess of the D’Urbervilles. A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented by Thomas Hardy (long and explicit title)

- Things Fall Apart (modern titles are more inderteminate; clue of what we should seek to focus when reading) (Chinua Achebe)

- A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (James Joyce)

2.3.1. NARRATIVE STRUCTURES

*ORIENTATION: Introduces the physical and interpersonal contexts.

At the outset, it is necessary to identify in some way the time, place (the setting), persons and their activity or the situation.

The conditions that will initiate the sequence of events.

Orientation is naturally placed at the beginning; though

sometimes preceded by sections of the complication: STORY begins IN MEDIA RES.

Strong descriptive mode: predicative clauses, complex noun and

adverbial phrases.

EXAMPLES:

- From Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy. Part I. Chapter 2.

The village of Marlott lay amid the north-eastern undulations of the beautiful Vale of Blakemore or Blackmoor aforesaid, and engirdled and secluded region, for the most part untrodden as yet by tourist or landscape-painter, though within a four hours' journey from London. It is a vale whose acquaintance is best made by viewing it from the summits of the hills that surround it--except perhaps during the droughts of summer.

*************

The forests have departed, but some old customs of their shades remain. Many, however, linger only in a metamorphosed or disguised form. The May-Day dance, for instance, was to be discerned on the afternoon under notice, in the guise of the club revel, or "club-walking," as it was there called.

It was an interesting event to the younger inhabitants of Marlott, though its real interest was not observed by the participators in the ceremony. Its singularity lay less in the retention of a custom of walking in procession and dancing on each anniversary than in the members being solely women.

**************

The banded ones were all dressed in white gowns--a gay survival from Old Style days, when cheerfulness and May-time were synonyms--days before the habit of taking long views had reduced emotions to a monotonous average.

**************

She was a fine and handsome girl--not handsomer than some others, possibly--but her mobile peony mouth and large innocent eyes added eloquence to colour and shape. She wore a red ribbon in her hair, and was the only one of the white company who could boast of such a pronounced adornment.


*COMPLICATION:

The text really becomes the narrative of a sequence of events.

More dynamic situations; the report of relevant events for the

character and audience.

The movement from the orientation to the complication may be marked

by shift in references from habitual to punctual.

CRISIS OR CONFLICT; the longest section.

Organized in EPISODES (smaller narratives). Episodes can be separated by chapters, sections, paragraphs… the narrative is made of episodes that do not add anything significant to the process of resolution. Ex: Things Fall Apart. First Part.

If they do not contribute to the development of the conflict or crisis, they are NARRATIVE DIGRESSIONS.


EVALUATION: An alternative or complementary structure, blended with the event structure.

to ascertain the nature of the events and the reporter’s attitudes, and consequently, the expected attitude in readers.

EXTERNAL EVALUATION: marks the existence of a relation between

narrator and reader which emphasizes the distance between fictional and reader’s world:

INTERNAL EVALUATION: narrator’s participation is less exposed to the reader:

-comments especially addressed to the reader -interrupt the progression of the story-telling

-force readers to reconsider his own evaluation

-modifiers -modal verbs

-intensifiers, etc…

EXAMPLES:

External evaluation: -“This may perhaps pass with the reader rather for an European or English

story, than for one of a country so remote. But he may please to consider, that the caprices of womankind are not limited by any climate or nation, and that they are much more uniform than can be easily imagined”. Swift, “Voyage to Laputa”, p. 208.

Internal evaluation: -“the most scandalous corruptions into which these people are fallen by the

degenerate nature of man. For as to that infamous practice of acquiring great employments by dancing on the ropes…”. Swift, “Voyage to Lilliput”, p. 96


RESOLUTION: The narrator reports the end of conflict or crisis.

What happens after the conflict is solved.

A return to order after the chaos that the conflict represented.

-COHERENT CONCLUSION OF THE NARRATIVE

-SPECIFIC CONCLUSIONS ABOUT THE NARRATOR’S (AUTHOR’S)

VIEW OF THE WORLD


*CODA: Like the abstract, it is part of the discursive framing.

Marks the conclusion and indicates to the audience that the speaker has reached to the end of the narrative.

EXAMPLE:

“ “Justice” was done, and the President of the Inmortals in Aeschylean phrase

had ended his sport with Tess.” Tess of the d’Urbervilles, chapter 59.

-Comment about the narrative events and their resolution -Speaker’s final evaluation to insist on or clarify some aspect -Conclusive formula: “and they lived happily ever after”.


