Narratology is the study of narrative and

narrative structure Story structure or narrative structure is the recognizable or comprehensible way in which a narrative's different elements are unified, including in a particularly chosen order and sometimes specifically referring to the ordering of the plot: ...

and the ways that these affect human perception. The term is an anglicisation of French ''narratologie'', coined by

Tzvetan Todorov Tzvetan Todorov (; ; ; 1 March 1939 – 7 February 2017) was a Bulgarian- French historian, philosopher, structuralist literary critic, sociologist and essayist. He was the author of many books and essays, which have had a significant influe ...

(''Grammaire du Décaméron'', 1969). Its theoretical lineage is traceable to

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

(''

Poetics Poetics is the study or theory of poetry, specifically the study or theory of device, structure, form, type, and effect with regards to poetry, though usage of the term can also refer to literature broadly. Poetics is distinguished from hermeneu ...

'') but modern narratology is agreed to have begun with the

Russian formalists Russian formalism was a school of literary theory in Russia from the 1910s to the 1930s. It includes the work of a number of highly influential Russian and Soviet scholars, such as Viktor Shklovsky, Yuri Tynianov, Vladimir Propp, Boris Eikhen ...

, particularly

Vladimir Propp Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp (; – 22 August 1970) was a Soviet folklorist and scholar who analysed the basic structural elements of Russian folk tales to identify their simplest irreducible structural units. Biography Vladimir Propp was ...

(''Morphology of the Folktale'', 1928), and

Mikhail Bakhtin Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin (; rus, Михаи́л Миха́йлович Бахти́н, , mʲɪxɐˈil mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ bɐxˈtʲin; – 7 March 1975) was a Russian people, Russian philosopher and literary critic who worked on the phi ...

's theories of

heteroglossia ''Heteroglossia'' is the coexistence of distinct linguistic varieties, styles of discourse, or points of view within a single language (in Greek: ''hetero-'' "different" and ''glōssa'' "tongue, language"). The term translates the Russian раз� ...

dialogism The twentieth century Russian philosopher and literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin wrote extensively on the concept of dialogue. Although Bakhtin's work took many different directions over the course of his life, dialogue always remained the "master k ...

, and the

chronotope In literary theory and philosophy of language, the chronotope is how configurations of time and space are represented in language and discourse. The term was taken up by Russian literary scholar Mikhail Bakhtin who used it as a central element in h ...

first presented in ''

The Dialogic Imagination ''The Dialogic Imagination'' (full title: ''The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays by M. M. Bakhtin'') is a book on the nature and development of novelistic prose, comprising four essays by the twentieth century Russian philosopher and literary the ...

'' (1975). Cognitive narratology is a more recent development that allows for a broader understanding of narrative. Rather than focus on the structure of the story, cognitive narratology asks "how humans make sense of stories" and "how humans use stories as sense-making instruments".

Defining narrative

Structuralist narratologists like Rimmon-Kenan define narrative fiction as "the narration of a succession of fictional events". Cognitive narratologists focus on how people experience something as narrative rather than on the structure of the text itself. The six-word story " For sale: baby shoes, never worn", is often given as an example that would not qualify as a narrative in the strictly structural approach, but that evokes a sense of narrative.

Marie-Laure Ryan Marie-Laure Ryan is an independent literary scholar and critic. She has written several books and articles on narratology, fiction, and cyberculture and has been awarded several times for her work. She attended the University of Geneva to study li ...

distinguishes between "a narrative" as an object that can be clearly defined and the quality of

narrativity Narrativity is the extent to which a media tells a story, which is a storyteller's account of an event or a sequence of events leading to a transition from an initial state to a later state or outcome. There are four theoretical foundations of narra ...

, which means "being able to inspire a narrative response". This allows her to understand

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

s as possessing narrativity without necessarily being conventional narratives.

Astrid Ensslin Astrid Christina Ensslin is a German digital culture scholar, and Professor of Dynamics of Virtual Communication Spaces at the University of Regensburg. Ensslin is known for her work on digital fictions and video games, and her development ...

builds upon this, explaining that "games have the potential to evoke multiple, individualized narrative scripts through world-building, causal event design, character development and other elements that players interact with the intention to solve problems and make progress".

