An Introduction to Narratology

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An Introduction to Narratology

• APTS-
• BIB509

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1. What is Narratology?

• Narratology is the theory of narratives,
  narrative texts, images, spectacles, events
  cultural artifacts that tell a story. Such a
  theory helps to understand, analyze, and evaluate
  narratives. Mieke Bal, Narratology, 3

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2. What is a Narrative?

• "Narrative communicates meaning through the
  imitation of human life, the temporal ordering of
  human speech and action. It constructs a verbal
  world that centers on human characters, their
  relations, desires, and actions in time. Time is
  crucial for narrative. Fewell Gunn,
  Narrative, Hebrew, ABD

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2. What is a Narrative?

• "Unlike other kinds of discourse, e.g., lyric
  poetry, proverbs, or legal codes, which
  communicate through images, propositions, or
  admonitions, narrative is distinguished by plot,
  a sequence of connected action that leads,
  through varying degrees of dramatic intensity, to
  some sense of resolution. Narrative interrelates
  distinct events to form a coherent whole without
  extraneous incidents. Fewell Gunn,
  Narrative, Hebrew, ABD

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2.1 Narratives in the Hebrew Bible

• The OT makes up 75 percent of the Bible, and 40
  percent of the OT consists of narratives. Kein,
  Blomberg Hubbard

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2.2 Narratives in the Hebrew Bible

• 1. . . . it wants to draw me out of myself,
  using the medium of narrative to transform my
  sense of the world, urgently alert me to
  spiritual realities and moral imperatives.
• 2. . . . the most characteristic moments of
  biblical narrative bring us face to face with
  characters who can be neither interpreted nor
  deconstructed. They are emblems of the limits of
  comprehension. What is important about them is
  precisely that they are, not that they mean.
• 3. . . . the Bible requires from the critic both
  the most fine-tuned attentiveness to is formal
  articulations and a kind of intellectual
  humility.

Robert Alter, The World of Biblical Literature
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3. Narratology

• 3.1 Point of View
• 1. "The term 'point of view' is used rather
  broadly in literary criticism to designate the
  position or perspective from which a story is
  told. As interest in this subject grew, so did
  its complexity. There are now several different
  kinds, or levels, of point of view that can be
  distinguished, and several different systems for
  doing this." Berlin, Poetics and Interpretation
  of Biblical Narrative

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3. Narratology

• 3.1 Point of View
• 2. . . . point of view in literature is closely
  bound with the narrator. He is the one who
  mediates perspective on the characters and the
  events of the story. He guides readers in their
  interpretation of those characters and events
  and, through his manipulation of the point of
  view, draws readers into the story. . . . The
  most fruitful is that of Boris Uspensky, who
  distinguishes five different planes of point of
  view spatial, temporal, phraseological,
  psychological, and ideological. Longman,
  Literary Approach to Biblical Literature

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Five Planes of Point of View

• 1. Ideological Level This level concerns the
  evaluation that the narrator is making.
• 2. Phraseological Level This level deals with
  the linguistic features in the discourse that
  indicate whose point of view is being expressed.
  Berlin
• 3. Spatial Level This level deals with the
  location of the narrator in relation to the
  narrative itself.

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Five Planes of Point of View

• 4. Temporal Level This refers to the temporal
  perspective of the narrator in relation to the
  narrative.
• 5. Psychological Level This level deals with
  the narrators ability to indicate the
  characters thoughts and emotional states.

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3. Narratology

• 3.1 Point of View
• 3. For one thing, whatever else point of view
  may be or do, it entails a relation between
  subject and object, perceiving mind and perceived
  reality. . . . Narrative communication involves
  no fewer than four basic perspectives the author
  who fashions the story, the narrator who tells
  it, the audience or reader who receives it, and
  the characters who enact it. . . . Sternberg,
  The Poetics of Biblical Narrative Ideological
  Literature and the Drama of Reading

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3. Narratology

• 3.1 Narrators Point of View
• 1. Narrative information is presented through
  the point of view of the narrator and the
  characters. These perspectives in conjunction
  with that of the reader form a system of
  relationships. The reader's point of view affects
  and is affected by the relation between the
  perspectives of the narrator and the characters.
  The narrator's point of view can be detected in
  direct narration, comment, and explanation.
  Alternatively, the narrator may step aside and
  allow the characters to speak for themselves and
  so to convey their own point of view. The most
  common error readers of biblical narratives make
  is confusing a character's point of view with
  that of the narrator. This can be avoided by
  carefully comparing and contrasting what the
  narrator tells the reader directly with what the
  characters say. Fewell Gunn, Narrative,
  Hebrew, ABD

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3. Narratology

• 3.1 Narrators Point of View
• 2. Narrators Omniscience?
• Can omniscience . . . be said to be a
  characteristic of the narrator? That is only
  obviously true in a very restricted sense. In a
  story like Genesis-2 Kings it becomes clear that
  the narrator narrates from the point of view of
  the end of the story. What happens is, in that
  sense, known in advance. Gunn, Reading Right
  Reliable and Omniscient Narrator, Omniscient God,
  and Foolproof Composition in the Hebrew Bible

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3. Narratology

• The problem with the notion of narratorial
  omniscience, however, goes beyond the problems of
  gaps, ambiguity, factual fudging or plain
  contradiction. It also involves the limitations
  evident in the implication of readership the
  implied reader of Genesis-2 Kings is evidently
  somewhere in exile (or early post-exile?).
  Gunn, Reading Right . . . .