Structural elements:

COHERENCE AND COHESION It is a very important skill for us as readers to develop an

awareness of the cohesion and coherence of texts.

---What does COHESION mean?

*all the grammatical and lexical links that link one part of a text to

another. use of synonyms, lexical sets, pronouns, verb tenses, time references, grammatical reference, etc.

For example, 'it', 'neither' and 'this' all refer to an idea previously mentioned. 'First of all', 'then' and 'after that' help to sequence a text. 'However', 'in addition' and 'for instance' link ideas and arguments in a text.

- cohesion is a means of establishing connections within a text at all sorts of different levels, e.g., section, paragraphs, sentences and even phrases.


TIES: a single instance of cohesion

Five cohesive devices:

*REFERENCE: this term is used to describe the different ways in which

entities are refered to in the same text.

- Wash and core six cooking apples. Put them into a fireproof dish. (reference is their tie)

(reference operates at the semantic level; the reference item must not match the gramatical item it refers to)

- Wash and core six cooking apples. Put the apples into a fireproof dish. (reference and repetition are their ties)

-reference -substitution

-ellipses -conjunction

-lexical cohesion


*SUBSTITUTION: Replacement of one item by another

Example:

-I have heard many strange stories, but this one is the strangest of all of them. (nominal substitution-Noun)

-I´ll have boiled eggs. I’ll have the same (nominal substitution-Noun)

-Children do not play now as they used to do (verbal substitution)

-Is she going to buy a car? I think so. (clausal substitution-clause)

(the substitute item has the same structural function as that for which it substitutes)

*Distinction between SUBSTITUTION and REFERENCE: substitution is a relation in the wording rather than in the meaning.

Reference is a more abstract concept that deals with how items are aluded to. A relation between meanings.

Substitution deals with words. A relation between linguistic items such as words and phrases. A grammatical relation.To avoid repetition.


*ELLIPSES: words are deliberately left out of a sentence, though the meaning can still be understood. (Nominal, verbal, clausal)

Example:

-Where are you going?

-To town (clausal ellipses)

*CONJUNCTIONS: a words which joins words, phrases or clauses together, such as but, and, when, so that, nevertheless, or, that, unless…

-Additive: and

-Adversative: but, nevertheless

-Causal: so, thus, hence, therefore

-Temporal: then


*LEXICAL COHESION: Sentences are associated thematically when they have a number of lexical items which have the same referent (referential identity) or share common semes (common semantic field). Both cases constitute LEXICAL COHESION.

-lexical items that participate in the elaboration of common semantic fields:

Ex:

“I haven’t yet begun to feel

That I have had a decent meal!”

He ran around the kitchen yelping,

“I’ve got to have another helping”!


---What does COHERENCE mean? *General principle of interpretation of language in context.

*When sentences, ideas, and details fit together clearly, readers can follow along easily, and the writing is coherent. The ideas tie together smoothly and clearly.

-Coherence can be thought of as how meanings and sequences of ideas relate to

each other.

Typical examples would be :

general> particular; statement> example; problem> solution; question> answer; claim> counter-claim.

(See p. 143)

2.3.2. SETTING, PLOT, CHARACTERS

*SETTING: (See p. 147-149) participants and actions are located

-provides information about the main character

-vivid setting increases credibility of character and events

-sometimes it provides keys to understand main character

-contributes to create the mood or atmosphere

Reconstruted by SPATIO-TEMPORAL references about the fictional world.

-locative adverbials

-narrator’s descriptions or references to places or objects

*to reconstruct a fictional world we need to locate it in

SPACE and TIME.


But the SETTING does not only contribute to create a temporal and geographical background:

*in some cases it also produces a particular MOOD AND TONE

OR

ATMOSPHERE

linked to the setting in that they give the reader clues about the emotions or feelings attached to the setting

I quitted my seat, and walked on, although the darkness and storm

increased every minute, and the thunder burst with a terrific crash over my head. It was echoed from Saleve, the Juras, and the Alps of Savoy; vivid flashes of lightning dazzled my eyes, illuminating the lake, making it appear like a vast sheet of fire; then for an instant everything seemed of a pitchy darkness, until the eye recovered itself from the preceding flash. The storm, as is often the case in Switzerland, appeared at once in various parts of the heavens. The most violent storm hung exactly north of the town, over that part of the lake which lies between the promontory of Belrive and the village of Copet. Another storm enlightened Jura with faint flashes; and another darkened and sometimes disclosed the Mole, a peaked mountain to the east of the lake. While I watched the tempest, so beautiful yet terrific, I wandered on with a hasty step.

From Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, 1818.

Setting: dark night, storm, near the Alps in Switzerland (setting by references of narrator, Belrive, Jura….)

Atmosphere: romantic=beauty-fright (anticipates the meeting between the narrator and the monster)


* PLOT AND STORY: (See pp. 140, 144-145) The simple sequence of events in a novel is a STORY, but the

moment we start to take account of motivation and causation the story becomes a PLOT.

-Famous definition by

E.M. Forster (Aspects of the Novel, 1927):

‘ “The king died and then the queen died” is a story’

‘ “The king died and then the queen died of grief” is a plot’

-Story: “a narrative of events arranged in time sequence; makes the audience know what happens next.”

-Plot: “also a narrative of events the emphasis falling on causality” (time sequence is overshadowed by sense of causality)


Plot: What happens? The king died and the queen died of grief.

Story: What is it all about? The king died and the queen died.

A narrative can have one ore more PLOTS-LINES: events can centre around one or more groups of characters.

Most novels develop

MULTIPLE PLOTS

MAIN PLOT SUB-PLOTS

*Sub-plots can serve as contrast to the main plot when for instance, there is the same kind of events in higher and lower social spheres (Shakespeare’s plays)

-LOOSE OR EPISODIC PLOT: ex=picaresque novels, Don Quixote (EPISODIC); Becket’s Waiting for Godot (almost nothing happens- LOOSE PLOT)

-TIGHT PLOT: everything happens for a reason and one event is consequence of another. It increases SUSPENSE.


*CHARACTERS: ***For the reconstruction of a character by the reader we count on four

textual sources of information or METHODS OF CHARACTERIZATION:

*descriptions and comments by the narrator (description or report)

*what they do (action)

*what the say or think (conversation/thought)

*symbols or images

(see pp. 137-139)

***Ways of revealing a or creating a character:

TELLING AND SHOWING (See pp. 135-136)


Character-Types *Useful for us to recognize a TYPE (prototype) in each CHARACTER

–can help us determine its most significant features

-can help us locate the variations from the conventional standards

(See pp. 134-135)

*the recognition of the type of each character should not be our main goal, just the first step in the analysis of its role in the text, its relationship with other characters, etc.

*AGENTS AND PATIENTS

- according to the ACTIONS in which they participate and how they RELATE with other characters.

(Functional relations)

AGENTS OR

PATIENTS


AGENTS

*If we view AGENTS in a relation of opposition: PROTAGONIST/ANTAGONIST

*If we consider the effects of their actions:

HERO =constructive, restorative role/VILLAIN= destructive role

PATIENTS

*The effects of the actions of the agents in other characters determine:

VICTIMS= Characters affected by the villain’s actions

BENEFICIARIES= those who benefit from the hero’s actions

* The choice of a name for each character should not be our main goal in our

analysis. We should be able to explain what the character represents in the story as a whole.


PROTAGONISTS AND HELPERS

*According to the relevance that their roles have in the development of narrative events:

-central characters or PROTAGONISTS

-secondary characters or HELPERS (Vladimir Propp’s

term)

(Propp established in 1928 seven types of characters: hero, villain, helper, donor, dispatcher, princess and her father, false hero)


*ROUND/FLAT CHARACTERS (E.M. Forster, Aspects of the Novel, 1927)

According to their degree of complexity

(See p. 226) *FLAT : they are constructed

-around a single idea or quality

-around a set of qualities conventionally ascribed to a especific type.

-as projection of static values

-or subordinated to the functional needs of the plot (no independent existence)

*ROUND:

-They resist classification because they present a complex set of features or transform themselves and change

-They react and adapt to the evolving conditions of the story

-They seem to have personality of their own


*We should be aware of the ways the author conditions the reader’s affective and ideological relations with the characters:

-ADMIRATIVE IDENTIFICATION with the hero.

-DISSOCIATION or DETACHMENT with the villain. -SYMPATHETIC or EMOTIONAL IDENTIFICATION with the victim

(remember Unoka’s description in chapter 1 of Things Fall Apart; prosody contributes to our sympathetic consideration)

Our evaluation of a character should be conditioned by the way in

which it contributes to the perception of a text as a coherent whole, and of the world presented as a coherent projection of ideas about the “real” world.

*REMEMBER!!

2.4

NARRATIVE VOICES

WHO IS SPEAKING?