History

The origins of narratology lend to it a strong association with the

structuralist Structuralism is an intellectual current and methodological approach, primarily in the social sciences, that interprets elements of human culture by way of their relationship to a broader system. It works to uncover the structural patterns tha ...

quest for a formal system of useful description applicable to any narrative content, by analogy with the

grammars In linguistics, grammar is the set of rules for how a natural language is structured, as demonstrated by its speakers or writers. Grammar rules may concern the use of clauses, phrases, and words. The term may also refer to the study of such rul ...

used as a basis for

parsing Parsing, syntax analysis, or syntactic analysis is a process of analyzing a String (computer science), string of Symbol (formal), symbols, either in natural language, computer languages or data structures, conforming to the rules of a formal gramm ...

sentences The ''Sentences'' (. ) is a compendium of Christian theology written by Peter Lombard around 1150. It was the most important religious textbook of the Middle Ages. Background The sentence genre emerged from works like Prosper of Aquitaine's ...

in some forms of

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

. This procedure does not however typify all work described as narratological today;

Percy Lubbock Percy Lubbock, Order of the British Empire, CBE (4 June 1879 – 1 August 1965) was an English man of letters, known as an essayist, critic and biographer. His controversial book ''The Craft of Fiction'' gained influence in the 1920s. Life Perc ...

's work in

point of view Point of View or Points of View may refer to: Concept and technique * Point of view (literature) or narrative mode, the perspective of the narrative voice; the pronoun used in narration * Point of view (philosophy), an attitude how one sees or ...

(''The Craft of Fiction'', 1921) offers a case in point. In 1966 a special issue of the journal ''Communications'' proved highly influential, becoming considered a program for research into the field and even a

manifesto A manifesto is a written declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party, or government. A manifesto can accept a previously published opinion or public consensus, but many prominent ...

. It included articles by

Roland Barthes Roland Gérard Barthes (; ; 12 November 1915 – 25 March 1980) was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His work engaged in the analysis of a variety of sign systems, mainly derived from Western popu ...

, Claude Brémond,

Gérard Genette Gérard Genette (; 7 June 1930 – 11 May 2018) was a French literary theorist, associated in particular with the structuralist movement and with figures such as Roland Barthes and Claude Lévi-Strauss, from whom he adapted the concept of ''b ...

Algirdas Julien Greimas Algirdas Julien Greimas (; born ; 9 March 1917 – 27 February 1992) was a Lithuanian literary scientist who wrote most of his body of work in French while living in France. Greimas is known among other things for the Semiotic square, Greimas S ...

and others, which in turn often referred to the works of

Herman, David and Jahn, Manfred and Ryan, Marie-Laure (2005
''Routledge encyclopedia of narrative theory''
pp.574–5Bamberg, Michael G. W. (1998
''Oral Versions of Personal Experience: Three Decades of Narrative Analysis. A Special Issue of the Journal of Narrative and Life History''
p.40 (1895–1970).

Jonathan Culler Jonathan Culler (born 1944) is an American literary critic. He was Class of 1916 Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Cornell University. His published works are in the fields of structuralism, literary theory and literary criti ...

(2001) describes narratology as comprising many strands

implicitly united in the recognition that narrative theory requires a distinction between "story," a sequence of actions or events conceived as independent of their manifestation in discourse, and "discourse," the discursive presentation or narration of events.'

The

Russian Formalists Russian formalism was a school of literary theory in Russia from the 1910s to the 1930s. It includes the work of a number of highly influential Russian and Soviet scholars, such as Viktor Shklovsky, Yuri Tynianov, Vladimir Propp, Boris Eikhen ...

first proposed such a distinction, employing the couplet

fabula and syuzhet Fabula may refer to: *''Fabula'', Latin word for a fable *''Fabula'', Latin word for a play (see Theatre of ancient Rome The architectural form of theatre in Rome has been linked to later, more well-known examples from the 1st century BC to th ...

. A subsequent succession of alternate pairings has preserved the essential binomial impulse, e.g. ''histoire''/''discours'', ''histoire''/''récit'', ''story''/''plot''. The Structuralist assumption that one can investigate fabula and syuzhet separately gave birth to two quite different traditions: thematic (Propp, Bremond, Greimas, Dundes, et al.) and modal (Genette, Prince, et al.) narratology. The former is mainly limited to a semiotic formalization of the sequences of the actions told, while the latter examines the manner of their telling, stressing voice, point of view, the transformation of the chronological order, rhythm, and frequency. Many authors (Sternberg, 1993, Ricoeur, 1984, and Baroni, 2007) have insisted that thematic and modal narratology should not be looked at separately, especially when dealing with the function and interest of narrative sequence and plot.

