Narratology

• Simplest definition: a narrative is something told.
• The term narrative is a way of defining what we mean by a story and storytelling. Understanding narrative leads to an understanding of who tells a story and how it is told and in what setting. Narratives are everywhere.
• Slightly more complex definition: A narrative is a connected account of some change due to events or actions. Note: in narrative, something must occur.
• Where does narrative happen? Firstly, there is the narrative level (also called storyworld; there can be multiple levels), i.e. the world, milieu, or space in which the narrative unfolds.
• Secondly, there is the narrative context, where narrative communication occurs. There are always at least three narrative contexts at work, perhaps more: 1) between author and reader, 2) between narrator and addressee, 3) between character and character.
• How is the narrative ordered and told? We make a three part distinction between text, plot, and story (though these terms are somewhat flexible). Text is the actual words on the page. Plot is the immediate sequence of the events and actions, as told in the text. Story is plot returned to chronological order.
• Look at these basic narratives (from E. M. Forster).

"The king died."An event. Is it a plot?

"The king died and then the queen died." Here there is a time sequence of events. Is there causation?

"The king died and then the queen died of grief." Here you have causality + time sequence.

"The queen died, no one knew why, until it was discovered that it was through grief at the death of the king." Here there is causality and a re-ordered time sequence. The result is mystery. This is certainly a narrative!

• Focalization refers to who does the seeing/experiencing in the narrative.

Example: Computer games. The difference between "first person" (e.g. Half-Life and "third person/modified third person" (e.g. GTA) and "true third person/god's eye" (e.g. Civilization III).

• In each case, the focalization is not the same as "the speaker" but rather is the focus of where we see and experience.