Studies in Narratology, Summer 2011

Studies in Narratology, Summer

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Narratology Lexicon

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self-referential: making reference to itself or oneself of, being, or related to a work of literature or art which exhibits the author's or artist's self-conscious awareness of the creative process, of the techniques he or she is using, etc.—yourdictionary.com


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self-reflexive narrator: A narrative taking itself and/or those narrative elements by which it is constituted and communicated (NARRATOR, NARRATEE, NARRATION, etc.) as a subject of reflection. Tristram Shandy and Passing Time are self-reflexive narratives; I, the Jury and Germinal are not. See: Chambers 1984; Dallenbach 1977; Hutcheon 1984.


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seme: 1. An elementary semantic feature (Greimas); a minimal unit of meaning. The meaning of the word colt, for example, is the product of such semes as 'equine', 'young', 'male', etc. 2. A unit of the SEMIC CODE (Barthes); a connotative SIGNIFIED; an element connoting a certain character (or setting) trait. Given a male character who has long eyelashes and a soft voice and who bites and scratches when he lights, the length of the eyelashes, the softness of the voice, and the biting and scratching can be said to function as semes of femininity. See: Barthes 1974; Chatman 1978; Culler 1975; Greimas 1983b; Greimas and Court6s 1982; Rastier 1973.


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sequence: A component unit of NARRATIVE that is itself capable of functioning as a narrative; a series of situations and events of which the last one in time constitutes a partial repetition or Transform of the first one. ln "Jane was happy, and Susan was unhappy; then Susan met Flora, and she became happy; then Jane met Peter, and she became unhappy," "Susan was unhappy; then Susan met Flora, and she became happy" constitutes a sequence and so does "Jane was happy; then Jane met Peter, and she became unhappy." The combination of sequences through LINKING, EMBEDDING, and ALTERNATION yields ever more complex stories.


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sequence (continued): An elementary sequence—or (Bremond) TRIAD—is made up of three terms or FUNCTIONS corresponding to the three stages in any process: virtuality (situation opening a possibility), actualization of possibility, and result. See: Barthes 1975; Bremond 1973; Ducrot and Todorov 1979; Greimas 1970, 1971 , 1983b; Greimas and Court6s 1982; Prince 1982; Todorov '1981 . See also PROPOSITION, TRANSFORMATION.


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serial narrative: any story—literary, televisual, cinematic, etc.—that unfolds in installments (episodes, chapters, etc.) made available (published, televised, screened, etc.) over time.


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slow motion: A cinematic manifestation of STRETCH (cf. Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch or Penn's Bonnie and Clyde). With slow motion, an action takes less time than its representation, which proceeds at less than usual speed. See: Chatman 1978.


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stock character: A conventional CHARACTER traditionally associated with a given (narrative) genre or form; a type. The cruel stepmother and the prince charming are stock characters in fairy tales. See: Holman 1972.


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supernarrator: Sarah Kozloff’s term for “the voice, usually, speaking for the network and outside any particular program, whose voice-over gives us directions about "staying tuned." They “are personified and individualized by various means: logos (the NBC peacock, the CBS eye; signature music; and, most importantly, voice-over narrators who speak for the station or network as a whole.” “[N]arrators of the outermost frame, these strange storytellers are in the position of the most power and knowledge. They sit outside and above all the embedded narrative, unaffected by them. . . . it is through their sufferance that all the other texts are brought to us; they can interrups, delay, or preempt the other texts at will” (Kozloff, “Narrative Theory and Television,” 70).


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suspense: An emotion or state of mind arising from a partial and anxious uncertainty about the progression or outcome of an action, especially one involving a positive character. Suspense obtains, for instance, when a certain result is possible but whether it will actually come to pass is not clear or when a given outcome is known but how and when it will occur is not. Suspense often depends on FORESHADOWING and, more generally, on the thematizations, snares, and suspended answers structured in terms of the HERMENEUTIC CODE). See: Bal 1985; Barthes 1974; Chatman 1978; Rabkin 1973; Sternberg 1978. See also HERMENEUTEME, SURPRISE.


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Documents

Studies in Narratology, Summer 2011