Course Project - stylistics

Narrative plot

Abstract storyline

The chronological sequence of events

Narrative discourse

Represented storyline

How the plot is narrated

Stylistic devices used which disrupt chronology

Flashback

Prevision

Repetition

Recap: Narrative plot and discourse

Plot refers to the actual chronology of events in a narrative; discourse refers to the manipulation/presentation/realistion of that story in the presentation of the narrative.

Distinction between plot and discourse

Units of narrative analysis

Textual medium: Film, novel, cartoon, ballet, etc.

Sociolinguistic code: Historical, cultural and linguistic setting communicated through language

Characterization #1: Actions and events: How character development and story events/action intersect

Characterization #2: Point of view: Mode of narration (1st person, 2nd person) and relationship with point of view (character perspective)

Textual structure: Story organization

Intertextuality: Allusion; How does the text reference other texts or images?

Recap: Units of narrative analysis

The unit is reviewing an important structuralist model of narrative and then continues with an application of it to two narrative texts.

The Jungle Book

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

Developed from a corpus of 115 folktales

Defines the discourse of the folktale genre

Details 31 narrative plot functions and 7 basic types of character roles

Captures all of the possible elements in a folktale

Not all folktales have all 31 elements

Not always chronological

Gives primacy to what the characters do rather than who does it or how it is done

Propp’s morphology of the folktale

Such an analysis requires the rendering down of narratives into their raw, basic elements, producing a kind of grammar of narrative which is indicated by the reference to ‘morphology’ in the title of Propp’s study.

Does this mean that Proppian analysis examines the grammar of the text? No.

Morphology means the study of form and structure.

The scope of Proppian Model

See Table B5.1

Initial situation: Hero leaves home (absentation)

2nd narrative function: Hero is told not to do something (interdiction) (warning of danger – what not to do. Eg “Beauty and the Beast”

3rd narrative function: Hero does what he/she is told not to do (violation)

4th narrative function: Villain arrives (reconnaissance) finding the whereabouts or weakness of the hero.

(Etc.)

Propp’s 31 narrative functions

the point of Propp’s model is not to imply that all narratives realise all functions. Nor is it to suggest that all narratives, in their manifestation as discourse, follow a straightforwardly linear chronology.

Propp’s model does is to try to define a genre of narrative discourse, the fairy tale, through a circumscribed set of core organisational parameters. How those parameters might be applied to more contemporary narratives.

it is a central principle of the Proppian framework that it should have universal relevance.

(1) Mowgli the ‘mancub’ wanders the jungle with no parents, away from home (1)

(12) Mowgli (the hero) finds Bagheera the panther and Baloo the bear (helpers)

(2) The Helpers warn Mowgli of the jungle’s dangers (interdiction)

(3) Mowgli ignores the advice (violation)

(4) Shere Khan the tiger appears (the Villain)

(4) Interrogates Kaa the snake to plan against Mowgli (reconnaissance)

(6) Tries to kidnap Mowgli

(8) Injures Baloo, Mowgli’s protector. (family member is injured)

(16) Mowgli and Shere Khan fight

(12) Mowgli uses fire (‘red flower’ magic) against Shere Khan

(18) Shere Khan is scared away

(20) Mowgli returns home to the ‘man village’ enticed by the water girl’s song

(31) Perhaps Mowgli will be married or crowned in the future

Example: Disney’s The Jungle Book (1967)

Disney’s cartoon draws out, from a finite list of universalised functions, a specific selection of plot advancing devices. What is interesting is that even though their particular settings, ‘dramatic personae’ and historical periods may change, a great many Disney films work to the same basic plot typology.

It is noticeable that certain of the narrative functions in the film are slightly out of order with the sequence developed in Propp.

e.g. Harry’s parents were killed before the 1st action of the film, yet Harry only later discovers this and relives the episode through flashback.

the use of flashback, prevision and other devices are markers of individuality in the story.

Not all 31 functions are present, however, they are not all needed to create a coherent narrative.

Harry Potter and Proppian Model

is that many of the archetypical patterns that inform fairy stories are alive and well in certain genres of contemporary narrative.

Both film texts examined here are magical, mythical adventures much in the vein of the folktale

so the success with which the Proppian model can accommodate all narrative genres remains to be proven. (western, romance, detective, science fiction stories)

If anything, the import of Propp’s model is not to suggest that all narratives are the same, but rather to explain in part why all narratives are different.

General notes about Proppian Model

Simpson, P. (2004). Stylistics: A Resource Book for Students (2nd ed.). London: Routledge. ISBN 9780415644969 (print edition).

References