Narratology The scientific or formalistic study of narratives Mikhail Bakhtin Roland Barthes Gerard Genette Story Discourse Story the actual chronology of events in a narrative ID: 611523
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Slide1
The Moonstone IISlide2Slide3
Narratology
The scientific or
formalistic
study of narratives
Mikhail
Bakhtin
, Roland Barthes, Gerard
GenetteSlide4
Story / Discourse
Story =
the actual chronology of events in a narrative
;
Discourse =
T
he
manipulation of that story in the presentation of the
narrative
AKA: “
Fabula
” and “
Sjuzh
”
“
Fabula
refers to the chronological sequence of events in a narrative;
sjuzhet
is the re-presentation of those events (through narration, metaphor, camera angles, the re-ordering of the temporal sequence, and so on). The distinction is equivalent to that between story and discourse, and was used by the Russian Formalists, an influential group of
structuralists
.”
See http
://
www.cla.purdue.edu
/
english
/theory/
narratology
/terms/
narrativetermsmainframe.htmlSlide5
“
The Age of Progress
”
Nineteenth Century:
“
The Age of Progress
”
;
Queen
Victoria:
1837-
1901
Revolutions on the Continent: 1789 (and after), 1848
Revolutions in England:
0; Reform
Bills (1832, 1867, 1884
)
Threats to Nation in Romantic Era: REVOLUTION!
Threats to Nation in Victorian Era: CLASS WAR
! GLOBAL CLASS WAR!
Different strategies arise to narrate and forestall these new dangers… Slide6
Bildungsroman: Dickens
“
Formation Novel
”
– Prototype of development stories
National
“
coming of age
”
story – one representative character
Subject = Nation?
Johanne
Von Goethe, Sorrows of Young Werther (1790s)Great Expectations, David Copperfield (1850s)Kunstlerroman: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916)Child Adolescent Adult Typically Retrospective
Child
Adult
(
“Then”)
(
“
Now
”
)Slide7
National Marriage Plot
Elizabeth Gaskell
’
s
North and South
(1855
): Romance
of National Consolidation: two representative characters
Margaret
– Southern England, Agrarian,
“
Pre-Modern,
” Anglican, “Classy,” Bookish, Philanthropic. (But also superstitious: “Burning cats!”) OLD ENGLANDMr. Thornton – From Manchester (North), Mercantilist, “New Money,”
Reformist, Rich (But also crass: bad table manners, and doesn’t read any literature) MODERN ENGLAND“And yet, yo’ see, North and South has both met and made kind o’
friends in this big smoky place” (73)
}Slide8
National Marriage Plot
Thornton and Margaret
’
s marriage as the business of England
’
s future
:
“
Mr. Thornton did not speak, and she went on looking for some paper on which were written down the proposals for security; for she was most anxious to have it all looked upon in the light of a mere business arrangement, in which the principle advantage would be on her side. While she sought for this paper, her very heart pulse was arrested by the tone in which Mr. Thornton spoke. His voice was hoarse, and trembling with tender passion, as he said: --
“‘
Margaret!
’”
(424)Slide9
The Historical Novel
{ }
Past Future
“
Romance
”
“
Realism
”
Waverly dreams of his dead Scottish friends:
“
These reveries he was permitted to enjoy… and it was in many a winter walk by the shores of Ullswater, that he acquired a more
complete mastery
of a spirit tamed by adversity than his former experience had given him; and that he felt himself entitled to say firmly,
though perhaps with a sigh
, that the romance of his life was ended, and that its real history had now commenced.” (415)
Waverly
’
s JourneySlide10
Ian Watt,
The Rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson, and Fielding
(1957) tells the story of just that: the
“
rise
”
of
“
the novel.
”
Who is the main character of this story? What happens to
“
him
”?
Daniel Defoe
“Then
” Joyce? “
Now
”
Progressive Stories of
Progress: Be Careful!Slide11
Progressive Stories of Victorian Progress
Prince Albert’s Speech at the Mansion House
“How
dull it is to pause, to make an end, to rust
unburnished
, not to shine in use
!”
“To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield”
Victorian
State:
“
Free,” “Pluralistic,
” “Democratic”Slide12
Anti-Developmental
Models?
Emily
Bronte
, Wuthering Heights
(1848)
Two houses (
Thrushcross
Grange, Wuthering Heights)
Two generations of lovers (Heathcliff/Catherine, Linton/Catherine 2)
Ends with scene at the graveyard, looking backward
James Joyce, Finnegan’s Wake (1939): CircularityVladimir Nabokov, Lolita (1955). Semi-Moonstony Structure?
Narrator (Humbert Humbert) is a visionary author, an immoral tyrant. But his “manuscript” is introduced and partially “edited
” by John Ray Jr., Ph.D, an idiot moralist.Structure allows both positions to be made fun of, ironized. We don’t (or can’t) “sympathize” with either position…Slide13
Form and
Narrative
Novels as Tacit Claims of How History Happens
Developmental History (
“
Progress!
”
)
Cyclical History (
“
It all comes back
”
)History as Decline (“The world isn’t what it used to be”)Possible Political Stakes of These Models of History?Developmental (
“Whig”: Progressive?)Cyclical (Quietist?)Decline (“Tory”: Conservative?)Slide14
What is The Moonstone
?
* NOTE. ADDED BY FRANKLIN BLAKE.—Miss Clack may make
her
mind quite easy on this point. Nothing will be added, altered or removed, in her manuscript, or in any of
the other
manuscripts which pass through my hands.
Whatever
opinions any of the writers may express,
whatever
peculiarities of treatment may mark, and perhaps in a literary sense, disfigure the narratives which I am
now
collecting, not a line will be tampered with anywhere, from first to last. As genuine documents they are sent to me—and as genuine documents I shall preserve them, endorsed by the attestations of witnesses who can speak to the facts. It only remains to be added that "the person chiefly concerned” in Miss Clack's narrative, is happy enough at the present moment, not only to brave the smartest exercise of Miss Clack's pen, but even to
recognise its unquestionable value as an instrument for the exhibition of Miss Clack's character. (202)Slide15
Point of View
First
Person
; A
point of view in which an "I" or "we" serves as the narrator of a piece of fiction. The narrator may be a minor character, observing the
action or a major participant in the story.
Third
-
Person
:
A method of storytelling in which a narrator relates all action in third person, using third person pronouns such as "he" or "she." Third person may be omniscient or limited.
Third
-Person Limited: Third person limited point of view is a method of storytelling in which the narrator knows only the thoughts and feelings of a single character, while other characters are presented externally. Third-Person Omniscient; A method of storytelling in which the narrator knows the thoughts and feelings of all of the characters in the story, as opposed to third person limited, which adheres closely to one character's perspective.