The Death of the Narrator and Other Essays

Erscheinungsjahr 2019
ISBN: 978-3-86821-798-8
Verlag: WVT Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier

Buch, Englisch, Band 6, 206 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 225 mm, Gewicht: 433 g

Reihe: Reihe Alternativer Beiträge zur Erzählforschung (RABE)

The narrator (the answer to the question “who is speaking?”) is a commonly used notion in the teaching of literature and in literary criticism, even though it is the object of a theoretical debate which is still too little known. Clarifying it requires an historical and epistemological approach to the opposition between communicational theories of narrative in general (no difference between fictional narrative, non-fictional narrative and communicational discourse) and non-communicational or poetic theories of the fictional narrative in particular (these theories are based on a thorough study of the linguistic and textual peculiarities of fictional narrative).

The articles gathered here confront the two approaches starting from problems such as the identity and difference between certain terms and concepts, the refutation of theories, the reinterpretation of old theories within new theories, the historicity of translations...

Autoren/Hrsg.

Patron, Sylvie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION        1

CHAPTER I: THE DEATH OF THE NARRATOR
AND THE INTERPRETATION OF THE NOVEL:
THE EXAMPLE OF PEDRO PÁRAMO BY JUAN RULFO        13
1. Pedro Páramo: A Complex Novelistic Montage        13
2. Pedro Páramo According to Communicational Theories of Narrative
(Critical Reception of Pedro Páramo)        16
3. Pedro Páramo According to Non-communicational or Poetic Theories of
Fictional Narrative        23

CHAPTER II: HOMONYMY IN GENETTE, OR THE RECEPTION
OF THE HISTORY/DISCOURSE (HISTOIRE/DISCOURS) OPPOSITION
IN THEORIES OF FICTIONAL NARRATIVE        30
1. Homonymies and Synonymies in Todorov and Genette        31
       1.1. Todorov: Story and Discourse        31
       1.2. Genette: Narrative and Discourse        34
       1.3. Genette: Story, Narrative (Narrative Discourse), and Narrating        35
       1.4. Genette’s Revision of Benveniste’s History/Discourse Opposition        36
2. Benveniste, Hamburger: a Comparison        38
3. The Use of the Alignment between Benveniste and Hamburger
by Kuroda and Banfield        41
       3.1. The Critique of the Communicational Theory of Narration        41
       3.2. Banfield: The Two Sentences that Characterize Fictional Narration        42

CHAPTER III: HOMONYMY, POLYSEMY AND SYNONYMY:
REFLECTIONS ON THE NOTION OF VOICE        45
1. Voice in Communicational Theories of Narrative        46
2. Voice and Kuroda and Banfield’s Critique of Communicational Theories
of Fictional Narrative        55

CHAPTER IV: FICTIONAL NARRATIVES BEFORE 1850:
INSTANCES OF REFUTATION FOR POETIC THEORIES OF NARRATION?        63

CHAPTER V: INTERVIEW        77

CHAPTER VI: UNSPEAKABLE SENTENCES: NARRATION AND REPRESENTATION
IN BENEDETTI’S “FIVE YEARS OF LIFE”        86
1. Preliminary Remarks        86
2. An Unspeakable Ending       90
       2.1. Raúl, Mirta and the “Appleton Girl” (or the False Ending)        90
       2.2. Raúl, or the Recognition (The Surprise Ending)        95
3. From Description to Interpretation        98
Annex        102

CHAPTER VII: UNSPEAKABLE IMAGES: ON THE INTERPLAY
BETWEEN VERBAL AND ICONIC NARRATION
IN BENEDETTI’S “CINCO AÑOS DE VIDA” (“FIVE YEARS OF LIFE”)        105
1. Preliminary Remarks        105
2. Another Unspeakable Narrative        109
       2.1. A Playful Relationship to the Idea of Narrative        109
       2.2. The Narrative Possibilities and Constraints of the Medium        111
       2.3. Toward a Critical Use of Intermedial Comparison        116

CHAPTER VIII: TRANSLATING S.-Y. KURODA: PAST AND PRESENT        120
1. The Translatability of Kuroda’s Essays        120
2. Critique of Translations and Occasional Re-Translations        123
3. Translating Kuroda Today        130

CHAPTER IX: NARRATOLOGICAL CATEGORIES AND THE (NON-)DISTINCTION
BETWEEN SPOKEN AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE IN NARRATIVE THEORY        135

CHAPTER X: NO-NARRATOR THEORIES/OPTIONAL-NARRATOR THEORIES:
RECENT PROPOSALS AND CONTINUING PROBLEMS:
TOWARD A HISTORY OF CONCEPTS IN NARRATIVE THEORY        153
1. A Survey of Recent Proposals        153
2. A General Lack of Historical Perspective        162
3. Toward a History of Concepts in Narrative Theory        165

REFERENCES        169
1. Source of the Examples        169
2. Works Cited        169

INDEX        191

Über Autor(innen)

Patron, Sylvie
Sylvie Patron is Maître de Conférences Habilitée in French Language and Literature at the University of Paris Diderot. She is the author of LE NARRATEUR: INTRODUCTION À LA THÉORIE NARRATIVE (2009; reprint. 2016) and LA MORT DU NARRATEUR ET AUTRES ESSAIS (2015), among other books. She has edited or coedited several collections on narrative theory in both French and English and translated articles on linguistics and narrative theory into French. She is currently Vice-President of the International Society for the Study of Narrative.