Applications

Designating work as narratological is to some extent dependent more on the academic discipline in which it takes place than any theoretical position advanced. The approach is applicable to any narrative, and in its classic studies, vis-a-vis Propp, non-literary narratives were commonly taken up. Still, the term "narratology" is most typically applied to

literary theory Literary theory is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for literary analysis. Culler 1997, p.1 Since the 19th century, literary scholarship includes literary theory and considerations of intellectual history, m ...

and

literary criticism A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature's ...

, as well as

film theory Film theory is a set of scholarly approaches within the academic discipline of film or cinema studies that began in the 1920s by questioning the formal essential attributes of motion pictures; and that now provides conceptual frameworks for und ...

and (to a lesser extent)

film criticism Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films and the film medium. In general, film criticism can be divided into two categories: Academic criticism by film studies, film scholars, who study the composition of film theory and publish ...

. Atypical applications of narratological methodologies would include

sociolinguistic Sociolinguistics is the descriptive, scientific study of how language is shaped by, and used differently within, any given society. The field largely looks at how a language changes between distinct social groups, as well as how it varies unde ...

studies of oral storytelling (

William Labov William David Labov ( ; December4, 1927December17, 2024) was an American linguist widely regarded as the founder of the discipline of variationist sociolinguistics. He has been described as "an enormously original and influential figure who has ...

) and in conversation analysis or

discourse analysis Discourse analysis (DA), or discourse studies, is an approach to the analysis of written, spoken, or sign language, including any significant semiotic event. The objects of discourse analysis (discourse, writing, conversation, communicative sy ...

that deal with narratives arising in the course of spontaneous verbal interaction. It also includes the study of videogames,

graphic novels A graphic novel is a self-contained, book-length form of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comics scholars and ...

, the

infinite canvas The infinite canvas is the feeling of available space for a webcomic on the World Wide Web relative to paper. The term was introduced by Scott McCloud in his 2000 book ''Reinventing Comics'', which supposes a web page can grow as large as needed. ...

, and narrative sculptures linked to

topology Topology (from the Greek language, Greek words , and ) is the branch of mathematics concerned with the properties of a Mathematical object, geometric object that are preserved under Continuous function, continuous Deformation theory, deformat ...

and

graph theory In mathematics and computer science, graph theory is the study of ''graph (discrete mathematics), graphs'', which are mathematical structures used to model pairwise relations between objects. A graph in this context is made up of ''Vertex (graph ...

. However, constituent analysis of a type where

narreme Narreme is the basic unit of narrative structure. According to Helmut Bonheim (2000), the concept of ''narreme'' was developed three decades earlier by Eugene Dorfman and expanded by Henri Wittmann, the narreme is to narratology what the sememe is ...

s are considered to be the basic units of narrative structure could fall within the areas of

semiotics Semiotics ( ) is the systematic study of sign processes and the communication of meaning. In semiotics, a sign is defined as anything that communicates intentional and unintentional meaning or feelings to the sign's interpreter. Semiosis is a ...

, or

In new media

Digital-media theorist and professor

Janet Murray Janet Horowitz Murray (born 1946) is an American professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Before coming to Georgia Tech in 1999, she was a Senior Research Scientist in the Center fo ...

theorized a shift in storytelling and narrative structure in the twentieth century as a result of scientific advancement in her 1998 book '' Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace''. Murray argues that narrative structures such as the

multi-narrative Multiperspectivity (sometimes polyperspectivity) is a characteristic of narration or representation, where more than one perspective is represented to the audience. Most frequently the term is applied to fiction which employs multiple narrators, ...

more accurately reflected "post-Einstein physics" and the new perceptions of time, process, and change, than the traditional linear narrative. The unique properties of computers are better-suited for expressing these "limitless, intersecting" stories or "cyberdramas". These cyberdramas differ from traditional forms of storytelling in that they invite the reader into the narrative experience through interactivity i.e.

hypertext fiction Hypertext fiction is a genre of electronic literature characterized by the use of hypertext links that provide a new context for non-linearity in literature and reader interaction. The reader typically chooses links to move from one node of text to ...

and Web soap ''The Spot.'' Murray also controversially declared that

video games A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

– particularly

role-playing games A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, or abbreviated as RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, eith ...

and life-simulators like ''

The Sims ''The Sims'' is a series of life simulation video games developed by Maxis and Video game publisher, published by Electronic Arts. The franchise has sold nearly 200 million copies worldwide, and is one of the List of best-selling video game fran ...