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3. Narratology

• 3.1 Characters Point of View
• 1. A character's point of view may be conveyed
  either through his own words direct discourse
  or through the words of the narrator. However, it
  is not always easy to discern whether the
  narrator is expressing his own view or, if a
  character's, exactly which character's. Berlin
• 2. The use of naming
• 3. Revealing the characters inner life, i.e.,
  thoughts, fears, etc.
• 4. The use of direct discourse versus narrative

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3. Narratology

• 3.1 Readers Point of View
• 1. ". . . a relatively new concept from literary
  theory the narratee. Just as there is a
  narrator, the voice that tells the story, so
  there is a narratee, the listener/reader to whom
  the story is told. Berlin
• 2. Problem of original readership and todays
  reader
• 3. The readers point of view may be influenced
  by other Biblical texts. Fewell Gunn

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3. Narratology

• 3.2 The Characters
• 1. Many of the views embodied in the narrative
  are expressed through the characters, and more
  specifically, through their speech and fate . . .
  . The characters can also transmit the
  significance and values of the narrative to the
  reader, since they usually constitute the focal
  point of interest. . . . When discussing
  individuals who are considered to have existed in
  the past, like those biblical narratives, it
  should be emphasized that we know them only as
  they are presented in the narratives, and it is
  to this alone that we can refer. Bar-Efrat,
  Narrative Art in the Bible

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3. Narratology

• 3.2 The Characters
• 2. . . . three categories the agents, who are
  subordinate to the plot the types, who have a
  limited and stereo-typed range of traits and the
  characters, who have a broader ranger of traits
  and whose development we can observe. . . .
  Amit, Reading Biblical Narratives
• Michal, Abigal, Bathsheba agents Abraham
  type
• Unlike mythology, biblical monotheism distances
  the deity from the sphere of other gods and
  sometimes even from the human sphere, avoids
  describing God, and does not pretend to know God
  well. As a result, God is depicted
  stereotypically as a type in most of the stories,
  being at times cantankerous, vindictive,
  forgiving, and merciful but always right and just
  in every situation. God is sometimes even a flat
  character who serves only the needs of the plot.
  Amit

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3. Narratology

• 3.2 The Characters
• 3. In biblical literature, round and flat
  characterizations often shift. A flat character
  is one episode may become a round character in
  the next and vice versa. . . .This propensity for
  characters to shift in and out of focus should
  warn readers against too quickly or rigidly
  identifying a storys central character(s).
  Gunn Fewell, Narrative Art in the Bible

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3. Narratology

• 3.2 The Characters
• 4. The number of persons in biblical narrative
  from every period is extremely small. Even in
  narratives with a long, involved plot, as for
  example in the story of Joseph or the book of
  Esther, no single scene has more than three
  active characters and the dialogue only rarely
  develops into a three-way conversation. Not only
  is the number of characters small, but the focus
  is on the deeds of the protagonist, while the
  description of the fate and character of the
  minor personages is neglected. Uriel Simon,
  Minor Characters in Biblical Narratives, JSOT
  46 (1990)

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3. Narratology

• 3.2 The Characters
• 5. Characters the Role of the Reader
• One of the difficulties in understanding a
  characters place in the story is that we often
  come to biblical stores with strong
  preconceptions. Amit
• There are four criteria to help us determine who
  is the leading character in any given work of
  literature one, the focus of interest two,
  quantitative three, structural and four,
  thematic. Amit

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3. Narratology

• 3.3 The Plot
• 1. A reader comprehends a plot both in terms of
  the simple sequence of action and in terms of the
  rise and fall of dramatic tension. How the reader
  discerns the dramatic structure of the plot will
  determine what is most significant in the
  sequence. Dramatic structure can be charted with
  three basic categories. The exposition sets up
  the story world and initiates the main series of
  events. The situation presented in an exposition
  is usually characterized by incompleteness,
  disorder, or unfulfilled desire, from which
  develops a subsequent conflict. The conflict,
  which may be internal to a character or an
  external one, between characters, moves through
  various phases until a climax gives way to some
  degree of resolution. Fewell Gunn,
  Narratives, Hebrew, ABD

