unit 32: Narrative text. Definition & characteristics

unit 32: Narrative text. Definition & characteristics

1. Rollo May

   • Communication leads to community, that is, to understanding, intimacy and mutual valuing
     • decades ago
       • summarize main objective of 2nd LL - acquire communicative competence
         • Pragmatic competence -how to organize, structure, arrange texts
           • Relevant for the purspose of the unit- predicted from title
   • Definition of text DC
     • Classification of texts FC
       • Narration
         • Narrative Patterns
           • universal genre
             • Setting/ orientation
               • Red badge of courage
                 • Henry fleming/farmer/american civil war
             • Story line -hero/goal
             • Complication or problem - eg. runs away from his batalion
             • Resolution
               • returns to balanced sit-moral purpose-stimes neg- romeo and juliet
                 • narrative unity!
           • Characteristics of narration
             • Narrator
               • omniscient-godlike position-criticized
               • limited point of view
                 • 3rd person- EQUISCIENT-observes in priviledged position outside narration-credibility
                 • INTRUSIVE- interferes, making commands to the reader-pronoun "I" to refer to himself
                 • FRINGE -stands in the fringe (may be a character, minor role-reader's representative-moderately reliable
                 • 1st person NARRATOR- tells own story
                   • Holden Caufield (protagonist) or Watson (close to prot) or Nick Carraway (little to do with the action)
               • multiple points of view
                 • + than 1 narrator
                   • 3rd person technique -canterbury tales
                   • 1st person technique- faulkner's the sound and the fury
                   • stimes- a story fits inside another- Chinese boxes-Wuthering Height
                   • Epistolary novel
                     • letters- voice feelings and thoughts
             • Focalization
               • Genette-70's
                 • Perspective of narrator
                   • inner foc
                     • through character's eyes/ 1st person
                   • External
                     • oberver -3rd p
                   • No focalization
                     • omniscient - knows eveything+anticipates events
               • Characterization
                 • direct
                   • direct statements about characters-atributive verb
                 • Indirect
                   • showing what the characters are like-narrator shows thoughts and actions
                 • Time
                   • spectific temporal sequence, enabling reader to move from orientation to resolution
                     • 3 major aspects of temporal MANIPULATION
                       • ORDER
                         • relation bet sequence of events and their presentation in the text -may or not follow natural sequence- anachronies (flashfacks/analepsis - flashforwards/prolepsis) Due to anachronies -PLOT(the way) VS STORY
                       • DURATION
                         • relationship bet. extent of time of events and amount of text devoted to presenting them
                       • FREQUENCY
                         • how often sth happens and how ofte it is narrated - SINGULAR / REPETITIVE / ITERATIVE to avoid redundacy/ MULTIPLE
                   • Speech
                     • Author-conscious or unconscious choice of forms of speech presentation
                       • direct
                         • naturalness +proximity+intimacy+variation in he text-richer in lexis BUT stimes brusque transition
                       • Indirect
                         • not exact word- technique that summarizes an interprets charachters' language
                         • better pace and economy BUT less reliable
                       • Degrees of directness- both forms-slipping from D to I . EG landlady
                       • Stream of consciousness -direct quotation of characters' thoughts- Ulyssess
                     • Conclusion
                       • universal patters- variety of forms-prestn at all times, places and society
                       • objective- enttertain the reader- that's why structure in a sequence to guide reader + presenting facts and characters in a way to maintain attention- for this we choose perfect narrator, focal, characteriz an speech
                       • 2LL environment-narration is a must - importance of reading+they learn vocabu, grammar, syntax and help to write narrative texts to communicate in every day life
                         • prove rollo right" communica leads to community.."
                       • Bibliography
                         • BEAUGRANDE "TEXT, DISCOURSE AND PROGRESS
                         • HALLIDAY "COHESION IN ENGLISH
                         • VAN DIK "TEXT AND CONTEXT: EXPLORATION IN THE SEMANTICS AND PRAGMATIC DISCOURSE
                         • GENETTE "NARRATIVE DISCOURSE: AN ESSAY IN METHOD
         • Difficult to imagine a world without narrative
           • Story telling
             • Past (anecdote, history, tradition) + present +future
               • Everyday converstion
                 • However other modes: kinaesthetic/pictorial/musical
               • Literature
       • Descriptive /expository/dialogical/argumentative/instructive and NARRATIVE-telling a story
         • Stimes no clear-cut distinction between genres-combination e.g novel:D/N/D
     • Discourse competence
       • Notion of text- Chomsky- unified and meaningful whole (W/S) to transmit meaning
         • Once understood- how to organize/structure texts- focus of DISCOURSE COMPETENCE
           • in addition, text in w/s form-to perform a specific communicative function -FUNCTIONAL COMPENTENCE