Introduction to Narratology

• Roland Barthes: Structural Analysis of narration

• Tzvetan Todorov: The categories of the literary narration

Introduction to Narratology

• Roland Barthes: Structural Analysis of narration

Introduction to Narratology

• Roland Barthes

The Langue of narration

The narration is either a standard repetition of events determined by a each author, or it shares with other narrations a common structure which is accessible to be analyzed.

No one can narrate without referring to an implicit system of units and rules.

Where, then, to look the structure of the narration? In the narrations themselves.

Introduction to Narratology

• Roland Barthes

But what to say, then, of the type of analysis when confronted to millions of narrations?

From the start we are determined by a deductive procedure, that is, to the elaboration of a hypothetical model of description (a theoretical model).

Then, proceed from the model analyzing narrations which may converge or not with the model.

Introduction to Narratology

• Roland Barthes

Thus, in order to describe and classify the infinite number of narrations, we need, then, a theory.

In this case, linguistics will serve a foundational model for the structural analysis of narrative.

The starting point is the sentence, and discourse, which constitutes a narration, is a series of sentences, and from this perspective the Discourse must be the object of a second linguistics.

Introduction to Narratology

• Roland Barthes

The Functions

In this sense, the Discourse, in a narrative is taken as a sentence, the narration is a long sentence.

Each system of meaning has a type of organization, and in order to deal with the massive amount of elements, one must develop a descriptive level or level of description.

And there are two types of relations: distributive (if the relations are situate at the same level) and integratives (if they are obtained from different levels)

Introduction to Narratology

• Roland Barthes

And there are two types of relations: distributive (if the relations are situate at the same level) and integratives (if they are obtained from different levels)

storyDistributive: discourse

Intregrative

Introduction to Narratology

• Roland Barthes

These two types of relations are placed in to large levels of description: a) story (argument) which consists of the logic of

actions and a syntax of the characters and

b) discourse which consists of time, aspects and modes of narration.

Introduction to Narratology

• Roland Barthes

To understand a narration does not only imply the unfolding of a story, but also to recognize the horizontal connections of the narrative thread, and also to move from one level to another (from the story to the discourse).

In order to do this we propose to distinguish in the narrative work three levels of description:

the level of functions; the level of actions, and the level of narration.

Introduction to Narratology

• Roland Barthes

Function: first we have to define the minimal narrative units, and this units must have a specific function in the narration, i.e. certain segments of the narration.

Two types of functions: distributives and integratives.To the first we will assign the name of functions

(proper) which have a metonymic function;The the second we will assign the name of indexes

which have a metaphoric function.

Introduction to Narratology

• Roland Barthes

Both type of functions can be further described:Distributive

Cardinals (or nuclei) (story)

Functions

Catalysis (discourse)

The cardinal functions are the moments of danger of the narration, they constitute the structure.

Introduction to Narratology

• Roland Barthes

For a function to be a Cardinal one, all it needs is that the actions that it refers to, open, maintain, or close a consequent alternative for the continuation of the story, that is, that starts or conclude an uncertainty.

The Cardinal function constitute finite ensembles of actions.

Introduction to Narratology

• Roland Barthes

The ‘spaces’ between Cardinal functions is always filled by Catalysis.

Thus, both the Catalysis and the Cardinals functions are distributive (consecutive) ones, but with different functions in the narrative syntagm or functional syntax.

Introduction to Narratology

• Roland Barthes

The catalysis are zones of security, rest, expansion.

From the point of view of the story it has a weak function, but not from the point of view of discourse: it always has a discursive function: to speed up the narration, or to delay it, to summarize it, to anticipate events, or even to mislead the reader. It is a supplementary function.

Introduction to Narratology

• Roland Barthes

It is not possible to eliminate a Cardinal function without altering the story, but it is not possible to eliminate the Catalysis without altering the discourse.

Therefore, the catalysis is a phatic (contact) function which maintains the contact between the narrator and the reader.

Introduction to Narratology

• Roland BarthesIntegrative

IndexesIndexes

Informations

The indexes proper refer to a character, to a feeling, to a climate (suspicion, fear, premonition, etc.).

They have implicit meanings and therefore they must be interpreted.

Introduction to Narratology

• Roland Barthes

The Informations serve to identify time and space, names, information proper.

The data is clear and immediate, thus there are pure data.

Indexes and informations are always located at the level of the Catalysis of the narration.

Introduction to Narratology

Distributive Functions

Cardinals (or nuclei) (story)Functions Catalysis (discourse)

Integrative Functions

Indexes (catalysis)Indexes

Informations (catalysis)

Introduction to Narratology

• Roland Barthes

Functional Syntax

How, and according to which grammar these units are connected to each other in the narrative syntagm?

The indexes and informations can freely connect to each other, and they remain always between Cardinal functions.

Introduction to Narratology

• Roland Barthes

The Cardinal functions are always connected in a relation of solidarity, that is, dependency, and this is the order that takes the very structure of the narration, independently if the narration is linear or fragmented.

The Cardinal functions are organized in sequences.

A sequence is a logical succession of Cardinal functions connected between them.

Introduction to Narratology

• Roland Barthes

The sequence begins when one of its terms does not have an antecedent, and it closes when another of its terms has no consequent.

Each sequence may have name (fraud, attack, vengeance, etc.)

