Narrative Structure Analysis: A Story from “Hannah Gadsby: Nanette”

Abstract

According to Labov’s (1972) narrative elements, this paper attempts to analyze one narrative of Hannah Gadsby’s farewell stand-up show. And will discourse how a comedian combines humor with the idea in a story. Narrative structure analysis is one of the most crucial discourse types. In a stand-up show, the comedian prefers to use anecdotes to enhance their performance. Good comedians can present not only humor but their own unique viewpoint in narratives. Concentration is placed on the narrative structure to find out the relationship between humor and the speaker’s voice. It reveals that the six narrative elements can be found in Gadsby’s oral narrative. By combining the narrative elements, Gadsby expresses her consideration of females’ social situation in a humorous story. The function of her narrative is more than entertainment. This paper also found that when analyzing the speaker's humor, the audience's response is also a useful reference. Recording audiences in the transcript as the second speaker can bring the audience into Labov’s narrative framework analysis.