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NARRATIVE ANALYSIS
(adapted from the BA1 reader and lecture course)

STORY AND DISCOURSE

Key terms :

Narrative = a form of communication (language) which presents a sequence (story) of

events (action) involving characters and told by a story-teller (narrator).
Story = events that unfold through the narrative (WHAT)
Plot = the events that make up the story (WHY)
Discourse (language) = HOW (the main focus of narratology)
Narratology: the study of the narrative; the analysis of the relationship between
discourse and story:
- Look at the choices made by the author: how are the characters used?
What is the setting? Who is narrating? Why is the episode told in the way
that it is, at that point in the narrative?
- How does an author create the illusion of “showing” (mimesis) when s/he
must always “tell” the story (diegesis) due to its written nature?
- The writer will try to blur the difference between the real world and the
narrative world.

Narrative communication = How is the story communicated to the reader?

Non-fictional author to reader: extra-textual communication (outside the text, brought
to us via the text)
Implied author to implied reader
Fictional level 1: narrator to narratee/addressee: intratextual communication on the
level of NARRATIVE MEDIATION.
Fictional level 2: character to character: intratextual communication on the level of
ACTION. (Purely fictional level of communication; intradiegetic environment)

Narrative modes = how an episode is presented (showing versus telling)

Scenic presentation = a continuous stream of detailed action events (showing); there
is minimal narrative interference
Summary = the narrator condenses a sequence of action events (telling)
Description = the narrator introduces a character or describes a setting (telling); note
the selection of certain descriptors!
Comment/commentary = the narrator intrudes to comment on characters, the
development of the action, his/her narration (telling); the narrator may add an analysis
or points with a symbolic dimension to the description.

Action = a sequence of acts and events constituting a “story line” on a narrative’s level of
action
Action unit: a distinct point (or small segment) on the story line
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Primary story line: the main part of the story, different from external events such as
the pre-history and post-history of the story.
Minimal sequence of events: The need for a certain number of events in order to
create a plot (the number of events, 1?, 3?) is debatable but there must be some
cause and effect expressed.
Narrative action includes speech acts!

Levels of narrative action:

i) The sequence of acts and events as ordered in the discourse
ii) The action as it happened in its actual chronological sequence (story):
e.g. “The king died, then the queen died” (Forster).
iii) The story’s causal structure (plot) :
e.g. “The king died, then the queen died of grief” (Forster).

Modes of analysis:
Plot-oriented content paraphrase (based on discourse time):
- In loosely plot-oriented content there are actions the purpose of which is
mysterious, unexplained.
- In tightly plot-oriented content everything is explained.
- Both forms represent a deliberate structuring of the plot.
Story-oriented content (based on story time)

Story grammars: (the basic laws of combining events)

Episode: a group of events or action units consisting of three parts: an exposition, a
complication, and a resolution.
Narrative: a sequence of episodes.

Modes of opening:
Beginning (incipit): the opening passage of the text
Point of attack: the event that begins the primary action line; can be one of three
kinds:
ab ovo: Begins at conception (e.g. Tristam Shandy)
in media res: Begins in the middle of the main storyline
in ultima res: Begins at the end of the main storyline

Complex plots:
Embedded narratives: a separate narrative that is within the main narrative; generally
the embedded narrative is important to the plot of the main narrative. (e.g. A
Thousand and One Nights). They can
- provide information about past events (expository function)
- heighten suspense by slowing the action
- provide a parallel action sequence or sub-plot to confirm or contradict the
primary story line (analogy function) or can be related to metalepsis.
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- Recursive plots can create a mis en abyme:

e.g.: “It was a dark and stormy night. A band of robbers huddled
together around the fire. When he had finished eating, the first bandit
said, ‘Let me tell you a story. It was a dark and stormy night and a
band of robbers huddled together around the fire’” (Donald Spence,
1987).

NARRATIVE PERSPECTIVES
Key terms:

Kinds of narrators:
Overt v. covert: Is the narrator obvious? Does s/he interfere with the narration or
speak to the reader? (overt) Is the narrator hidden? Does s/he rarely interfere with
the narration? (covert)
Third person (heterodiegetic): “He lay flat on the brown, pine-needled floor of the
forest, his chin on his folded arms, and high overhead the wind blew in the tops of the
pine trees…” (Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls)
Omniscient: “George thought she was lying and so he lied in turn: ‘Oh yes, I believe
you!’”
First person (homodiegetic): “If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll
probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like…”
(Salinger, Catcher in the Rye)
Un/reliable: Can you believe what the narrator is saying? What clues does the
narrative provide to make the narrator reliable or unreliable?

