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2018 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

2. Narrative Theory for Complexity Scientists

Author : Richard Walsh

Published in: Narrating Complexity

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to outline some of the key ideas and concepts in narrative theory, in order to make the field more accessible to those who have only a passing acquaintance with it (complexity scientists in particular). The chapter first gives an account of what narrative is, and then goes on to draw out some of the implications of that account for the way we think and understand in narrative terms. My discussion of these implications draws attention, as opportunity arises, to respects in which the form of narrative bears upon our ability to understand and communicate the way complex systems behave. The chapter does not survey the many facets of the problematic relation between narrative sensemaking and complex systems (that is really the work of the book as a whole), but it does provide a reasonably solid theoretical underpinning for the narrative problems, questions and possibilities taken up in subsequent chapters.

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previous chapter Introduction and Overview: Who, What, Why

next chapter Complex Systems for Narrative Theorists

Essential sources for this view of narrative cognition are Bruner (1991), Turner (1996), and Herman (2002).

For a two-event definition of minimal narrative, see Prince (1982); for a one-event definition, see Genette (1988).

See especially Fludernik (1996).

For example, Forster distinguishes between plot and mere story (in his own specific sense) on the basis of causality; so “The king died and then the queen died of grief,” he says, is a plot (Forster 1962, p. 87). Causality also features prominently in White’s distinction between annals, chronicle and narrative proper in his own, restrictive sense (White 1980); and causality is made the central feature of narrative in Richardson (1997), and in Kafalenos (2006).

This is the central theme of Ricoeur (1984–1988).

The philosophical background to the relation between narrative and time is nicely expounded by Currie (2007); see also the chapter on time in this volume (“Time Will Tell”, Chap. 19).

From the Metaphysics, Book 8, 1045a. These are the translations of, respectively, Ross (Aristotle 1908), Tredennick (Aristotle 1933), and Bostock (Aristotle 1994).

A unit of (narrative) meaning is a “seme” for Greimas (1983) and Barthes (1974); or a “narreme” for Dorfman (1969).

The distinction between the telling and the told as “discourse” and “story” comes from Chatman; in the older terminology of the Russian Formalists, it is “syuzhet” and “fabula” (Tomashevsky 1965).

My distinction here draws upon the one between “making sense of stories” and “stories as sense-making” in Herman (2003, pp. 12–14).

For the first elaboration of these categories of signs, see Peirce (1982–, vol. 2).

See Walsh (2011) and Almén (2008).

The concept of focalization was introduced in Genette (1980, Chap. 4).

Unreliable narration, and the (partially) related concept of the implied author, were developed by Booth (1983).

For relevance theory, see Sperber and Wilson (1995).

On tellability, see Pratt (1977). A related concept is narrativity, which seems more specific, but also invites confusion between the qualities of the communicative act and those of its object. See Prince (1982).

On fictions of apocalypse as paradigms for narrative, see Kermode (1967).

Key sources on narrative and other minds are Keen (2007), Palmer (2004), and Zunshine (2006).

For approaches to narrative grounded in embodiment, see Turner (1996) and Fludernik (1996). For more specifically enactivist approaches, see Hutto and Myin (2012) and Caracciolo (2014).

On fictionality as a rhetoric, see Walsh (2007); on the sense of narrative reflexiveness described here, see Walsh (2016).

Almén B (2008) A theory of musical narrative. Indiana University Press, Bloomington

Aristotle (1908) Metaphysica. In: The works of Aristotle translated into English, vol 8 (trans: Ross WD). Clarendon Press, Oxford

Aristotle (1933) Aristotle in 23 volumes, vols 17, 18 (trans: Tredennick H). Harvard University Press, Cambridge

Aristotle (1994) Metaphysics books Z and H (trans: Bostock D). Oxford University Press, Oxford

Barthes R (1975) An introduction to the structural analysis of narrative. New Lit Hist 6(2):237–272CrossRef

Barthes R (1974) S/Z (trans: Miller R). Hill & Wang, New York

Booth WC (1983) The rhetoric of fiction [1961], 2nd edn. University of Chicago Press, ChicagoCrossRef

Bruner J (1991) The narrative construction of reality. Crit Inq 18(1):1–21CrossRef

Caracciolo M (2014) The experientiality of narrative: an enactivist approach. De Gruyter, BerlinCrossRef

Chatman S (1978) Story and discourse: narrative structure in fiction and film. Cornell University Press, Ithaca

Currie M (2007) About time: narrative, fiction and the philosophy of time. Frontiers of theory. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh

Dorfman E (1969) The narreme in the medieval romance epic: an introduction to narrative structures. University of Toronto Press, TorontoCrossRef

Fludernik M (1996) Towards a ‘natural’ narratology. Routledge, LondonCrossRef

Forster EM (1962) Aspects of the novel [1927]. Penguin, Harmondsworth

Genette G (1980) Narrative discourse (trans: Lewin JE). Cornell University Press, Ithaca

Genette G (1988) Narrative discourse revisited (trans: Lewin JE). Cornell University Press, Ithaca

Greimas AJ (1983) Structural semantics: an attempt at a method (trans: McDowell D, Schleifer R, Velie A). University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln

Herman D (2002) Story logic: problems and possibilities of narrative. Frontiers of narrative. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln

Herman D (2003) Introduction. In: Herman D (ed) Narrative theory and the cognitive sciences. CSLI, Stanford, pp 1–30

Hutto DD, Myin E (2012) Radicalizing enactivism: basic minds without content. MIT Press, CambridgeCrossRef

Kafalenos E (2006) Narrative causalities. Theory and interpretation of narrative series. Ohio State University Press, Columbus

Keen S (2007) Empathy and the novel. Oxford University Press, OxfordCrossRef

Kermode F (1967) The sense of an ending: studies in the theory of fiction. Oxford University Press, New York

Palmer A (2004) Fictional minds. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln

Peirce CS (1982–) The writings of Charles S. Peirce: a chronological edition, 8 vols. In: Peirce Edition Project (eds). Indiana University Press, Bloomington

Pratt ML (1977) Toward a speech act theory of literary discourse. Indiana University Press, Bloomington

Prince G (1982) Narratology: the form and functioning of narrative. Mouton, BerlinCrossRef

Richardson B (1997) Unlikely stories: causality and the nature of modern narrative. Associated University Presses, London

Ricoeur P (1984–1988) Time and narrative, 3 vols (trans: McLaughlin K, Pellauer D). University of Chicago Press, Chicago

Sperber D, Wilson D (1995) Relevance: communication and cognition, 2nd edn. Blackwell, Oxford

Tomashevsky B (1965) Thematics. In: Russian formalist criticism: four essays (trans: Lemon LT, Reis MJ). University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, pp 61–95

Turner M (1996) The literary mind. Oxford University Press, New York

Walsh R (2007) The rhetoric of fictionality: narrative theory and the idea of fiction. Ohio State University Press, Columbus

Walsh R (2011) The common basis of narrative and music: somatic, social, and affective foundations. StoryWorlds J Narrat Stud 3:49–71CrossRef

Walsh R (2016) The fictive reflex: a fresh look at reflexiveness and narrative representation. Neohelicon 43(2):379–389CrossRef

White H (1980) The value of narrativity in the representation of reality. Crit Inq 7(1):5–27CrossRef

Zunshine L (2006) Why we read fiction: theory of mind and the novel. Theory and interpretation of narrative series. Ohio State University Press, Columbus

Title: Narrative Theory for Complexity Scientists
Author: Richard Walsh
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Book: Narrating Complexity
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-64712-8

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-64714-2

Copyright Year: 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64714-2_2

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