Narration and narratology

Intro

• Narratology: the study of narration and narrative techniques

• Narrator (narrative agent): central in prose fiction – in film and drama the situation is quite different

• Narrator should not be confused with the author

Basics

• AUTHOR < narrator narratee > READER / addressee.

Narrative situation

• The person of the narrator:–First person–Third person

Knowledge of the narrator

• Limited knowledge• Omniscient

•neutral omniscience

• limited omniscience

Other categories

• Authority: –reliable vs. unreliable

• Intrusive vs. neutral

Medium

• Speech• Thought• Text•Mixed, unclear or unspecified

Register and style

• Formal (calculated, careful etc.)• Informal (spontaneous,

colloquial)

Levels of Narration

• Diegetic• Extradiegetic• Hypodiegetic

Voice and perspective

• Voice – who speaks to us (whose voice we hear)?• Perspective – whose perspective we

take (Who do we sympathize with)?

Tone of narration

• What is the attitude of the narrator towards what is narrated?–satirical, –ironic, –understanding etc.

Narrative Distance

• Temporal• Spatial•Attitudinal (tone and style)

Narrative techniques and structures (examples)

• Frame narrative• interior (internal) monologue • Stream of consciousness

technique

Anachrony

analepsis(retrospection /

flashback)

prolepsis(anticipation / flashforward)

Duration of narration

1. Descriptive pause narrative time = n, story time = 0

2. Scene - narrative time = story time

3. Summary - narrative time < story time

4. Ellipsis - narrative time = 0, story time = n

Elipsis

Explicit ellipsis (e.g. ten years ago…)

Implicit ellipsis

Frequency of narration