narrative theory's Journal (original) (raw)

Below are the 11 most recent journal entries recorded innarrative theory's LiveJournal:

Friday, March 10th, 2006

4:38 pm
[emu1863]

Hayden White and his opposition Greetings! I am working on a paper about how texts are approached and constructed from two opposing theoretical viewpoints. I will be using Hayden White's essay "The Historical Text as Literary Artifact" to argue how similar historical texts are to fiction. What I still need is another noted historian/historiographer who maintains that history is an entirely distinct discipline. Any suggestions who I should use?

(Sorry for the cross-posting.)

Thursday, December 9th, 2004

1:32 pm
[angularanonymid]

Safire Anyone else catch this piece on narrative by William Safire?

A little bit of awkward publicity for narratology. It's been interesting to follow the reaction to it on the Narrative listserv.

Friday, November 12th, 2004

10:49 pm
[angularanonymid]

Sunday, November 7th, 2004

8:36 pm
[angularanonymid]

Jockey ad campaign http://www.jockeycomfort.com/read/

I heard an ad on the radio about this, so I took a look at the website. Obviously narrative is, and pretty much always has been, a crucial component of advertisements (whether in print or on radio or tv), but I'm wondering how recent this phenomenon is of actually engaging consumers interactively in the advertising process through the sharing of stories. I'm sure there are other instances of this that I can't think of off the top of my head at the moment, but anyway, I just wanted to raise the topic and see what thoughts people have about it. Does anyone know of any published work on this phenomenon? This is obviously a goldmine for anyone interested in narrative theory and cultural studies.

Friday, October 15th, 2004

1:01 am
[angularanonymid]

Thursday, September 30th, 2004

8:42 pm
[gwenifyre]

Hi, all,
I have just gotten to posting a community description, including a few common sense rules. Check it out and let me know what you think. Is there anything else you think needs to be said?

Also, any ideas for an icon for the community? I've been trying to think of something, but inspiration has yet to visit me on this one.
-co-mod gwenifyre

Sunday, September 26th, 2004

12:21 pm
[murzak]

Hello. I am a post-graduate from Moscow. I investigate the theory of the ready and a receptive critisism.
I think that there r a lot of problems wich should be developed. I am interested
if that subject is actual in the literary theory. May be you can advice me something or just
advice me some documents to read.

Tuesday, September 21st, 2004

1:22 pm
[gwenifyre]

Call for Papers--Anyone want to join a panel? The narrative society's conference is this April in Louisville. Here's the Call for Papers.

I am trying to put together a panel around the research I've been working on. My studies focus on gaming, specifically face-to-face role playing games, such as Dungeons and Dragons. I'm working from the definitional side of things. Are these narratives? I think so, but I'm trying to show how they fit in with current definitions, and how their narrative structure varies.

I have one other interested member for a panel. I know he has been working more with cognitive science and identity development and using RPGs for his research.

Is anyone else interested in a panel? We need at least three. I can see something on gaming and narrative fitting in. But I could also see either something on narratives and identity or definitions of narratives fitting in as well.

Friday, September 17th, 2004

1:16 am
[angularanonymid]

I've been eyeing the following books on narrative theory, and am wondering if anyone is familiar with (any or all of) them and could share their thoughts:

Narrative Form - Suzanne Keen

The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative - H. Porter Abbott

Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film - Seymour Chatman

Thursday, September 16th, 2004

10:38 pm
[lucretius]

Reading List So. Maybe we should start in with some recommendations. What works on narrative theory seem indispensible to you? Where should someone start reading? What seem like areas of particular promise?

My experience in narrative theory is relatively light. I've read Genette's Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method. It's hardly thrilling reading, but it's very useful. I use a lot of the handier concepts when teaching: it gives those students who are interested a little more precise vocabulary for dealing with point of view / focalization and the relationship of narration to time.

Haven't really sought much more out. What do I need to read to get me up to date?

8:11 pm
[gwenifyre]

Narrative as a field One of the things I'm finding difficult in my study of narrative theory is defining the discipline itself.

To me, narrative is an emergent field that really combines linguistics, literary theory, and rhetoric. But it seems that these disciplines don't necessarily want to communicate with one another.

I'm working out of rhetoric right now. That is, when it's all said and done, my official concentration for my degree will be "rhetoric and composition." But I really see narrative as the field I want to pursue. I'm frustrated because I don't see programs actually in narrative.

And I'm even more frustrated because, while I see many connections, some of those in rhetoric seem to take a completely different view of narrative from what I've been looking at. I am doing a presentation for my rhetorical criticism class on "narrative analysis." Well, I took "narrative analysis" as a class last year. Now it seems that nothing I learned in there fits in here despite that professors attempt to make the course "interdisciplinary." (This reminds me of Stanley Fish's essay "Interdisciplinary is so very hard to do") When I mentioned Phelan's book "Narrative as Rhetoric" to my rhetoric professor, she mentioned that Phelan was really a literary theorist and that I should look for some sources by rhetoricians.

This frustration reinforces to me the idea that narrative needs to take a place as a field in and of itself. But in doing so, I hope that it will equally pull in literature, rhetoric, and linguistics. Based on what I've been hearing from my professors, rhetoric doesn't seem to be represented in the same way with in the narrative field. That is to say, there are those who consider themselves to be working in narrative, and taking rhetorical approaches, but they don't seem to be connecting with the people who are working out of rhetoric. This is interesting, and frustrating.

I feel this community is a good start at pulling together people from different backgrounds to talk about narrative. There is something about narrative that begs the creation of a new field and that begged the creation of a new community here. In the interests of coming together, I'm curious... what backgrounds do you come from? Are you linguists? Literary theorists? Rhetoricians? Something else? How do you define narrative and narrative studies? And how does it all add up?

Current Mood: frustrated