NARRATIVE TIME
Key terms:

Narrative present versus narrative past: a tense shift produces an effect of intensification
or distancing or a change of perspective.
Discourse –NOW: The current point in time in discourse time; the narrator’s NOW
Story-NOW: The current point in time in story time; a character’s NOW
“’James,’ said Aunt Emily harshly [=narrative past], ‘you must run off to bed . . . Mother needs
perfect quiet’” (Dos Passos, Manhattan Transfer).
“Shaking [=present participle] from head to foot, the man […] at length rises [=narrative
present], supports his trembling frame upon his arms, and looks [=narrative present]”
(Dickens, Edwin Drood).
- 0Here the narrator is covert, immediate (present tense), and direct.
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Present tense modes:

Narrative present: foregrounds the story-NOW and backgrounds the discourse-NOW
Historical present: a local present tense in a past tense context: “Two weeks
before Christmas Malachy and I come home from school in a heavy rain and
when we push in the door we find the kitchen empty. The table and chairs and
trunk are gone and the fire is dead in the grate” (McCourt, Angela’s Ashes)
The generic present: expresses common truths or statements claiming general
validity: (“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in
possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife” (Austen, Pride and
Prejudice).
Synoptic present: Use of present tense in a chapter summary or in the title of a
chapter (this is generally found in 18th-19th century novels).

Tense-categorized narratives:
Sequence/Order: refers to the presentation of the chronology of the story (WHEN did
something happen?)
- Either chronological order or “anachrony”
o Anachronistic: when something does not belong to the time frame
of the story in which it is presented.
o Objective anachrony: factual; a thing is presented as being out of
its time.
o Subjective anachrony: thoughts or feelings about the past or future.
- Flashback/Retrospection /analepsis
- Flashforward/Prospective/prolepsis
Duration: refers to the proportioning of story time and discourse time (HOW LONG
must we read in order to learn about an action or an event?)
- Narrative speed or tempo is the relationship between story time and
discourse time.
o Story time – the fictional time that it takes for an event to happen.
o Discourse time – the number of pages it takes to describe an event.
o Isochronous presentation (or congruent presentation or isochrony):
equal duration between story time and discourse time.
o Speed-up or acceleration: when the discourse time of an episode is
shorter than the story time.
o Slow-down or deceleration: when the discourse time of an episode
is longer than its story time.
o Ellipses/cut/omissions: refers to story time that is not textually
represented at all.
o Pause: when discourse time comprises description or comment,
while story time stops and no action actually takes place.
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Frequency: refers to possible ways of presenting action units (HOW OFTEN?)

(This also shows how important something is: if it is repeated, it is probably
important.)

- Singular telling: Recounting once what happened once

- Repetitive telling: Recounting multiple times what happened once
- Iterative telling: Recounting once what happened repeatedly.

NARRATIVE SPACE
- In contrast to visual media, the written word will often only provide 2-3 characteristics
of a space, the key visual details; however, that very description can tell the reader
things about the themes and emotions that are evoked by that space.
- Time and space often work together; for example, seasonal time is often evoked by
describing the space (e.g. “chronotopes”).

Key terms:

Literary space versus setting: The total environment which situates objects and characters
(nation, city, village) versus the environment in which characters move or live (market,
house, office).
Story space (story-HERE): refers to the spatial environment or setting of any of the story’s
action episodes; or, more globally, the ensemble or range of these environments.
- (Where are the characters?)
Discourse space (discourse-HERE): refers to the narrator’s current spatial environment;
more globally, the whole range of environments in which the narrative situation is located.
- (Where is/are the narrator/s?)
NOTE: Story-HERE and discourse-HERE in conjunction with story-NOW and discourse-
NOW identify the story’s current “deictic center”: the origin or zero point of the text’s spatio-
temporal co-ordinate system.
Spatial perception is strongly related to focalization. Markers of deictic orientation include:
expressions like near and far, here and there, left and right, up and down, come and go, etc.
Oppositional spaces: city versus country, public space versus private space, civilization
versus nature, house versus garden, transitional space versus permanent space.
** Keep in mind who experiences space:
- The reader: our experience of space is imaginary; we have to play it out in
our heads and separate fact and fiction.
“My dear Father and Mother,
I know you will be pleased to hear that we arrived safely in Town last night. We found a
stately, well-furnish’d, and convenient House; and I had my Closet, or Library, and my
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Withdrawing-room, all in complete Order, which Mr. B. gave me possession of, in a manner
the most obliging that can be imagined” (Richardson, Pamela).
- The town, closet, and library are objective; factual.
- The house is subjectively described (adjectives) and demonstrates how she
feels about it.

