Narratological Elements Research Articles

Exploring the Use of Narratology for Narrative Preaching

Although narrative preaching as a movement may have gone out of fashion in North American homiletics more than two decades ago, there has since been a resurgence of interest in the rhetorical function of biblical narratives along with the continuing exploration of more democratic, dialogical and open-ended homiletical forms. This study, therefore, suggests that the discipline of narratology can potentially combine these two elements by replicating the dynamics of biblical narratives in a variety of narrative sermon formats. By providing an examination of the elements of narratology, this approach seeks to reunite the often-separated elements of textual and homiletical form and function. The use of these narratological exegetical tools can then allow biblical narratives to assert a greater influence upon the form of the sermon itself, create an experience of the text for the listeners, and enable them to enter into the “world of words” of biblical narratives.

Exploring a New Narratological Paradigm for the Analysis of Narrative Communication in Translated Children’s Literature

Current contributions attempting to draw together translation studies and narratology are based almost exclusively on structuralist narratology, proceeding from the assumption that changes on the micro-level of the text will result in changes to the various narrative dimensions of the text, and will lead to a different configuration of the narrative communication situation in translated texts as compared to original works. However, it is argued in this paper that this approach, firstly, results in a conceptualisation of the narrative communication situation for the translated text that is particularly unwieldy and becomes even more so when considered in the context of translated children’s literature. Secondly, this approach does not take adequate cognisance of the role (or potential role) of the reader and the context, leaving both these aspects largely outside the process of analysis. Methodologically, it also means that narratological shifts in translation are mostly identified by means of comparative analysis, which, while useful, leaves the natural reading situation (where readers do not usually have access to the source text) out of consideration. Instead, this paper presents a preliminary and exploratory investigation of an alternative narratological framework that includes the reader as a constitutive component. The framework, based on the ideas of Bortolussi and Dixon (2003), proposes a two-part, interlocked conception of narratological elements: textual features and reader constructions. It is argued that such a framework provides a simultaneously simpler and more sophisticated means of understanding narrative communication in translated children’s literature. Firstly, translations and their source texts may be analysed comparatively in terms of their textual features, which may reveal the presence of the translator. However, the second dimension of the proposed framework posits that despite the fact that translation shifts effect changes in narrative features, child and adult readers’ responses to translated children’s texts do not necessarily and by default incorporate an awareness of the presence of an additional “voice” in the text, that of the translator. At this point the framework departs from standard narratological approaches to narrative communication in translated texts in proposing the necessity of investigating reader constructions rather than textual features alone.

Kinder-und Jugendliteratur und Narratologie (review)

Reviewed by: Kinder-und Jugendliteratur und Narratologie Ines Galling Carsten Gansel and Hermann Korte (Eds), Kinder-und Jugendliteratur und Narratologie. [Children’s and Young Adult Literature and Narratology] (Series: Deutschsprachige Gegenwartsliteratur und Medien; 2) Göttingen : V & R Unipress 2009 241 pp ISBN 9783899717266 EUR 39.90 This volume is proof that children’s and young adult literature is a worthy object of sophisticated narratological enquiries. It features an introduction, two author-interviews, and twelve contributions, which analyze and discuss different narrative forms in picture books, books for children, and young adult literature. Instead of studying the content, the essays explore the forms and structures – in other words, the literariness – of the genre. They examine the by now classic narratological categories developed by Gérard Genette, such as the treatment of time, the mood (i.e. distance and perspective of the narrator), or the (narrative) voice. Most individual contributions focus on quite specific issues. One, for example, traces the staging of memory or the change in voice from free indirect speech to interior monologue in the work of Mirjam Pressler. Other essays offer surveys, one of them detailing, for instance, the “narratological elements” in popular cardboard picture books. The overall very thorough contributions clearly illustrate the [End Page 70] diverse ways in which books for children and young adults construct their narratives. Moreover, they convincingly demonstrate how much can be gained from approaching children’s literature with analytical tools that have long proved their worth with “grown-up’s” literature. Copyright © 2011 Bookbird, Inc