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Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film
31 May 1980-
About: The article was published on 1980-05-31 and is currently open access. It has received 1885 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Narrative structure & Narrative criticism.
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01 Jan 2014
TL;DR: First person narration is commonplace in young adult literature Many awardwinning titles are written in this particular narrative mode Some argue that the prevalence of this narration and the popularity of young adult fiction have established first person as the preferred technique.
Abstract: First person narration is commonplace in young adult literature Many awardwinning titles—for example, Sherman Alexie’s (2007) The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (1999), and Feed by M T Anderson (2002), among others—are written in this particular narrative mode Some argue that the prevalence of this narration and the popularity of young adult literature have established first person as the preferred technique (Schuhmann, 1999, p 314)
8 citations
TL;DR: Maclntyre as mentioned in this paper argued that some languages or conceptual schemes might be partially untranslatable, but this did not necessarily preclude commensurability, drawing upon the example of the sixteenth-century Zuni Indian and Spanish colonial frontier.
Abstract: Maclntyre sought to raise a series of crucial questions in an address before the Eighty-First Annual Meeting of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association. What is the best way to evaluate two competing languages, conceptual schemes, or cultural approaches to being in the world? May conceptual schemes or theoretical languages be so radically different as to be fully incommensurable, that is, incapable of intertranslation or meaningful comparison?2 Maclntyre, drawing upon the example of the sixteenthcentury Zuni Indian and Spanish colonial frontier, contended that some languages or conceptual schemes might well be partially untranslatable, but this did not necessarily preclude commensurability. His remarks suggest additional questions, namely, what does constitute a frontier situation? What is involved in the symbolic differentiation of one conceptual scheme, one interpretive group—one culture—from another? We might recognize here the familiar problem of boundary construction, the social process of creating a common group identity that marks it as different from others.3
8 citations
TL;DR: The casualness with which historians have investigated the structure of historiography compared with the care and exacting scrutiny to which they subject the nature of data, evidence, and inference in works of history indicates that in their role as critics they regard the latter as the historian's legitimate central preoccupation and the former as a secondary and indepedent matter as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: That history is both art and science is a commonly accepted dictum. Unfortunately it does not follow that historians have given equal critical attention to both sides of their discipline. As J.H. Hexter has written, 'the casualness with which historians have investigated the structure of historiography compared with the care and exacting scrutiny to which they subject the nature of data, evidence, and inference in works of history indicates that in their role as critics they regard the latter as the historian's legitimate central preoccupation and the former as a secondary and indepedent matter ... without effect on the validity of the finished work.'
8 citations
01 Jan 1999
TL;DR: The paper argues that the concept "unreliable narrator" needs to be radically rethought because it is terminologically imprecise and theoretically inadequate and it is unjustifiable and counterproductive to limit the study of this phenomenon to narrative fiction.
Abstract: The paper argues that the concept "unreliable narrator" needs to be radically rethought because, as currently defined, it is terminologically imprecise and theoretically inadequate. The first part of the article is devoted to giving an assessment and critique of the standard notions of the unreliable narrator, arguing that the postulation of essentialized and anthropomorphized entities designated "unreliable narrator" and "implied author" ignore the complexity of the phenomena involved and stands in the way of a systematic exploration of the cognitive processes which result in the projection of unreliable narrators in the first place. The second part outlines a radical reconceptualization of unreliable narration. It is proposed that it would be more sensible to conceptualize the relevant phenomena in the context of frame theory as a projection by the reader who tries to resolve ambiguities and textual inconsistencies by attributing them to the narrator's "unreliability." In the context of frame theory, the reader's projection of "unreliable narrators" can be understood as an interpretive strategy or a cognitive process of the sort that has come to be known as "naturalization" (cf. Culler 1975; Fludernik 1993, 1996). A number of empirical frames of reference and literary models can be seen as standard modes of naturalization by means of which readers account for contradictions both within texts and between the world-model of texts and their empirical world-models. The final section gives a brief outline of the generic scope of unreliable narration, arguing that it is unjustifiable and counterproductive to limit the study of this phenomenon to narrative fiction Reconceptualizing the Theory and Generic Scope of Unreliable Narration Recent Trends in Narratological Research 19
8 citations
01 Jan 2008
TL;DR: This paper conducted an action research study examining narratives community college writing students had about themselves as writers in a college-level writing course and the connection between those narratives and student experience of collaborative learning activities.
Abstract: This was an action research study examining 1) narratives community college writing students had about themselves as writers in a college-level writing course and 2) the connection between those narratives and student experience of collaborative learning activities The study of narrative is particularly useful in determining how people make meaning of experiences in their lives The class utilized three types of teaching and learning to explore the writing process, including lecture, discussion groups and collaborative learning activities Students and teacher used a social-constructionist approach to conversation that implemented a process of reflective dialogue about writing and writers‟ strategies At the end of the course, which began with thirty students, nineteen students out of twenty anonymously volunteered to participate in the study A neutral third party randomly selected twelve names for final participation The researcher conducted a phenomenological analysis of audio taped entrance and exit interviews of the twelve students The study also utilized relevant examples from student journals and researcher field notes Data analysis yielded themes that the researcher subjected to metaphorical analysis Findings revealed what narratives students had about themselves as writers upon entering and exiting the course Results showed that using collaborative learning activities in the writing classroom influenced student narratives of themselves as writers Students experienced interpersonal and technical gains from participation in social-constructionist-oriented classroom
8 citations