SUSANA ONEGA and JOSE ANGEL GARCIA LANDA

Narratology: an Introduction 


A narrative is the semiotic representation of a series of events meaningfully connected in a temporal and causal way. Films, plays, comic strips, novels, newsreels, diaries, chronicles and treatises of geological history are all narratives in this wider sense. Narratives can therefore be constructed using an ample variety of semiotic media: written or spoken language, visual images, gestures and acting, as well as a combination of these. Any semiotic construct, anything made of signs, can be said to be a text. Therefore, we can speak of many kinds of narrative texts: linguistic, theatrical, pictorial, filmic. Any representation involves a point of view, a selection, a perspective on the represented object, criteria of relevance, and, arguably, an implicit theory of reality. Narrative structuring may become most elaborate in literary texts, but narrativization is one of the commonest ways of applying an order and a perspective to experience.

Alexandra Sarbu

Susana Onega and Jose Angel Garcia Landa

O naratiune este reprezentarea semiotica a unui sir de evenimente imbinate prin sens, timp si spatiu. Filmele, piesele de teatru, benzile desenate, romanele, buletinul de stiri, jurnalele, cronicile si tratatele de istoria geologiei sunt toate naratiuni, in aceasta acceptiune mai larga a cuvantului. Naratiunilepot si astfel construite folosindu-se o gama larga de mjloace media semiotice: limba vorbita sau scrisa, imagini vizuale, gesturi si interpretare teatrala, ca si o combinatie intre acestea. Orice produs semiotic, construit prin semne, poate fi considerat un text. Asadar, putem vorbi de multe feluri de texte narative: lingvistice, de teatru, pictoriale, cinematografice. Orice reprezentare implica un punct de vedere, o selectie, o perspectiva asupra obiectului reprezentat, a criteriului de relevanta si, discutabil, a unei teorii asupra realitatii. Structurarea narativa poate deveni foarte elaborata in textele literare, dar narativizarea este una dintre metodele comune de a impune experientei o ordine si o perspectiva.