Part 1: Deep Narrative Structure
Background
The definition of narrative fiction is narrated literature with a succession of fictional events that can be organized in a chronological order. This definition of the term is derived from Narrative Fiction: Contemporary Poetics, authored by Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan (1983), alongside the majority of the following content. Poetics is the systematic study of literature as literature, and discusses what literature is among other questions branching out from the main one, such as artistic elements.
The poem ‘roses are red, violets are blue’ is an example of a non-narrative work of fiction. First off, a narration is missing, second there is no succession of events: all statements are constantly true and have no chronology, for violets are blue even if it were to precede roses are red. An example of a narrative is: John ate ice cream while biking. He fell and bruised his knee. Here there is a chronological order, a third person narration and a succession of events, and all statements are not continuously true, there is transformation from John eating ice cream and biking to falling and bruising his knee.
Rimmon-Kenan divides narrative fiction into three main categories: the story, the text and the narrative. The text is the only direct representation and it is via the text that the narrative and story is presented to the reader. The text would, however, not exist without the other two parts. Furthermore it accounts for focalization, scattered characteristics and the order of events. Narrative is the ‘act or process of production,’ (Rimmon-Kenan 1983, p. 3)which can occur orally or in written form etc. It includes the narrator which in narrative fiction is considered to be the narrating character, which may be the author in for example third person perspective. The story entails the succession of events, participating characters and chronology, and is what will be focused on in this article.
Narrative + Story ⇆ Text
Story: Event
The story is defined as ‘the narrated event and participants in abstraction from the text’ (Rimmon-Kenan 1983, p.6) However, the problem with studying the counterparts of a literary work is that the different categories (text, story, and narrative) are not autonomous and cannot be cleanly cut. Nevertheless, for the sake of examination they have been isolated to enable a theoretical account of the individual parts. The point of this is to identify and recognize typical storylines in a vast amount of works and to be able to re-tell plot lines. The damsel in distress is an archetype that can be found in many tales and contemporary novels, and even though we may not account for the representation, the text, we are able to re-tell the events independent from the written text.
By the abstraction of the story from the text we are making 3 key assumptions: (1) the style of the text, for example genre, is insignificant (2) the language is negligible, whether it is English or German shall not impact the storyline, and (3) the medium of the representation is irrelevant to the story which results in the story's transferability across genres, languages and mediums. This can, however, be debated as many claim that ‘something gets lost in translation’. For the sake of practical tools the notice will be acknowledged, but the rest of the article will continue based on the 3 assumptions of abstraction.
Narrative Grammar
The transformational generative grammar offers two linguistic structures: deep- and surface structure. Transformational generative grammar is a grammatical attempt at characterizing the infinite sentence structures of a language and constructing transformational rules which can transform deep structure to surface structures, for example from a passive to an active tone. The sentence ‘flying planes can be dangerous’ has one surface structure, which is what is read, while it may have two deep structures: flying a plane is dangerous or that planes that fly are more dangerous in contrast to those that do not. Surface structure is hence the representation, what is directly stated; the deep structure is rather the scope of the text: the meanings that the sentences are conveying.
Furthermore, there are two additional narrative levels: the surface narrative structure and the deep narrative structure. The surface narrative structure is syntagmatic, meaning that they are decided by temporal, relating to time, and causal principle, looking at the events such as: the man cried. Deep narrative structure is paradigmatic, meaning that it focuses on logical relations such as comparing actions, for example crying, lying and dying.
Deep Narrative Structure
As mentioned above, deep narrative structure is paradigmatic. Ferdinand de Sausser adopted a four-term homology (similarity) for myths to be able to compare and contrast folklore from all over the world. And it goes: A is to B what C is to D: A : B :: C : D
The couples, for example A and B, are opposed mythemes. Mythemes are meaningful units of narrative features. Using the example of the Oedipus myth, the opposed mythemes A and B could be the overrating of blood relations and the underrating of blood relations, two opposing mythemes. The overrating of blood relations would account for Oedipus marrying his mother, and the underrating Laius murder, committed by his own son, Oedipus. The overrating would be the love, and the underrating the hatred for one's blood related. C and D may be the negation and affirmation of autochthonous origin, in this case, being self-born or from earth, which implies imperfection. C, the negation would be the death of the sphinx, resulting from Oedipus solving its riddle, as it is a creature of earth, which makes Oedipus a heroic figure. While D would be Oedipus’ foot, Oedipus meaning swollen foot in Greek, which implies imperfection and hence that he is earth-born, a human with flaws.
How does this relate to the under- and overrating of blood relations? It is condensed as
‘The overrating of blood is to the underrating of blood relation, as the attempt to escape autochthony is to the impossibility to succeed in it’ (Rimmon-Kenan 1983, p.12). By relating two pairs of opposing mythemes the idea is that an understanding shall be offered beyond what may be expressed in words, as themes like the ones we have used may be abstract and difficult to accurately express with words an instead gain more from a paradigmatic comparison for readers to make sense of the work as well as decide on what their opinions are on the topic, in place of being told what to think and feel.
Greimas’ Square - The Semiotic Square
The semiotic square was constructed by linguist Algirda J. Greimas using semes where S1 and S2 correspond to A and B, or C and D. Semes means the minimal unit of sense. Using the example of colors may be beneficial for understanding. If S1 is white and S2 is black the ~S2 or non-S2 would be non-black and the non-S1 would be non-white. This is necessary to include as white and black are exclusive or contrary, meaning that only one can be true, they are, however, not exhaustive which means that one must not be true, both can be false, as any other color could be appearing. Greimas’ square may be an interesting detail for readers, though, it can be effectively used by the writer by giving a literary work structure and interesting ideas as to what is exclusive, exhaustive, and what may be mixed and experimented with as the contradictions and implications may vary in the fictitious universes of different works. Lastly, here is a note of encouragement. The more knowledge one gains about literary devices the more awareness one will have of the literature one consumes and produces. Sausser’s four-term homology and Greimas’ square are two out of many interesting tools to be considered and experimented with to explore new opportunities of experience and creation.
Vocabulary
Narrative Fiction
(n.) a text with a narrated and fictional sequence of events
Poetics
(n.) the study of literature as literature
Transformational Generative Grammar
(n.) grammar based on characterization of sentence structures
Syntagmatic
(adj.) of, relating to, or according to the rules of syntax or syntactics (Merriam-Webster)
Paradigmatic
(adj.) of or denoting the relationship between a set of linguistic items that form mutually exclusive choices in particular syntactic roles. (Oxford English Dictionary 2019)
Surface narrative structure -
(n.) syntagmatic narrative level of meaning, with direct narrative
Deep narrative structure
(n.) paradigmatic narrative level of meaning and relations, with no direct narrative
Autochthonous
(adj.) (1) indigenous, native (2) formed or originating in the place where found (Merriam-Webster)
Homology
(n.) corresponding, similarity, often attributable to common origin
Seme
(n.) smallest unit of sense
Mytheme
(n.) meaningful units of narrative features
References
Rimmon-Kenan, Shlomith. 1983. Narrative Fiction: Contemporary Poetics. N.p.: Routledge.
Wikipedia. 2023. “Semiotic square.” Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiotic_square.
Oxford English Dictionary. 2019. Oxford English Dictionary. https://www.oed.com/dictionary/paradigmatic_adj?tab=factsheet#31854407.
Merriam-Webster. Accessed November 2, 2023. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/syntactic.
by Iris DP22
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