Narratology and narrative : history and perspective

  • We may consider narratology - the structural study of narratives - in two ways, each of them implying a slightly different 'before' and 'after'. First, this important endeavor in 20th century literary studies may be regarded as the study of a specific narrative 'logic', the formal structures that unite all narratives, fictional and factual, literary and non-literary. Secondly, narratology may be regarded as the study of specific 'texts' with specific cultural functions - storehouses of 'memory' on the one hand and, on the other, 'meaning-generating devices' integrating human action with time and place, ending up in cognition, identity, values, pragmatic norms, etc. In spite of the fact that both trends diminish the role of the specific medium of a given narrative, focusing instead on a general logic or on general functions, both of them refer 'de facto' to literature as a primary field of study; moreover, they are both children, twins one might argue, of the linguistic turn at the turn of the last century, and they both 'de facto' constantly refer to language as a primary field of study. This paradigmatic shift emphasized a specific medium and its specific logic in a general perspective without losing grip of the specificity. A lesson may be learned if we quickly repaint the history and perspective of this turn in a few broad strokes.

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Metadaten
Author:Svend Erik Larsen
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-455214
ISSN:1432-5306
Parent Title (German):Komparatistik : Jahrbuch der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Allgemeine und Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft
Publisher:Synchron
Place of publication:Heidelberg
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Date of Publication (online):2018/01/22
Year of first Publication:2001
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Creating Corporation:Deutsche Gesellschaft für Allgemeine und Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft
Release Date:2018/01/22
GND Keyword:Erzähltheorie
Volume:2000/2001
Page Number:15
First Page:113
Last Page:127
HeBIS-PPN:426584120
Dewey Decimal Classification:8 Literatur / 80 Literatur, Rhetorik, Literaturwissenschaft / 800 Literatur und Rhetorik
Sammlungen:CompaRe | Allgemeine und Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft
CompaRe | Allgemeine und Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft / Synchron Wissenschaftsverlag der Autoren
BDSL-Klassifikation:03.00.00 Literaturwissenschaft / BDSL-Klassifikation: 03.00.00 Literaturwissenschaft > 03.06.00 Literaturtheorie
03.00.00 Literaturwissenschaft / BDSL-Klassifikation: 03.00.00 Literaturwissenschaft > 03.03.00 Studien
Zeitschriften / Jahresberichte:Komparatistik : Jahrbuch der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Allgemeine und Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft / Komparatistik : Jahrbuch der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Allgemeine und Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft ; 2000/2001
:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-441575
Licence (German):License LogoDeutsches Urheberrecht