Introduction to Narratology

• Roland Barthes

In the syntax of the sequences there is an internal, secondary syntagm, that is a central nuclei and sub-nuclei: Beloved: Opening sequence

Plan to escape

Flight (successful) Discoverd Punishment

Crossing Captured Prison

Introduction to Narratology

• Roland Barthes

Beloved: Closing sequence

The Past overcome

Reconciliation (community) A new beginning

Peace with Love

Introduction to Narratology

• Roland Barthes

Thus, the narration always consists in a limited number of functions which we have called sequence.

Thus, a sequence is a logical succession of nuclei linked between them by a solidarity (dependent) relation.

That is why the structure of a sequence is intimately connected to its name, since is the very name of the first function from where all the other functions will eventually evolved.

Introduction to Narratology

• Roland BarthesActionsThe actions have to do with the actions carried out by

the characters themselves. This is called an actant, since each actant will have a particular function.

That is, characters are defined not because what they are, but because what they do.

The name of these actants, according to their actions are: Sender, Receiver, Subject, Object, Helper, and Opponent.

Introduction to Narratology

• Roland Barthes

The Actantial Model

Sender Subject Receiver

Helper Object Opponent

Introduction to Narratology

• Roland Barthes

The Actantial Model

The model in many instances places the question of who is the Subject (the hero/heroine?) of the narration. Actions my reveal that there none, or several Subjects.

The characters as units of the action level, only acquire their full meaning when integrated in the third level of description, which we will, here, call the level of Narration.

Introduction to Narratology

• Ronald BarthesThe Narration

In every narration there is a narrator and a reader of that narration.

What is important to separate is the author, who has written the novel from the actual narrator(s).

Is of little importance to know the author’s motivation, it is important to describe the code that provides meaning to the narrator and reader alike.

Introduction to Narratology

• Ronald Barthes

There are several conceptions, at least three, pertaining who is the narrator:

A) A first conception is a narration narrated by a person who has a name, who is the author, thus the narration (the novel) is the expression of an ‘I” exterior to it.

B) A second conception makes the narrator a sort of total consciousness, apparently impersonal, who narrates a story from a superior point of view, that of God.

Introduction to Narratology

• Ronald Barthes

This narrator knows the interior of its characters and knows everything about them. (third person omniscient narrator)

C) A third conception is that which limits its narration to what the characters themselves are able to observe or to know. It is like every character being a narrator of his/her situation.

Introduction to Narratology

• Ronald Barthes

This is why the author can never be confused with the narrator since this difficulty cannot be solved in a structural analysis: who speaks (in the narration) is is not who writes (in real life) and who writes it is not who exists.

The personal form ‘I’ (modern narrative), or impersonal ‘He’ (traditional narration) does not allow to differentiate the code of the author.

Introduction to Narratology

• Tzvetan Todorov: The categories of the literary narration

Introduction to Narratology

• Tzvetan Todorov

Meaning and Interpretation

The meaning (or the function) of an element in a work is its possibility to enter in a correlation with other elements.

Introduction to Narratology

• Tzvetan Todorov

The interpretation of an element in a work it is different depending of the critic’s personality and its ideological position, and according to the epoch.

A work, in order to be interpreted, the element must be included in a system that it is not that of the work but instead of the critic.

The fundamental difference between meaning and interpretation, is that between sign and understanding.

Introduction to Narratology

• Tzvetan Todorov

No work is autonomous since it is inscribed in the literary universe of other works where it belongs.

Each work enters in a complex relationship with works of the past and the present.

Introduction to Narratology

• Tzvetan Todorov

Types of Narrators

These are directly related to the narrative voice and therefore there are several types of narrative voices:

Narrator >character (perspective from “behind”).

This is your classical omniscient narrator who knows past, present and future of the characters.

It knows even more than the characters. 3rd person narrator.

Introduction to Narratology

• Tzvetan Todorov

Narrator = character (perspective “with”).

This is the case, mainly in modern literature where the narrator knows as much as the characters.

The Narrator can not offer an explanation of the events before the characters themselves find them.

Introduction to Narratology

• Tzvetan Todorov

It may be in first person or in third person only if is the vision of one character.

Narrator < Character (perspective ‘from outside’)

The narrator knows less that any other of its characters. It can only describe what it sees, hears, but has no access to any mind.

Introduction to Narratology

• Tzvetan Todorov

Modes of narration

They have to do with the manner in which the narrator tells us the story, how it is presented to us.

It is to these ‘modes’ that we refer to when we state that a writer ‘shows’ us things, whereas another only ‘tells’ us things.

Introduction to Narratology

• Tzvetan Todorov

These two modes correspond to two central narrative principles:

representation and

the narration

which in turn, correspond to the story and to the discourse.

Introduction to Narratology

• Tzvetan Todorov

Modes of narration

We must make a difference between the word by the narrator and that of the characters.

The word of the characters is always in direct style and that of the narrator in indirect style.

The direct style is what gives us the impression of witnessing the events, and thus it becomes representation.

Introduction to Narratology

• Tzvetan Todorov

Enoncé and Enonciation

Every word is at the same time an enoncé (what it is said) and an enunciation.

The first refers to the Subject of the enoncé and the second to the Subject of the enunciation.

The Subject of the enoncé is the character spoken about, and the Subject of the enunciation is the narrator.

Introduction to Narratology

• Modes of Narration

Representation story Direct Style

(dialogue)

Narration discourse Indirect Style (telling)