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Narratology refers to the study of narrative qua narrative. Narratology attempts to analyse what is typical of narrative as a (macro)genre or text type in contrast to description, instruction, argumentation, etc., or in contrast to drama or the lyric (in literary studies). Narratology is typically concerned with the question of what is narrative, with answers ranging from essentialist proposals (e.g. minimal definitions in Prince's Dictionary of Narratology, see box) to fuzzy concept solutions (Ryan) and constructivist frameworks (Fludernik, Towards). Besides the what of narratives, narratologists have additionally been interested in the how: in the delineation and functions of narrative elements or aspects, and in their systematic analysis. Several typologies of narrative texts have been devised (see box). These typologies distinguish between different kinds of narrative, for instance according to the identity of the narrator persona, the point of view from which the story is told, or the temporal relationship between telling and told; in some cases they propose prototypical combinations of these features as in Stanzel's narrative situations. Narratologists moreover study the "making" of narratives by considering the effects of the devices and elements in their functional interrelation. The most important categories of narratology will be explained in section 9.3 below.

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-476-00406-2_13

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