Handbook of Narrative Analysis by Luc Herman and Bart Vervaeck

Abstract

Reviewed by: Handbook of Narrative Analysis by Luc Herman and Bart Vervaeck Kai Mikkonen Luc Herman and Bart Vervaeck. Handbook of Narrative Analysis. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2019. 424 pp. Like its first edition, the much-extended revised edition of Luc Herman’s and Bart Vervaeck’s Handbook of Narrative Analysis (hereafter HNA) seeks to serve many objectives at once. HNA is, first, a survey of major trends in narrative theory from structuralism until the present. Second, it is a textbook that illustrates the practical uses and possibilities of these theories and analytical approaches based on them, with the help of a set of short literary texts. Thus, the authors’ stated purpose is to “make narrative theory available to those who are interested in close and ideological relevant readings of literary prose” (10). Furthermore, but in a much more limited sense, HNA is a history of narrative theory within the framework of narratology, from structuralism and classical narratology to present-day postclassical concerns, involving, for instance, rhetorical and cognitive narratology, possible-worlds semantics, cultural narratology, and the natural vs. unnatural narrative debate. Finally, HNA also puts forward a research policy statement about how narratological analysis should be conceived and practiced. These objectives, and the book’s tripartite division into Before and Surrounding Structuralism, Structuralism, and Postclassical Narratology, have not changed since the first 2005 edition, which, in its turn, was based on the Dutch-language original Vertelduivels: Handboek verhaalanalyse (2001). The first two chapters about structuralist and classical narratology have also remained intact in size and subject matter. By contrast, the last chapter, on postclassical narratology, has been greatly expanded and has gained new dominance. Having more than doubled in size, this section now constitutes roughly two-thirds of the book. Another evident change is the inclusion of Dutch cartoonist Ge Wasco’s one-page cartoon “City” (2015) with the two short texts that were also used in the first edition, Charlotte Mutsaers’s “Pegasian” (1996) and Gerrit Krol’s “The Map” (1998), which serve as examples and as testing grounds for the theoretical concepts and analytic approaches. The comics appendix is a significant gesture towards a more intermedial emphasis and inclusiveness, which is also reflected in the discussion devoted to cyber narratology and comics narratology. HNA can be congratulated for featuring a wealth of contemporary Central and Northern European narrative theories and studies. For teachers of narrative theory and analysis, there are many valuable discoveries to be made and old friends to re-connect with. Personally, for instance, I was grateful for being reminded of Philippe Hamon’s work on ideology in the novel, and for discovering Liesbeth Korthals Altes’s and Vincent Jouve’s approaches to ideology and the effect of value (Jouve’s effet-valeur), which are to some extent a continuation of that work. HNA also includes several diagrams that can be used in teaching (I only wish there were more). The three short literary texts, and their continuous analysis from various perspectives, are also one of the strengths of HNA, even if a question may arise as to the scope and overall effect of these mini-analyses. [End Page 179] Since so many things can be reasonably said about these texts, or abstracted from them, considering the various theoretical frameworks, it would have been interesting to hear how the writers perceive the issues of relevance and compatibility of interpretation in a more general sense. The statement that interpretation means “the effort to connect the content” of a literary text with its form (8) is not altogether satisfactory. Given the authors’ emphasis on the features of individual narratives — as stated in the introduction, the concluding remarks, and several times along the way — some more hermeneutical self-reflection might also have been relevant to what it means to discover the peculiarities, oddities, and complexities of individual narrative texts. By spending most of their time in paraphrasing existing narrative theories within a particular research tradition, or under a certain theme, while at the same time emphasizing the complexity and incommensurability of individual narratives, Herman and Vervaeck are in a sense loyal to the fundamental tension in narratology between the generalizable narrative form and the specific text. The...