When Not To Tell Stories. Unnatural Narrative in Applied Narratology

1. Sjoerd-Jeroen Moenandar
South Mediterranean University
WHEN NOT TO TELL STORIES
Unnatural narrative in applied narratologyU
sjoerd-jeroen moenandar
sjmoenandar.blogspot.com
International Conference on Narrative 2016

2. o Applied narratology
o Possbile uses of ‘unnatural
narrative’
o Example:
• The Tin Drum (Günter Grass)
• Midnight’s Children (Salman
Rushdie)
• The Long Awaited
(Abdelkader Benali)
THIS PRESENTATION
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sjoerd-jeroen moenandar
moenandar@gmail.com http://www.slideshare.net/SJMoenandar/

3. o Three levels of
narratology
1. Storytelling practices
2. Methodological reflection
(poetics)
3. Theory
o Applied narratology:
mediates between level 1
and 3
APPLIED NARRATOLOGY
3
sjoerd-jeroen moenandar
moenandar@gmail.com http://www.slideshare.net/SJMoenandar/

4. o Predominance of
Aristotelean narrative and
its ethics
• Coherence
• Closure
o ‘Against narrativity’
(Strawson)
• Against Artistotelean narrative
o The ‘other’ narrative
tradition
• Fragmented, broken
• Foregrounding its own failure
to be meaningful
APPLIED NARRATOLOGY – A CRITIQUE
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sjoerd-jeroen moenandar
moenandar@gmail.com http://www.slideshare.net/SJMoenandar/

5. o Reminds us of narrative’s
inherent fictionality
(Ricoeur)
o ‘Engagement with
experiences that eschew
emplotment and
coherence, or transgress
accepted norms’ (Korthals
Altes)
• E.g. border experiences
USE VALUE OF THE ‘OTHER TRADITION’
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sjoerd-jeroen moenandar
moenandar@gmail.com http://www.slideshare.net/SJMoenandar/

6. o Clear intertextual
references
o Family of narrators
o Special gift
o Handcuffed to history
o Absurdity of complete
wholes
o Impossibility of muthos
(emplotment)
THREE NOVELS
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sjoerd-jeroen moenandar
moenandar@gmail.com http://www.slideshare.net/SJMoenandar/
- The Tin Drum
(Günter Grass,
1959)
- Midnight’s
Children (Salman
Rushdie, 1981)
- The Long Awaited
(Abdelkader Benali
2002)

7. o Applied narratology
must be more than
merely a course in ‘the
power of storytelling’
o Offer alternative
narrative models
o Improve people’s
‘narrative savviness’ (cf.
‘media savviness’)
CONCLUDING REMARKS
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sjoerd-jeroen moenandar
moenandar@gmail.com http://www.slideshare.net/SJMoenandar/

8. Questions?
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION
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sjoerd-jeroen moenandar
moenandar@gmail.com http://www.slideshare.net/SJMoenandar/