Narrative Strategies

Fairly academic type article providing a (western focussed?) historical study of “narrative strategy” defined as comprising of narrative modality, narrative world picture, narrative intrigue. Concludes: Systematic study of narrative strategies will show that their emergence and establishment in the communicative practice of telling stories is consistent and follows a historical pattern. A better understanding is required of the phases of narrative in the evolution of human thinking

Very theoretical/ academic. Aims at a historical study of “narrative strategy”. Breaks down narrative strategy into narrative modality, narrative world picture, narrative intrigue and further breaks each of these three narrative categories into further frameworks. Says: “ Each of the three interconnected aspects of a narrative strategy may be studied separately, and indeed, each of them (narrative modality, narrative world picture, narrative intrigue) has its own research history”.

Concludes: Systematic study of narrative strategies will show that their emergence and establishment in the communicative practice of telling stories is consistent and follows a historical pattern. A better understanding is required of the phases of narrative in the evolution of human thinking (e.g. Herman ed. 2011). This will serve as a basis for sound comparative research on the parallel historical lines of the development of oral and written works in different national languages. Addressing the category of narrative strategies may thus significantly broaden narratological knowledge by complementing its theoretical and analytical aspects with historical and comparative factors. Adopting the comparative methodology of Veselovskij’s historical poetics (Kemper 2013) would be an effective way to develop a research branch of historical (comparative) narratology.