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3. Narratology

• 3.3 The Plot
• According to Aristotle, every story has
  beginning, middle and end (Poetics 7.26-27).
  Amit
• 1. Beginning Ending
• Stories tend to open with an exposition, that
  provides the primary information and background
  necessary to enter the story.
• The exposition is usually made up of descriptive
  and static information, which can even be
  determined as habitual, and ends with the
  transition to the dynamic action in the form of
  some statement or deed that changes the initial
  situation. Amit
• The ending lowers the curtain, sends the players
  off the stage and behind the scenes, to another
  place and event, or, in the case of a concentric
  ending, back to where they came from . . . .
  Amit

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3. Narratology

• 3.3 The Plot
• 2. Middle Body of the Story
• A story relates what is happening to people, and
  describes objects, places and events. However,
  not every description is necessarily a story.
  What makes a description into a story is a
  significant change a bad situation is improved
  (for instance, when one of the characters
  overcomes a rival or a difficult obstacle) a
  situation which was good at the outset grows
  markedly worse (for instance, due to a failure,
  or being hurt by a rival). In a story, the main
  thing is the change, the event which makes the
  reader feel that something has occurred. Frank
  Polak, Biblical Narrative Aspect of Art and
  Design

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3. Narratology

• 3.4 Time
• 1. Time of Narration A narrative cannot exist
  without time, to which it has twofold
  relationship it unfolds within time, and times
  passes within it. The narrative needs the time
  which is outside it in order to unravel itself by
  stages before the reader . . . . The narrative
  also requires internal time, because the
  characters and the incidents exist within time
  Amit
• 2. Narrated Time The shaping of time within the
  narrative is functional and not random or
  arbitrary but, making a genuine contribution, in
  coordination and cooperation with the other
  elements, to the character, meaning and values of
  the entire narrative. Amit

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3. Narratology

• 3.5 Space
• 1. It rarely happens in the Bible that a
  location is left unspecified. Amit
• 2. Function of Space
• Creating a historical character by means of
  geographic markers.
• The vague geographic reference as a hint that the
  story is fictional.
• Place in the service of ideology
• Derivation of place-names and historical
  awareness (etiological place name)
• Place as the main subject.
• Typological routes
• Place as an intentional background
• Place as hero

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3. Narratology

• 3.6 Style
• 1. Repetition (Alters Five Types of Repetition)
• Leitwort. Through abundant repetition, the
  semantic range of the word-root is deployed,
  branching off at times into phonetic relatives
  (that is word-play), synonymity, and anonymity
  by virtue of its verbal status, the Leitwort
  refers immediately to meaning and thus to theme
  as well.

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3. Narratology

• 3.6 Style
• 1. Repetition (Alters Five Types of Repetition)
• Motif. A concrete image, sensory quality,
  action, or object recurs through a particular
  narrative it may be intermittently associated
  with a Leitwort it has no meaning in itself
  without the defining context of the narrative it
  may be incipiently symbolic or instead primarily
  a means of giving formal coherence to a
  narrative.

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3. Narratology

• 3.6 Style
• 1. Repetition (Alters Five Types of Repetition)
• Theme. An idea which is part of the value-system
  of the narrative - it may be moral,
  moral-psychological, legal, political,
  historiosophical, theological - is made evident
  in some recurring pattern. It is often associated
  with one or more Leitworter but it is not
  co-extensive with them it may be also associated
  with a motif.

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3. Narratology

• 3.6 Style
• 1. Repetition (Alters Five Types of Repetition)
• Sequence of Actions. This pattern appears most
  commonly and most clearly in the folktale form of
  three consecutive repetitions, or three plus one,
  with some intensification or increment from one
  occurrence to the next, usually concluding either
  in a climax or a reversal.

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3. Narratology

• 3.6 Style
• 1. Repetition (Alters Five Types of Repetition)
• Type-scene. This is an episode occurring at a
  portentous moment in the career of the hero which
  is composed of a fixed sequence of motifs. It is
  often associated with certain recurrent term or
  phrase may help mark the presence of a particular
  type-scene.

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3. Narratology

• 3.6 Style
• 2. Omission
• Gapping / Narrative Reticence A gap is an
  unstated piece of information that is essential
  to the understanding of a story. Longman
• In terms of unstated motives
• . . . Gaps involve the reader by raising
  narrative interest curiosity, suspense,
  surprise.

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3. Narratology

• 3.6 Style
• 3. Irony
• When a narrative situation suggests more levels
  of meaning than the characters involved can
  recognize, irony is present. Irony is incongruity
  of knowledge. Characters think they know what
  they are doing when in fact they may be doing
  something rather different. They think they
  understand the way the world is when in fact it
  is different. Sometimes the discrepancy of
  knowledge is contained within the story world, so
  that some characters know more than others.
  Fewell Gunn

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3. Narratology

• 3.6 Style
• 3. Irony
• Irony as an ingredient or mode of narration
  varies within the Hebrew Bible. Genesis 2 Kings
  is particularly rich in irony, Chronicles much
  less so. That difference is typical of the
  difference between dialogic and monologic
  narrative. Fewell Gunn