'', contain narrative structures or invite the users to create them. She supported this idea in her article "Game Story to Cyberdrama" in which she argued that stories and games share two important structures: contest and puzzles.

Electronic literature and cybertext

Development and exclusive consumption of digital devices and interactivity are key characteristics of

electronic literature Electronic literature or digital literature is a genre of literature where digital capabilities such as interactivity, multimodality or Generative literature, algorithmic text generation are used aesthetically. Works of electronic literature ar ...

. This has resulted in varying narrative structures of these interactive media.

Nonlinear narrative Nonlinear narrative, disjointed narrative, or disrupted narrative is a narrative technique where events are portrayed, for example, out of chronological order or in other ways where the narrative does not follow the direct causality pattern of the ...

s serve as the base of many

interactive fiction Interactive fiction (IF) is software simulating environments in which players use text Command (computing), commands to control Player character, characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narrati ...

s. Sometimes used interchangeably with hypertext fiction, the reader or player plays a significant role in the creation of a unique narrative developed by the choices they make within the story-world.

Stuart Moulthrop Stuart Moulthrop (born 1957 in Baltimore, Maryland, United States) is an innovator of electronic literature and hypertext fiction, both as a theoretician and as a writer. He is author of the hypertext fiction works '' Victory Garden'' (1991), whic ...

's ''

Victory Garden Victory gardens, also called war gardens or food gardens for defense, were vegetable, fruit, and herb gardens planted at private residences and public parks in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Germany during World War I a ...

'' is one of the first and most studied examples of hypertext fiction, featuring 1,000 lexias and 2,800 hyperlinks. In his book ''Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature'',

Espen Aarseth Espen J. Aarseth (born 1965) is a Norwegian academic specializing in the fields of video game studies and electronic literature. Aarseth completed his doctorate at the University of Bergen. He co-founded the Department of Humanistic Informatics at ...

conceived the concept of

cybertext Cybertext as defined by Espen Aarseth in 1997 is a type of ergodic literature where the user traverses the text by doing nontrivial work. Definition Cybertexts are pieces of literature where the medium matters. Each user obtains a different out ...

, a subcategory of

ergodic literature Ergodic literature is a term neologism, coined by Espen J. Aarseth in his 1997 book ''Cybertext—Perspectives on Ergodic Literature'' to describe literature in which nontrivial effort is required for the reader to traverse the text. The term ...

, to explain how the medium and mechanical organization of the text affects the reader's experience:

...when you read from a cybertext, you are constantly reminded of inaccessible strategies and paths not taken, voices not heard. Each decision will make some parts of the text more, and others less, accessible, and you may never know the exact results of your choices; that is, exactly what you missed.

The narrative structure or game-worlds of these cybertexts are compared to a

labyrinth In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth () is an elaborate, confusing structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur, the monster eventually killed by the h ...

that invites the player, a term Aarseth deems more appropriate than the reader, to play, explore and discover paths within these texts. Two kinds of labyrinths that are referenced by Aarseth are the unicursal labyrinth which holds one single, winding path that leads to a hidden center, and the multicursal labyrinth, synonymous with a maze, which is branching and complex with the path and direction chosen by the player. These concepts help to distinguish between ergodic (unicursal) and nonergodic literature (multicursal). Some works such as

Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov ( ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian and American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Born in Imperial Russia in 1899, Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Rus ...

's ''

Pale Fire ''Pale Fire'' is a 1962 novel by Vladimir Nabokov. The novel is presented as a 999-line poem titled "Pale Fire", written by the fictional poet John Shade, with a foreword, lengthy commentary and index written by Shade's neighbor and academic co ...

'' have proven to potentially be both depending on the path the reader takes.

