Narratology

About: Narratology is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2833 publications have been published within this topic receiving 50998 citations. The topic is also known as: narrative theory.

Heterocosmica: Fiction and Possible Worlds

Abstract: "The universe of possible worlds is constantly expanding and diversifying thanks to the incessant world-constructing activity of human minds and hands. Literary fiction is probably the most active experimental laboratory of the world-constructing enterprise."-from the author's Preface The standard contrast between fiction and reality, notes Lubomir Dolezel, obscures an array of problems that have beset philosophers and literary critics for centuries. Commentators usually admit that fiction conveys some kind of truth-the truth of the story of Faust, for instance. They acknowledge that fiction usually bears some kind of relation to reality-for example, the London of Dickens. But both the status of the truth and the nature of the relationship have baffled, frustrated, or repelled a long line of thinkers. In Heterocosmica, Lubomir Dolezel offers nothing less than a complete theory of literary fiction based on the idea of possible worlds. Beginning with a discussion of the extant semantics and pragmatics of fictionality-by Leibniz, Russell, Frege, Searle, Auerbach, and others-he relates them to literature, literary theory, and narratology. He also investigates theories of action, intention, and literary communication to develop a system of concepts that allows him to offer perceptive reinterpretations of a host of classical, modern, and postmodern fictional narratives-from Defoe through Dickens, Dostoevsky, Huysmans, Bely, and Kafka to Hemingway, Kundera, Rhys, Plenzdorf, and Coetzee. By careful attention to philosophical inquiry into possible worlds, especially Saul Kripke's and Jaakko Hintikka's, and through long familiarity with literary theory, Dolezel brings us an unprecedented examination of the notion of fictional worlds.

Narrative Medicine: Honoring the Stories of Illness

Abstract: NARRATIVE MEDICINE: HONORING THE STORIES OF ILLNESS Rita Charon, MD, PhD New York: Oxford University Press, 2006, 288 pp., $39.95 (hardcover). The good physician knows his patients through and through, and his knowledge is dearly bought. Time, sympathy and understanding must be lavishly dispensed, but the reward is to be found in that personal bond which forms the greatest satisfaction of the practice of medicine. One of the essential qualities of the physician is interest in humanity, for the secret of the care of the patient is in caring for the patient. (Francis W. Peabody, 1927, "The Care of the Patient," Journal of the American Medical Association, 88, 877-882) I listen not only for the content of his narrative, but for its form-its temporal course, its images, its associated subplots, its silences, where he chooses to begin in telling of himself. (Rita Charon, 2004, "Narrative and Medicine," New England Journal of Medicine, 350, 862-864) Rita Charon is a highly experienced physician internist with a PhD in English. In this book, she combines these two demanding intellectual disciplines to define a new field, narrative medicine. Most of the material in the 288 pages of this work constitutes a veritable course in narrative theory. Casual readers may be overwhelmed by the subject matter unless they are able to sustain the required intense concentration upon a text that is uncompromising in its demands. It requires sustained focus to grasp the critical points. Yes, it's worth the effort. NARRATIVE MEDICINE Narrative medicine is most simply defined and understood through Charon's point that narrative knowledge is distinguished from scientific knowledge. Diagnostic efforts in this field therefore must join "2 contradictory impulses at once." These are to observe the defining, perhaps unusual, characteristics of the patient's disorder and also at the same moment to categorize this information to make it "readable," or useful. A symptom or disease is indeed an event befalling a character, sometimes caused by something identifiable, within a specified time and setting that has to be told by one to another from a particular point of view. (p. 41) The central recognition of narrative medicine is "the power of language in illness and health" (p. 91). This recognition allows us to meld "the instrumental and the reflective" in our work and as well in the lives of our patients; and to do so demands "new narrative forms . . . to contain, reflect and discover these perceptions." If, indeed, increasing doctors' skills to represent that which is seen and heard contributes to more effective affiliations between doctor and patient, there is an imperative to put these narrative practices into routine use. (p. 191) The patient's history must be received, not taken. By writing down the patient's narrative ("representing" it), we learn to comprehend it. We can see it, grasp it, understand it from all sides because it has been "formed." NARRATIVE THEORY AND PRACTICE Charon's explication of narrative theory is offered in all its complexity, and its precise language. The average physician reader (if I may so describe myself ) must pay full attention, remain alert at all times, and be prepared to suffer in order to gather the rewards of studying and comprehending this work. The author's intention is to define a field-that of narrative medicine-with the purpose of infusing medicine with narrative competence. A medicine practiced with narrative competence will more ably recognize patients and diseases, convey knowledge and regard, join humbly with colleagues, and accompany patients and their families through the ordeals of illness. These capacities will lead to more humane, more ethical, and perhaps more effective care. (p. vii, preface) One may well ask, how does this relate to the actuality of patient care? …

Modern Criticism and Theory: A Reader

Abstract: (Contents arranged thematically) Foreword Acknowledgements 1. Formalist, structuralist and post-structuralist poetics, linguistics and narratology 2. Deconstruction 3. Psychoanalysis 4. Poetics, ideology, cultural history 5. Feminism 6. Hermeneutics, reception theory, reader-reponse 7. Cognitive literary scholarship Contents are arranged: a. historically b. thematically

Narrative Comprehension: A Discourse Perspective

Abstract: PART I: COGNITION AND DISCOURSE 1. Narrative Comprehension: Text, Knowledge, and Inference-Making 2. Key Topics in Processing Research 3. A Discourse Perspective: Understanding Full, Real Texts PART II: NARRATIVE STRUCTURE AND PROCESSING 4. Creating Functional Texts 5. Modifying, Switching, and Recalling Texts 6. Characters and Texts PART III: IMPLICATIONS: LINGUISTIC THEORY AND NARRATIVE THEORY 7. Mental Representations, Inference-Making, and Reference Theory 8. Distinguishing Narrative Types 9. Conclusion Bibliography

Psychonarratology: Foundations for the Empirical Study of Literary Response

Abstract: Psychonarratology is an approach to the empirical study of literary response and the processing of narrative. It draws on the empirical methodology of cognitive psychology and discourse processing as well as the theoretical insights and conceptual analysis of literary studies, particularly narratology. The present work provides a conceptual and empirical basis for this interdisciplinary approach that is accessible to researchers from either disciplinary background. An integrative review is presented of the classic problems in narratology: the status of the narrator, events and plot, characters and characterization, speech and thought, and focalization. For each area, Bortolussi and Dixon critique the state of the art in narratology and literary studies, discuss relevant work in cognitive psychology, and provide a new analytical framework based on the insight that readers treat the narrator as a conversational participant. Empirical evidence is presented on each problem, much of it previously unpublished.