Setting reveals thematic, characterizing, and narratorial details:

- Perhaps the natural environment around a character speaks to a certain
characteristic.
- How do people move within the space? (Towards each other? Separately?)

CHARACTERIZATION
The illusion of reality is assisted by realistic characters.
Make sure to analyze the characters; do NOT describe them!
Key terms:
Person: flesh and blood, real-life, e.g. the author, the reader (outside the narrative).
Character/Figure: occupies the diegetic world
Round characters v. flat characters (Forster):
Round: Round characters are complex figures in the narrative who change and
develop through the narrative; we are given more information about them than we
need to know simply to understand the story.
Flat: A flat character is the opposite; it does not change or develop within the story.
(See also, dynamic v. static characters)
Narrator: a figure inside the diegetic world who relates the story.
Metalepsis: transcending different levels of reality in order to emphasise the intradiegetic
reality or the artificiality/createdness of the text.
Protagonist/Hero/Heroine
Antagonist or foil
Eponymous hero/ine

Character Analysis:
Who (subject) characterizes whom (object) as being what (as having what particular
properties)?
How are characters created?
Narratorial v. figural characterization: What is the identity of the characterizing subject? Does
the narrator characterize a figure or does a character characterize another?
Explicit v. implicit characterization: Are the personality traits attributed in words, or are they
implied by the description of a character’s behaviour?
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Block characterization: A form of explicit characterization; refers to the narrator’s introductory

description of a character.
Self-characterization (auto-characterization): Does the characterizing subject describe itself?
Or implicitly betray characteristics of itself?
Altero-characterization: Does the characterizing subject describe another character? (This is
usually explicit).
** How one character characterizes another also then characterizes the first.
**Points of focalization will often tell you who is characterizing whom.
System of denomination (naming conventions): refers to the specific set of naming strategies
used to identify and subsequently refer to characters.

Representations of speech, thought, consciousness:

A character’s speech can be characterizing in terms of what they say, how they say it, and
whether or not they really said it (free indirect discourse); is the narrator reliable in relating
what was said? Is a character saying one thing while acting another way?
Narrator’s discourse: comprising all “diegetic statements” telling the “narrative of (nonverbal)
events”; also, the narrator’s evaluative or commentarial statements, if any.
Characters’ discourses: comprising all of the “narrative of verbal events/words”
Attributive discourse: a diegetic phrase or “tag” identifying an agent and an act of speech,
thought, or perception. Syntactically, there are two main forms:
- An introductory tag: a discourse tag in the initial position: “Jane thought (that)
…”
- A parenthetical tag: a discourse tag in either the medial or final position: “That,
she thought, was it”; or “’That is it,’ she thought.”
Discourse representation
- Direct discourse: quoted speech formally independent of quoting frame;
exactly what a character has said.
o “Mary thought: ‘What on earth shall I do now?’”
- Tagged direct discourse: is framed by a clause of attributive discourse
- Untagged direct discourse: is NOT framed by a clause of attributive
discourse
o “What on earth shall I do now?”
- Stream of consciousness: refers to the direct representation of mental
processes, especially the random, associative nature of these processes
(coined by William James).
- Interior monologue: refers to the direct presentation of a character’s
thoughts
o Soliloquy: performs a similar function
- Free indirect discourse: refers to speech not placed within attributive tags
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o This type of speech complicates the reliability of the narrator; who

is speaking? Sometimes the source can be found through
focalization.
o Impossible to know what exactly was said and what is narratorial
paraphrase.
- “Mind style”: a general term for a character’s or a narrator’s characteristic
patterns of consciousness: presented by diction, rhetoric, and syntax
typical of a character’s or a narrator’s pattern of thinking.
- Coloring: refers to the local coloring of the narrator’s or character’s verbal
style by diction, dialect, sociolect, or idiolect.

STYLE AND LANGUAGE

Key terms:

Style: refers to the repertoire of literary devices that authors combine to convey their themes
and the content of their narratives. Includes narrative perspectives, characterization, time
and space, narrative plotting, and the use of generic conventions.
- Figurative language: refers to words (or groups of words) that alter the usual
meaning of their component parts. (Metaphors, similes, hyperbole, alliteration, etc.).
Figurative language can
o act as a vehicle for themes
o characterize; the objective correlative works like a simile in that the
changes in the natural world reflect a character’s emotional state.
o link story and discourse: how are we told something? Describing
the setting is an active choice by the author since not all of it can be
described at once.
o describe what cannot be said through literal words alone.
o join and unify scenes through repeated patterns of images.