Theory of Narration 1963

Abstract

At one time the Epic portrayed representative factions of the social structure. The most prominent faction was that which had the greatest public fame. Hierarchies of the representative social structure determined the course of the narration. The goal of the narration was to reveal and once revealed to exhibit gloriously those qualities which served to make the representatives of the social structure representative: this held true from the victory of Aeneas to Parzival's Kingdom of the Holy Grail; from the battle of the Nibelungen to Tasso's Gerusalemme liberata. The narration could only aim for this goal in cases where it corresponded to a truth whose effectiveness reached far beyond the scope of the narration itself; where it corresponded to an absolute truth. Such narration became meaningless the moment the truth of the representative social structure lost its effectiveness and declined to a mere pretense. The hierarchy of fame became transparent, revealing a reality which up to then had existed only in the form of those who were dependent upon the representatives of the social structure: namely, the anonymous bit-players on the social scene. The hierarchy of fame unmasked itself. It spent itself in a game which became mere convention or changed into the farce of the