The Basic Concept of Narratology and Narrative

Abstract

The field of narratology is concerned with the study and analysis of narrative texts. It puts under investigation literary pieces of language and yields an understanding of the components has in its very texture. The aim of this article is to provide insights about the field of ‘narratology’ and its associated subject of study ‘narrative’. It also tries to sketch the main issues concerning these two concepts. For this, the present review is presented in two major sections, each with related discussions about narratology and narrative. The first major part, narratology, will be presented in three sections: the first section, deals with the definitions and origins of narratology. The definitions are inspected and the researchers show how they go from general (encompassing all which is narrated) to more specific (encompassing literary narratives told by a narrator) ones. The second section, focuses on the two phases of narratology which are classical and post-classical ones in which narratology changed its orientations and scope. The last section is devoted to some of the elements and components of which narratology is made up, such as narration, focalization, narrative situation, action, story analysis, tellability, tense, time, and narrative modes which will be elaborated on in more details. The second major part, narrative, will be presented in four sections: first the concept will be defined and introduced. Then the features which make a narrative will be specified and elaborated on. In the third section, some of the elements of narratives like story, discourse, events, and existents are stressed. In the last section, it is elucidated that narrative is not just a written printed genre, rather it consists of performed genres such as plays, films, and operas.