Narratology

For the "ludology vs. narratology" debates of cultural meaning in video games, see Game studies § "Ludology" vs "narratology".

Narratology is the study of narrative and narrative structure and the ways that these affect human perception.[1] The term is an anglicisation of French narratologie, coined by Tzvetan Todorov (Grammaire du Décaméron, 1969).[2] Its theoretical lineage is traceable to Aristotle (Poetics) but modern narratology is agreed to have begun with the Russian formalists, particularly Vladimir Propp (Morphology of the Folktale, 1928), and Mikhail Bakhtin's theories of heteroglossia, dialogism, and the chronotope first presented in The Dialogic Imagination (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".[3]

  1. ^ General Introduction to Narratology, College of Liberal Arts, Purdue University
  2. ^ Gerald Prince, "Narratology," Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism, ed. Michael Groden and Martin Kreiswirth (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1994) 524.
  3. ^ Herman, David (2003). Narrative theory and the cognitive sciences. Stanford, Calif.: CSLI Publications. p. 12. ISBN 1-57586-467-3. OCLC 52806071.