2.4 NARRATOR. Point of view

Narrator: the person who is telling the story

Author: the person who wrote the story

*In our analysis of the narrator we will focus on:

-participation of narrator in his narrative: CHARACTER/NON-

CHARACTER =(DIEGESIS) (See p. 110-113)

-extent of narratorial presence in the events: IMPERSONAL/PERSONIFIED (See pp. 109-110)

-the level of knowledge he has about the events:

OMNISCIENT, LIMITED OMNISCIENT, EQUISCIENT (See pp. 112-113)

-his intrusion in the minds of the characters: COMPLICITY, INTRUSION, INTIMACY (See pp. 119-120)

-degree of reliability of the narrative: RELIABLE/UNRELIABLE

(See pp. 117-118)

2.4.1 FIRST PERSON NARRATIVE

Uses “I” or “we”

Usually a CHARACTER in the story, who interacts with other characters.

We see those interact through the narrator’s eyes, we can’t know anything the narrator doesn´t know. Limited in scope.

Cannot state the inner world of others

*WITNESS NARRATOR :

The narrator is a character involved in the story more or less directly

(personal account of the events)

*PROTAGONIST NARRATOR:

The narrator is the main character in the story

2.4.2 THIRD PERSON NARRATIVE

• Often with no opinion, though sometimes any evaluative mark indicates an intention to control the reader.

• Ubiquitous narrator who does not seem to have a personality of his own.

*OMNISCIENT NARRATOR: knows and tells the unexpressed thoughts and feelings of the characters. Unsrestricted access to the minds of every single character.

-employs shifting points of view

-may openly comment on the behaviour of his characters

-the author reports ideas and events and also judges them

-renders objectivity to the story; the author can distance himself from characters, alowing reader to judge by themselves

-usually reliable

* LIMITED or SELECTIVE OMNISCIENT: his intrusion in the minds has been limited to the minds of central characters or a single one.

2.4.2 THIRD PERSON NARRATIVE

*EQUISCIENT NARRATOR: does not report any thoughts other than his own.

-Narrator and character have the same information

-Reports what could realistically be inferred from the character’s gestures, behaviour and words.

-If he chooses a character, he tells the reader only what happens where the character is.

-Can physically describe the character (unlike the 1st person narrator)

-tells the story as he lives it

-It can also appear in first person (Ex: Watson in Sherlock Holmes)

STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS TECHNIQUES

-Representing the unexpressed thoughts of a character (See, pp. 124-

125; 234)

INTERIOR MONOLOGUE: Thoughts are simply ordered and arranged/clearly structured as if they had

been uttered or merely inserted within the narrator’s utterance by : You can imagine them being uttered aloud.

a) indirect/reported speech: Ex. indirect: “It was for herself that he loved Tess; her soul, her

heart, her substance-not for her skill in the dairy, her aptness as his scholar, and certainly not for her simple, formal faith-profession”. Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Ubervilles

Ex: “He stood up and passed out among them in the file. He had to

decide. He was coming near the door. If he went on with the fellows he could never go up to the rector because he could not leave the playground for that. And if he went…” James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man


b) Direct speech:

Ex. Direct: “As I Came into the morgue I Chanced to glimpse Molly’s corpse an thought: “Jesus, here it is, at last I’ve found it” “

Ex: The detective rushed into the morgue: “Where is the corpse? Unless I have a look at her shoes, the identity of Molly’s murderer will never be known”.

*STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS: (See p. 125)

NON-VERBALIZED expressions of thoughts/Sometimes chaotically organized

-Fragmentary, Associative; imitates how people think

Ex: “It was true. God was almighty. God could call him now, call him as he sat at his desk, before he had time to be conscious of the summons. God had called him. Yes? What? Yes?...He had died. Yes. He was judged. A wave of fire swept through his body: the first. Again a wave. His brain began to glow. Another.” James Joyce’s A Portrait.


Free indirect speech:

Third person narration which combines some of the characteristics of third person report with first person direct speech.

What distinguishes free indirect speech from normal indirect speech, is the lack of an introductory expression such as "He said" or "he thought". It is as if the subordinate clause carrying the content of the indirect speech is taken out of the main clause which contains it, becoming the main clause itself. Using free indirect speech may convey the character's words more directly than in normal indirect, as he can use devices such as interjections and exclamation marks, that cannot be normally used within a subordinate clause.

See pp. 126-127

Date post:	26-Dec-2015
Category:	Documents
Upload:	jose-manuel-roth
View:	18 times
Download:	1 times

Theory Guidelines Unit 2

Documents