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In narratology, the terms ‘story’ (or ‘story level’) and ‘discourse’ (or ‘discourse level’) refer to constituent levels of narratives as analytical “abstractions or constructs”[1] , which do not occur in reality. First applied to fiction (such as novels and short stories), they can arguably also be applied to all narratives across media, such as film, drama, pictorial narratives, or video games. ‘Story’ comprises the ‘building blocks’ of a storyworld (they can be identified by answering the question ‘what is the case in this world?’), while ‘discourse’ comprises all phenomena and devices used for the transmission of the story(world); discursive elements can be identified by answering the question ‘how is the storyworld transmitted?’. The terms ‘story’ and ‘discourse’ were introduced by Tzvetan Todorov[2] and subsequently popularised in English narratology by Seymour Chatman[3]. Originally, narratology, in the field under discussion, was influenced by French theorist Gérard Genette, who, however, uses a ternary distinction: histoire (story), récit (the narrative text as such) and narration (the narrative act producing the story); récit and narration may be said to both refer to elements of the discourse level, and as a consequence the dichotomy ‘story vs. discourse’ has gained more importance than Genette’s terminology.

Story

‘Story’ refers to “a series of real or fictitious events, connected by a certain logic or chronology, and involving certain actors”[4]. A simple way of checking the elements of a storyworld thus created is to answer the following w-questions: who?, where?, when?, what? and why?. Among the many theories dealing with the story level Vladimir Propp’s merits mention.[5] It is a structuralist attempt to devise a grammar of story functions based on fairy tales. In the following, however, mainly elements of Chatman’s influential theory will be explained, who differentiates between ‘events’ and 'existents'.

Events

‘Events’ are “changes in states”[6] in a logical sequence triggered by either actions or happenings. Actions are caused by an agent, namely a character of the narrative. Happenings are situation changes without a character as their cause.[7]

According to Jurij Lotman, events occur as a consequence of characters crossing borders in the storyworld. Such borders are, on the one hand, of a physical nature such as doors, windows, or the limits of landscape features. On the other hand, they are also of a normative kind and may divide, e.g., areas of evil from areas of goodness or spaces of poverty from spaces of wealth.[8]

Certain events are often more important than others. Chatman uses the term ‘kernels’ to describe major events that are crucial to a story and are necessary for the logical coherence of the plot. He further uses the term ‘satellites’ for events that can be left out of the narrative without a major loss of sense or coherence.[9]

Existens

‘Existents’ refer to the setting and to characters as givens of a storyworld. “In verbal narrative, [the setting] is abstract, requiring a reconstruction in the mind”[10], while film has the advantage of showing the spatial setting on screen in a concrete way.

As a rule, characters are representations of human beings. However, they can also be allegories of, e.g., human character features. In formalism (e.g. by Propp) and structuralism characters are regarded as mere functions providing important contributions to the plot,[11] e.g. as protagonists or antagonists.

In narrative fiction (but also in other media such as film or comics), characters can be either flat or round,[12] static or dynamic. Flat characters have often only one character trait or quality. For example, witches in fairy tales are frequently represented as flat, static characters, as their only personality trait is and remains being evil. In contrast, round characters have several different character traits and qualities, and in the course of a narrative may change over time (as does the protagonist of a Bildungsroman such as Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations).


References

  1. ^ Rimmon-Kenan, Shlomith (1983). Narrative Fiction. Contemporary Poetics. London and New York: Routledge.
  2. ^ Todorov, Tzvetan. "Les categories du récit littérarie". Communications. 8: 125-151.
  3. ^ Chatman, Seymour (1980). Story and Discourse. Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.
  4. ^ Hawthorne, Jeremy (1994). A Concise Glossary of Contemporary Literary Theory. London, New York, Sydney, Auckland: Auden. p. 198.
  5. ^ Propp, Vladimir (1969). Morphology of the Folktale. Transl. Laurence Scott. Austin: University of Texas Press.
  6. ^ Chatman, Seymour B (1980). Story and Discourse. Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press. p. 44.
  7. ^ Chatman, Seymour B. (1980). Story and Discourse. Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press. p. 44.
  8. ^ Lotman, Jurij (1970). The Structure of the Artistic Text. Transl. Gail Lenhoff and Ronald Vroon. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan.
  9. ^ Chatman, Seymour B. (1980). Story and Discourse. Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press. p. 53-54.
  10. ^ Chatman, Seymour (1980). Story and Discourse. Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press. p. 97.
  11. ^ Chatman, Seymour B. (1980). Story and Discourse. Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press. p. 111.
  12. ^ Forster, Edward Morgan (1927). Aspects of the Novel. London: Arnold.
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