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.

A Garden of Orismological Delights: A Review of the Fifth Edition of J.A. Cuddon’s A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, revised by M.A.R. Habib (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013)

Abstract: A Garden of Orismological Delights: A Review of the Fifth Edition of J.A. Cuddon's A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, revised by M.A.R. Habib (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013)The publication of the fifth edition of Cuddon's A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory by Wiley-Blackwell is a much awaited event, considering the popularity the dictionary has enjoyed. Apart from M.A.R. Habib, the editor who revised the edition, there are four associate editors: Matthew Birchwood, Vedrana Velickovic, Martin Dines and Shanyn Fiske, all of them academics associated with English or American universities. The release of the dictionary must have been a challenge. The fourth edition was published in 1998, which makes this one the first Cuddon dictionary in the twenty-first century.The reader's attention is attracted to etymological explanations (though they are not always present), and a variety of subjects; some defined in a handy, succinct way, others described in miniature essays which often span a broad time context. Apart from respectable-looking derivations from Greek and Latin, there are words of French, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, Japanese, Sanskrit or Old Norse origin, to mention the instances that immediately catch the eye.However, the authors and editors of such gigantic projects always experience both blindness and insight. Cuddon was clearly aware of that, as specified in the preface to the third edition. Did his queries affect the current version? This is what he said: "I am familiar with Classical, European, Slavonic and Near Eastern literatures and have some knowledge of the literatures of North America and of Commonwealth nations. But my knowledge of Oriental literatures and those of Spanish America and South America is limited." While the statement points to the immense erudition of the late author, my locatedness makes me frown on the juxtaposition of European and Slavonic, as if Slavonic literatures were not a part of Europe. I do not assume Cuddon only meant the Asian territory of Russia. Geographical nuances aside, Slavonic literatures are present in the fifth edition in a very selective way. Probably the involvement of the editor whose roots are in former Yugoslavia accounts for some references to the literature of that part of Europe. There are, of course, references to Russian literature. As for Poland, Henryk Sienkiewicz is mentioned in the entry on historical novel (though his novels can hardly be called an "imperialist" project, 333). Jerzy Grotowski appears in an entry on Theatre Laboratory, but the widely acclaimed Stanislaw Lem goes unnoticed in the science fiction entry, and so does Jan Kochanowski in the entry on lament, even though his Laments (translated into English by Baranczak and Heaney) remain unique in Renaissance literature. South America continues to be a terra incognita, though gaucho literature has been given a separate entry, while South American writers are mentioned in the discussion of magic realism. Postimperial peripheries, i.e. New Zealand and Australia with the specificity of their fertile indigenous cultures and terms derived from them are not really acknowledged; the same would go for most of Africa. Discussing new additions, M. A. R. Habib mentions terms from "Chinese, Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Indian" (vii). It is interesting to see that far from being insular, the field that the dictionary mines has been expanding throughout successive editions and will, hopefully, do so in the future.It is certainly interesting to see the new developments, that is, the entries related to the material advertised on the blurb, namely "gender studies and queer theory, postcolonial theory, poststructuralism, postmodernism, narrative theory, and cultural studies." Surprisingly, the term "gender" is not given a separate entry to explain how it has been operating, as compared to another key term in the feminist discourse, i.e. "sexual difference." While there are interesting entries on particular terms such as "abjection" and "chora," both relating to Kristeva's description of the semiotic, her oeuvre, like that of Irigaray and Cixous, is not given too much attention in the entry on feminist criticism. …

Narrative Structures for New Media: Towards a New Definition

Abstract: ARISTOTLE’S POETICS IS AN INADEQUATE NARRATIVE MODEL for the creation of computer interactive art, contrary to the thesis laid down by Brenda Laurel’s Computers as Theatre. Although she opened up space for a rather tantalizing dialogue in this area, it is to non-Western cultures that one should look for narrative structures that fit the sophistication of Western new technologies. The theories and processes of African oral literature provide the groundwork for such a narrative model. A comparison of contemporary postmodern thought and African oral literature shows that they share many attributes. Through a description of her work, which challenges the notion of book arts and narrative theory, as well as through an exploration of the advanced mathematical theory of fuzzy logic, the author opens the door for a discussion of narrative that crosses cultural, aesthetic, and academic boundaries. In this concept of narrative, nuance, indeterminacy, and polyventiality are major players.

‘Anchored narratives' and the interface of law, psychology and semiotics

Abstract: Narrative has become an important paradigm in both psychology and semiotics (Section 1). Three applications of narrative theory to fact finding in criminal cases--Bennett & Feldman (1981), Jackson (1988a, derived from the semiotics of Greimas), Wagenaar (1995; Wagenaar, van Koppen & Crombag, 1993)--are here compared in terms of their conceptions of narrative, application to the courtroom process itself, and epistemological assumptions (Sections 2-4). A recent English case, regarded by some as a miscarriage of justice, is used as a case study to illustrate different approaches from psychology and semiotics (Section 5). The Conclusion (Section 6) considers the potential 'remediability' of the courtroom search for truth implied by these various approaches, and the implications of this analysis for the interdisciplinary study of witness testimony and jury research in the 'normal' case (where there is no suggestion of miscarriage of justice). Language: en

What is Public History

Abstract: Do you like to study history but wonder what you can do with a history degree? If so, the public history program at North Dakota State University may be for you. This innovative program is the first and only one of its kind in the Upper Midwest for undergraduates. It provides students with the opportunity to explore a variety of careers and prepares them for employment or graduate school in the expanding field of public history. Examples of new opportunities for public history majors in recent years include employment in historical societies, museums, archives, historic preservation, corporations, municipalities, labor and farm organizations, and state and federal government agencies.

Anxieties of communication: the limits of narrative in the medical humanities

Abstract: This paper aims to provide an initial response to Angela Woods’s endeavour to ‘(re)ignite critical debates around this topic’ in her recent essay ‘The limits of narrative: provocations for the medical humanities’ (Medical Humanities 2011). Woods’s essay challenges the validity of the notion of the narrative self through her discussion and use of Galen Strawson’s seminal ‘Against narrativity’ (2004). To some extent in dialogue with Woods, this article will examine three exploratory concepts connected with the topic. First, it will explore ways in which we might seek to re-place narrative at the centre of the philosophy of good medicine and medical practice by reassessing the role of the narratee in the narrative process. Second, it will reconsider the three alternative forms of expression Woods puts forward as non-narrative —metaphor, phenomenology and photography—as narrative. Finally, and connected to the first two areas of discussion, it will reflect on ways in which narrative might be used to interpret illness and suffering in medical humanities contexts. What I hope to show, in relation to Woods’s work on this subject, is that in order to be interpreted (indeed interpretable) the types of nonnarrative representation and communication she discusses in fact require a narrative response. We employ narratology to engage with illness experience because narrative is so fundamental to meaning-making that it is not just required, it is an inherent human response to creative outputs we encounter. This is a quite different approach to the question of narrativity in the medical humanities, and it is therefore related to, but not entirely hinged upon, the work that Woods has done, but it is intended to spark further discussion across the emergent discipline.