Rhetoric and Literature

From RhetorClick

Narratology

Those rhetoricians who are also interested in narrative or fictional work should look into narratology, which studies the narrative agents at work in texts and the effects they have on an audience. As its name suggests, narratology focuses exclusively on narrative texts. Narratologist Mieke Bal defines a narrative as any "text in which a narrative agent tells a story." Bal's book, titled Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of Narrative, can be found here. [1]

Bal's narratological studies should be of interest to rhetoricians because he deals with issues of audience interpretation and reaction. The most prominent narratologists view narrative techniques as rhetorical devices, designed and presented in order to move an audience. In citing definitions from other rhetoricians, such as Michel Foucault, Bal ultimately argues that a narratologist's time would be better spent on studying audience interpretation of text, rather than on mapping the narrative process.

Narrative as Rhetoric

American rhetorican and literary scholar Wayne C. Booth, who literally wrote the book on the rhetoric of fiction, outlines the main stylistic techniques used in narrative, and describes the possible implications each technique can have on an audience. Narrative styles are largely split into two groups: the subjective, and the objective. Subjective narrative styles are associate with texts that "show" instead of "tell," and texts that convey meaning through the characters themselves-- not through direct interjections from the author. This subjective style can be used in a first, second, or third-person narrative form, although subjectivity remains most common in first-person narrators. Objective texts can be identified by direct interjections of judgments from the narrative agent that are not founded on proof found elsewhere in the text. This authoritative approach to narration is not as popular in modern texts, but it continues to affect the thoughts and actions of real lives through books like The Bible.

Booth argues that a modern narrative will be most rhetorically effective if it implements a subjective narrator. The objective narration style tends to create confusion where it sought to prevent it because the audience is not expected to come to conclusions on their own, and are therefore likely to misunderstand the judgment, or only grasp it at a base level. Subject narration, on the other hand, can actually lead an audience to greater understanding-- the true goal of the text and any rhetorician-- because it requires the audience to connect the dots for themselves and draw meaning out of the crafted text. By using personal narrative techniques and figurative language that allow the reader to determine the relationship between different parts of the text, the author may move an audience to understand and appreciate the underlying message of the narrative.

References

1. Bal, Mieke. Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of Narrative. Third Edition. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007. Print.

2. Booth, Wayne C. The Company We Keep: an Ethics of Fiction. Berkeley: University of California, 1988. Web.[2]

3.Booth, Wayne C. The Rhetoric of Fiction. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1983. Print.

4. Chatman, Seymour Benjamin. Coming to Terms: the Rhetoric of Narrative in Fiction and Film. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University, 1990. Print.

5. Daiches, David. “Review: Fiction and Rhetoric.” The Kenyon Review. Vol. 4. No. 3. Ohio: Kenyon University Press. 1942. Print.

6. Hildalgo-Downing, Laura. Negation, Text Worlds, and Discourse: the Pragmatics of Fiction. Stamford, Connecticut: Ablex Publishing Corporation, 2000. Web.[3]

7. Jahn, Manfred. “Frames, Preferences, and the Reading of Third-Person Narratives: Towards a Cognitive Narratology.” Poetics Today. Vol. 18, No. 4. Durham: Duke University Press, 1997. Print. pp.441-468.

8. Phelan, James. Narrative as Rhetoric: Technique, Audiences, Ethics, and Ideology. Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University, 1996. Print.