Narratology
Narratology refers
to both the theory and the study of narrative and narrative structure and the
ways that these affect our perception. While in principle the word may refer to
any systematic study of narrative, in practice its usage is rather more restricted.
It is an anglicisation of French narratologie, coined by Tzvetan Todorov
(Grammaire du Décaméron, 1969).Narratology is applied retrospectively as well
to work predating its coinage. Its theoretical lineage is traceable to
Aristotle (Poetics) but modern narratology is agreed to have begun with the
Russian Formalists, particularly Vladimir Propp (Morphology of the Folktale,
1928).
The origins of narratology lend to it a strong association
with the structuralist quest for a formal system of useful description
applicable to any narrative content, the analogy being to the grammars by
reference to which sentences are parsed in some forms of linguistics. This
procedure does not however typify all work described as narratological today;
Percy Lubbock's work in point of view (The Craft of Fiction, 1921), is a case
in point
In 1966, a special issue of the journal
"Communications" has been highly influential and considered a program
for research into the field and even a manifesto. It included articles by
Barthes, Claude Brémond, Genette, Greimas, Todorov and others, which in turn
often referenced the works of Vladimir Propp.
Jonathan Culler (2001) describes narratology as comprising
many strands 'implicitly united in the recognition that narrative theory
requires a distinction between "story," a sequence of actions or
events conceived as independent of their manifestation in discourse, and
"discourse," the discursive presentation or narration of events.'This
was first proposed by the Russian Formalists, who employed the couplet fabula
and sjuzet. A subsequent succession of alternate pairings has preserved the
essential binomial impulse, e.g. histoire/discours, histoire/récit, story/plot.
The Structuralist assumption that fabula and sujet could be investigated separately,
gave birth to two quite different traditions: thematic (Propp, Bremond,
Greimas, Dundes, et al.) and modal (Genette, Prince, et al.) narratology. The
former is mainly limited to a semiotic formalization of the sequences of the
actions told, while the latter examines the manner of their telling, stressing
voice, point of view, transformation of the chronological order, rhythm and
frequency. Many authors (Sternberg, 1993, Ricoeur, 1984, and Baroni, 2007) have
insisted that thematic and modal narratology should not be looked at
separately, especially when dealing with the function and interest of narrative
sequence and plot.
SYNOPSIS
Masculine
Feminine was Jean-Luc Godard's first (but not his last) foray into the
burgeoning "Children of the Sixties" generation -- or, as Godard
described it, "the children of Marx and Coca-Cola." Impressionable
teenager Paul (Jean-Pierre Léaud) tries to make sense of the world by working
as an interviewer for a research firm. Meanwhile, Paul cohabits with aspiring
singer Madeleine (Chantal Goya), with two additional young ladies joining the
nocturnal festivities. Paul jumps or is pushed from a window, leaving a
pregnant Madeleine to move on to the next aimless youth she meets. While the
nominal hero has failed to find fulfillment in personal relations, another male
protagonist (Michel Debord), a political activist, is luckier -- an indication
that the director favored revolutionary politics over simple emotionalism at
this point in his career. Though Godard's free-form style is usually opposed to
linear storytelling, Masculine Feminine has solid literary roots, having been
inspired by two Guy de Maupassant stories.
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