Structuralist Narratology

“We are narrative creatures, and we need narrative nourishment—narrative catechisms.” 

           D Wilson 

Narrative means anything that tells a story. It may be a novel, a fictional book, a painting, a picture, a news paper, an advertisement, a movie and even a prayer. 

Narratology is a branch of linguistics which studies the narrative structure. It also has connection with other branch of studies like Stylistics. Narratology is all about stories.

According to Peter Barry, " Narratology is the study of how narratives make meaning and what are basic procedures and mechanisms in the act of story telling". 

According to Prof. Malcom Bradbury, " Narratology is the study of  poetic fiction, exploring the nature of narrative system"

The term narratologie (narratology in French) was coined by Tzvetan Todorov.

Aristotle's Poetics can be considered an early work of narratological writing. In his Poetics, Aristotle says that a plot must have a beginning, middle and an end. Then he identified three key elements in plot. They are *Hamartia *Anagnorsis and *Peripeteia

Russian Formalist, Vladimir Propp in his The Morphology of Folk Tales (1928) wrote about the system of internal organization of folktales. French Anthropologist, Claude levi strauss  talks about the set of organizational structure of fairy tales. AJ Greimas, who found six unit of structure that are present within the narrative.

One of the most important Narratologists is Gerard Genette, .

 20th Century Structuralism, generated some of the most rigorous analysis of narratives and it's forms. The most important of the structural Narratologist, Gérard Genette, who is widely discussed the way tales are united, how it is told, which is to say and the process of telling itself. He has developed narrative voice.

The voice is constituted by the following elements. 

1. Narrative Instance

This refers to the actual moment or context of the Narration, the temporal setting of the enunciation of the Narration. 

2. Narrative time

This is the time indicated by the tense(of the verb) in the narrative. 

For Eg: The Narrative may be about a future event. Where the narrative time is prophetic or in certain novels, the time of event is time of the narrative itself. Some novels narrate it has already happend. 

3. Narrative levels

 This refers to the relation of the acts narrated to the act of Narration itself. For example, a story within a story. 

Genette find outs four important levels of narrative 

1.order

2 Duration 

3.Frequnecy 

4.Mood

1.Order

The sequence of events in relation to the order of Narration. Events may have taken palce before the actual narration.  Order can be;

1.analepsis - flashback 

2.prolepsis- if may not have taken place. It is merely anticipated or predicted by the narrative. 

3.anachrony- a discrepancy between the order of events in a story and the order in which they are presented in the plot. Anachronies are either flash black or flashforward. 

4. Metalepsis

There may be a movement between one narrative level to another. 

Duration

 The rhythm at which events take places expand episodes or summarize. 

a) ellipsis - infinetly rapid narration

b) summary- relatively rapid

C) scene - relatively slow

D) description- no progress in the story

Frequency 

The extend of repetition in a narrative( how many times has an event happend in the story) 

Mood

Narrative mood is depend on the distance and perspective of the narrator.