Gender and Narratology

Abstract

AbstractIn contrast to structuralist narratology, feminist narratology, which emerged in the 1980s as one of the first ‘postclassical’, context‐oriented approaches within narrative theory and was pioneered by Susan Lanser, is based on the assumption that gender is a category that is relevant to the analysis of the structural features of narratives. Seeking to link feminist theory and narratology, this branch of narrative theory has revealed blind spots and pitfalls of the supposedly gender‐neutral analyses of structuralist narratology. Moreover, feminist narratology has sought to relate textual features to relevant cultural contexts and has modified and reinterpreted narratological categories from a feminist perspective. Since the 1990s, feminist narratology has significantly broadened its scope by paying attention to a wider range of text types and media, and by drawing upon approaches and insights from linguistics. In addition, the shift from feminist theory to gender studies has left its traces in gender‐conscious approaches to narrative theory. In particular, Judith Butler's revisionist approach to gender and sex has rendered the categories that feminist narratology draws upon significantly more complex. Although a number of scholars have contributed to the challenging project of developing a feminist narratology, the validity of gender‐conscious approaches to the study of narrative structures is still contested today.