This paper has a double aim: to draw a general outline or the critical reflection on the relationship between science and literature in the past, and to classify the possible modes of inquiry into this subject at present. The main focus falls on some representative discussions of the relationship between science and literature in mid-20th-century…[Read more]

Analizamos en este artículo las maneras en que la escritura experimental de Beckett subvierte el uso estándar de la persona pronominal, transformando al pronombre de primera persona y sus avatares en el protagonista de una línea argumental. Se expone así de modo gráfico cómo el valor estándar de un elemento lingüístico a nivel de sistema gramatic…[Read more]

This paper discusses the question of the scientific status of the specialised vocabulary of narratology and rhetoric, and puts forward a moveable, situational and pragmatic interpretation of the value and use of this vocabulary, and of scientific vocabulary generally, as a means of communication within and between disciplines at a given stage of…[Read more]

This paper seeks to explain why Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People constitutes a valid historical work, rather than a religious text. It starts by addressing the nature of historical vs non-historical narrative, focusing on a concept of “genealogy of information.” It couples ideas from narrative theory, historiography, and…[Read more]

Il existe maintes versions littéraires de la mort du roi Arthur avant les œuvres les mieux connues, celles de Malory et Tennyson. Cet article examine une des versions de l’histoire dans la littérature française médiévale, l’ouvrage narratif anonyme du treizième siècle “La Mort le Roi Artu”, troisième section du “Lancelot en prose”, qui fait par…[Read more]

This paper consists in lecture notes and materials for a postgraduate course on metafiction at the University of Zaragoza (1991). Contents include: 1. Introduction; 2. Reflexivity and Metafiction: Some Related Concepts; 3. The Reflexive Novel; 4. Reflexive Devices in Fiction; 5. Theory of Reflexive Fiction; 6. Metafiction as Thought; 7.…[Read more]

This paper offers an overview of the main figures and subjects in medieval criticism in the Western tradition, covering both secular poetics and those topics in theological reflection and Biblical commentary which have some relevance for literary theory. The first section deals with medieval poetics, discussing literature theory with reference to…[Read more]

Cet article examine la représentation des personnages dans deux chansons de geste médievales françaises, “Le Couronnement de Louis” and “Le Pèlerinage de Charlemagne”, en prêtant une attention particulière aux conventions de ce genre épique concret, et à l’ideólogie implicite dans leurs valorisations aussi bien positives que négatives, en partic…[Read more]

Anhand der Science-Fiction Animes “Captain Future”, “Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs” und “Cowboy Bebop” wird eine bestimmtes Narrativ innerhalb des Genres des Science-Fiction Anime stichprobenartig über drei Jahrzehnte hinweg betrachtet und die vorzufindenden Geschlechterkonstruktionen beleuchtet: Jede dieser Erzählungen handelt von den A…[Read more]

‘Narrative Theory’ is an online introduction to classical structuralist narratological analysis. The sixth section deals with the structural positioning of narrators with respect to the narrative act and the fictional world(s) contained by the narrative. Contents: 1. Author, narrator, and narrative person; 2. Kinds of narrative positions; 3.…[Read more]

‘Narrative Theory’ is an online introduction to classical structuralist narratological analysis. The fourth section deals with the modes of narrative, “showing” and “telling”, as theorized by Henry James and other theorists of the dramatic aesthetics in narrative. Outline: 1. Two concepts of narrative distance. 2. The theory of the novel before…[Read more]

‘Narrative Theory’ is an online introduction to classical structuralist narratological analysis. The third section deals with the narrative articulation of time, taking as a guideline Gérard Genette’s theory in ‘Narrative Discourse’, modified as required. Outline: 1. The Generation of Story Time. 2. Fabula time. 3. Story time: order. 4. Story…[Read more]

‘Narrative Theory’ is an online introduction to classical structuralist narratological analysis. The second section addresses the structure of the action or fabula provided by the Russian Formalists, notably by Boris Tomashevski, contemplated from the standpoint provided by Mieke Bal’s structuralist theory of narrative. The chapter addresses the…[Read more]

‘Narrative Theory’ is an online introduction to classical structuralist narratological analysis. The first section addresses the structure of the action or fabula, a mode of analysis that originates in Aristotle’s ‘Poetics’, a seminal work in the theory of narrative. Aristotle’s main concepts bearing on fabula structure are examined: his…[Read more]

‘Narrative Theory’ is an online introduction to classical structuralist narratological analysis. This preliminary section provides an introduction to the notion of level of analysis in narrative, and examines a number of theories bearing on the structure of the fabula (Aristotle, Tomashevsky, Bal) and of the story (Genette), with attention to the…[Read more]