Theorists

Art critic and philosopher,

Arthur Danto Arthur Coleman Danto (January 1, 1924 – October 25, 2013) was an American art critic, philosopher, and professor at Columbia University. He was best known for having been a long-time art critic for ''The Nation'' and for his work in philosop ...

, refers to the narrative as describing two separate events. Narrative is also linked to language. The way a story can be manipulated by a character, or in the display of medium contributes to how a story is seen by the world. Narratology, as defined by Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan, is a branch of narrative theory. The concept of narratology was developed mainly in France during the sixties and seventies. Theorists have argued for a long time about the form and context of narratology. American psychologist Robert Sternburg argued that narratology is "structuralism at variance with the idea of structure". This basis goes with the French-American belief that narratology is a logical perversion, meaning that it followed a course that at the time did not seem logical. Another theorist Peter Brooks sees narrative as being designed and having intent which is what shapes the structure of a story.Felluga, Dino. "Modules on Brooks: On Plotting." Introductory Guide to Critical Theory. Date of last update, which you can find on the home page. Purdue U. Date you accessed the site. . Narrative theorist

argues that all narratives have similar structures and in every sentence, there are multiple meanings. Barthes sees literature as "writerly text" which does not need a typical plot that has a beginning, middle, and end. Instead, written work "has multiple entrances and exits." Theorist Greimas agrees with other theorists by acknowledging that there is a structure in narrative and set out to find the deep structure of narrativity. However, in his findings, Greimas says that narratology can be used to describe phenomena outside of the written word and linguistics as a whole. He establishes a connection between the physical form of something and the language used to describe that something which breaks the structural code that many other theorists base their research on.

Notes

References

* Abbott, H. Porter. ''The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative.'' Cambridge UP, 2008. * Bal, Mieke. ''Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of Narrative.'' 4th edition rig. 1985 U of Toronto Press, 2017. * Bal, Mieke, ed. ''Narrative Theory: Critical Concepts in Literary and Cultural Studies.'' 4 vols. London: Routledge, 2004. * Barthes, Roland; W. Kayser; W.C. Booth; Ph. Hamon. ''Poétique du récit.'' Editions du Seuil: Paris, 1977. * Bordwell, David. ''Narration in the Fiction Film.'' Madison: U of Wisconsin Press, 1985. * Bortolussi, Marisa & Peter Dixon. ''Psychonarratology: Foundations for the Empirical Study of Literary Response.'' Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2003. * Bremond, Claude. ''Logique du récit.'' Paris: Seuil, 1973. * Dawson, Paul; Maria Mäkelä, eds. ''The Routledge Companion to Narrative Theory.'' London: Routledge, 2022. * De Fina, Anna; Alexandra Georgakopoulou, eds. ''The Handbook of Narrative Analysis.'' Wiley-Balckwell, 2015. * Emmott, Catherine. ''Narrative Comprehension: A Discourse Perspective.'' Oxford: Oxford UP, 1997. * Fludernik, Monika. ''Towards a ‘Natural’ Narratology.'' London/New York: Routledge, 1996. * Fludernik, Monika. ''Introduction to Narratology.'' London/New York: Routledge, 2009. * Genette, Gérard (

972 Year 972 ( CMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Spring – Emperor John I Tzimiskes divides the Bulgarian territories, recently held by the Kievan Rus', into six ...

