Modeling the narrative viewpoint: narrative spaces and the labovian narrative structure

Abstract

The article addresses the methodological challenge of studying narratives of various genres in their natural discursive environment. The proposed model combines the narrative spaces approach to narrative construction developed by Dancygier and the classic Labov & Waletzky narrative segmentation model. I undertake a modeling experiment targeting four narratives of personal experience, two oral and two written, from news, political, humorous, and oneiric reflective contexts. I accommodate the classic narrative structure model of Abstract, Orientation, Complication, Resolution, Evaluation, and Coda to tag narrative spaces rather than narrative clauses. This revised vision of the narrative structural elements combined with the cognitive narratology concept of narrative spaces aims to address the viewpoint configurations. Namely, I focus on the discussion of the elements of Abstract, Evaluation, and Coda, which position the narrative in its discursive context and essentially constitute the extra-narrative system. These elements allow embedding the narrative in the pragmatic context and account for its tellability. In turn, this discursive positioning depends on the viewpoint configuration of the narrative of personal experience. I regard viewpoint configurations as elements governed by the narrative genre. I argue that the viewpoint compression and decompression processes and narrative embedding strategies are genre-specific. Narratives of different genres demonstrate stronger or weaker extra-narrative system and varied tendencies towards multiple viewpoints and their compression.