Narratology: Form and Function of Narrative by Gerald J. Prince

Summary of Narratology: Form and Function of Narrative by Gerald J. Prince

CHAPTER 1( Narrating) 

Pages 7-16

A narrative is a collection of signs which can be grouped into several classes. 

NARRATOR

In grammar we talks about first person (I), second person( you) and third person( he, she). The first person is the one who talks, second person is the person who is spoken to and third person is the person/ object that is spoked about. Similarly in the narratology the narrator is the first person, narratee is the second person and person or object being discussed is the third person. 

There is always atleast one narrator in any Narrative it isn't always necessary that the narrator will be represented by 'I'. But there are several other narratives where the sign of presence of narrator is evident. 

1) Sign of the 'I' 

Any second person pronoun which doesn't exclusively refers to a character or is not uttered by him must refer to someone whom the narrator is addressing , hence it represents the presence of narrator in the narrative. 

But sometimes the sign of 'I' functions more directly. Any first person plural pronoun which doesn't exclusively designate characters refers to Narrating itself.

Class of deictic terms like now, here, yesterday, tomorrow etc tell us about the situation of utterance and the spatio-temporal situation of the utterer. There is also a class of modal terms like unfortunately, perhaps etc which indicates the speakers attitude about what he is saying. 

Any sign in the narration which represents a narrators attitude, persona, knowledge, interpretation etc constitutes the sign of ' I' 

2) Intrusiveness, Self consciousness, reliability, distance

The narrator can be more or less intrusive; more or less characterised as the narrating self. The narrator can also be less conscious of the fact that he is narrating. 

It is not always necessary that the narrator is reliable, so his every word can't be taken at the face value.  The narrator is not always near the incident narrated he can be at greater or lesser distance from the event discussed, this time can be temporal or physical. It can be intellectual, moral or emotional too. 

3) Narrator Character

The narrator may or may not be the participant in the event he recounts. Sometimes the narrator can be a character but presents himself as third person. In cases where the narrator is a character he may play a more or less considerable role in the events which he recounts. 

4) Multiple Narrators

There can be many narrators in a narrative. The number can vary depending on the need of the narrative. For example Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad ( 2 narrators) .

Chapter 4 

READING NARRATIVE( pg 103-105) 

The study of literature in general and Narrative is changing its form shifting it's concern with author or text to concern of the readers. Instead of seeing the text as author's intentions or views it is seen as readers way of understanding the things. 

Reading is defined as " the activity presupposing the text, a set of visual presented linguistic symbols from which meaning can be extracted" 

Whereas reader is described as the person who is able to extract meaning from that set.