. ''Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method.'' Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1980. * Grishakova, Marina; Marie-Laure Ryan, eds. ''Intermediality and Storytelling.'' Berlin: De Gruyter, 2010. * Grishakova, Marina; Maria Poulaki, eds. ''Narrative Complexity: Cognition, Embodiment, Evolution.'' Lincoln: U of Nebraska Press, 2019. * Herman, David, ed. ''Narratologies. New Perspectives on Narrative Analysis.'' OSU Press, 1999. * Herman, David. ''Story Logic: Problems and Possibilities of Narrative''. University of Nebraska Press, 2004. * Herman, David. ''Basic Elements of Narrative.'' Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. * Herman, David. ''Storytelling and the Sciences of Mind''. MIT Press, 2017. * Herman, David. ''Narratology Beyond the Human: Storytelling and Animal Life.'' Oxford UP, 2018. * Herman, David; Manfred Jahn; Marie-Laure Ryan, eds. ''Routledge Encyclopedia of Narrative Theory.'' 2005. * Hühn, Peter; John Pier; Wolf Schmid, and Jörg Schönert, eds. Handbook of Narratology. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2009. *Kearns, Michael. ''Rhetorical Narratology.'' Lincoln: Nebraska UP, 1999. * Meister, Jan Christoph. ''Computing Action. A Narratological Approach.'' Berlin: De Gruyter, 2003. * Page, Ruth. ''Stories and Social Media: Identities and Interaction.'' London: Routledge, 2012. * Page, Ruth. ''Narratives Online: Shared Stories in Social Media.'' Cambridge UP, 2018. * Phelan, James, and Peter J. Rabinowitz. ''A Companion to Narrative Theory.'' Malden: Blackwell, 2005. * Phelan, James, and Peter J. Rabinowitz. ''Understanding Narrative.'' Columbus: OSU Press, 1994. * Phelan, James, David Herman, and Brian McHale, eds. ''Teaching Narrative Theory.'' New York: MLA Publications, 2010. * Phelan, James. ''Experiencing Fiction: Judgments, Progressions, and the Rhetorical Theory of Narrative.'' Columbus: OSU Press, 2007. * Phelan, James. ''Living To Tell About It: A Rhetoric and Ethics of Character Narration.'' Ithaca: Cornell UP, 2005. * Phelan, James. ''Narrative as Rhetoric: Technique, Audiences, Ethics, Ideology.'' Columbus: OSU Press, 1996. * Phelan, James. ''Reading People, Reading Plots: Character, Progression, and the Interpretation of Narrative.'' Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989. * Prince, Gerald. ''A Grammar of Stories.'' Berlin: Mouton, 1973. * Prince, Gerald. ''Narratology: The Form and Functioning of Narrative.'' Berlin: Mouton, 1982. * Prince, Gerald. ''A Dictionary of Narratology.'' Lincoln: U of Nebraska Press, 1987. * Rimmon-Kenan, Shlomith. ''Narrative Fiction: Contemporary Poetics.'' London: Routledge, 1989. * Ryan, Marie-Laure, ed. ''Narrative across Media: The Languages of Storytelling.'' Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 2004. * Ryan, Marie-Laure. ''Avatars of Story.'' University of Minnesota Press, series Electronic Mediations, 2006. * Ryan, Marie-Laure. ''Possible Worlds, Artificial Intelligence and Narrative Theory.'' Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1991. * Ryan, Marie-Laure; Alice Bell, eds. ''Possible Worlds Theory and Contemporary Narratology.'' U of Nebraska Press, 2019. * Shklovsky, Viktor. ''Theory of Prose.'' ussian 1925 Dalkey Archive Press, 1991. * Schmid, Wolf. ''Elemente der Narratologie.'' Berlin: de Gruyter, 2005. * Stanzel, Franz K. (

979 Year 979 (Roman numerals, CMLXXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. It was the 979th year of the Common Era and the Anno Domini designation, the 979th year of the 1st millennium, the 79th year of the 10th century, ...

. ''A Theory of Narrative.'' Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1984. * Thomas, Bronwen. ''Narrative: The Basics.'' London: Routledge, 2015. * Toolan, Michael. ''Narrative: A Critical Linguistic Introduction.'' London: Routledge, 2001. * Warhol, Robin; Susan S. Lanser, eds. ''Narrative Theory Unbound: Queer and Feminist Interventions.'' Columbus: OSU Press, 2015.

External links

"Musical Narratology"
by William Echard, review of ''A Theory of Musical Semiotics'' by

Eero Tarasti Eero Aarne Pekka Tarasti (born 27 September 1948 in Helsinki) is a Finnish musicologist and semiotician, currently serving as Professor Emeritus of Musicology at the University of Helsinki. He has contributed significantly to the semiotics of ...

, foreword by

Thomas A. Sebeok Thomas Albert Sebeok (, ; November 9, 1920December 21, 2001) was a Hungarian-born American polymath,Cobley, Paul; Deely, John; Kull, Kalevi; Petrilli, Susan (eds.) (2011). Semiotics Continues to Astonish: Thomas A. Sebeok and the Doctrine of S ...

.
Five Analyses of the Narrative "I First Got Paid"

(A Bibliography of Literary Theory, Criticism and Philology)

by Manfred Jahn

The Living Handbook of Narratology

by Henry McDonald {{Authority control Television Film theory