Yevgeny Bazarov and “Don Juan”: towards the issue of images, motives, and narrative syntax

The paper examines the character of Yevgeny Bazarov and the plot structure of Ivan Turgenev’s novel Fathers and Sons versus a Western European legend of Don Juan — mostly in the version proposed by Molière in his 17th-century comedy. Bazarov’s phrase, “Two and two make four. Nothing else matters,” becomes a starting point for discussion, being compared to the response that Molière’s Don Juan gives in a dispute with his valet Sganarelle. The author analyzes the status of “two and two make four” concept in Russian literature of the 19th century and evaluates the chances that Turgenev borrowed the phrase from Molière’s play and the name of protagonist’s beloved (Anna) from the whole body of Don Juan narratives, whether directly or unintentionally. The study puts forwards a strategy for interpreting the novel plot as an unfolding of key events ascending to the legend of Don Juan. It includes addressing archetypal similarity of Arkady and Sganarelle (as well as Sancho Panza), along with functionality of the road narrative, riot motif, and conceptual congruence between the deaths of Don Juan and Bazarov, both dying as a result of somewhat infernal, cadaver-mediated interference. The paper makes an assumption that the preceding literary tradition served for Turgenev as a tool for processing a contemporary content, dealing with the emergence of а nihilist as a new social type.

Grammatik der Narration

Is there a ‚narrative syntax‘, i. e. a special grammar restricted to narrative fiction? Starting from this question which has been investigated since early structuralism, the paper focusses on grammatical characteristics of narrative discourse mode and their implications for a linguistic theory of narration. Its goal is two-fold: In a first step, the traditional accounts by Benveniste, Hamburger, Kuroda and recent typological studies are brought together in order to support the claim that the distinction between narrative and non-narrative discourse mode is a fundamental one that has consequences for the use of grammar. In a second step, I discuss three central questions within the intersection between narrative micro- and macro-structures, namely (i) the definition of narrativity, (ii) the status of the narrator, and (iii) the relation between narration and fictionality. In sum, the article argues that investigations on the ‘grammar of narration’ do not just offer insights into a specific text configuration next to others, but are deeply linked to fundamental theoretical questions concerning the architecture of language – and that the comparison between linguistic and narratological categories offers a potential for addressing them.

FREE INDIRECT DISCOURSE AND POSSIBLE WORLDS IN IAN MCEWAN’S THE CHILD IN TIME

The paper discusses the nature of free indirect discourse and the manner in which it appears within postmodern fiction, more precisely in Ian McEwan’s novel The Child in Time, through the modality of possible world semantics. First it explains how free indirect discourse should be understood in this context, outlining the theoretical introduction and justification of this particular approach. The subsequent discussion focuses on speech acts and how they can be understood theoretically and in a fictional universe. It then showcases how free indirect discourse works in Ian McEwan’s The Child in Time, which offers an excellent case study for this type of analysis, given the fact that the novel is a third person narrative, an indirect account of events, and a reported story, and thus a perfect sample of free indirect discourse in fiction. Finally, by blending these perspectives within the narrative universe and observing how they render a structural matrix of fiction upon which worlds of possibility can be modally distinguished, the paper will prove that the analysis of free indirect discourse completes the picture of narrative syntax within possible world determinism.

Towards a Journey Narrative Syntax

This chapter moves forward by unpacking the generic identity of computer-animated films and examines the journey narrative structure as their prevailing syntax and first line of action. In this chapter, two forms of narrative are established that are widely operational within the genre. The first of these are the “flushed away” narratives that rely upon on abrupt geographical disjuncture, and which often requires the protagonist to negotiate and quickly adapt to a foreign milieu. The second journey narrative form advanced in this chapter is the “over the hedge” narrative, which are voyages signalled as altogether more prepared or expected. This chapter explores in detail how computer-animated films deploy these two forms of journey narrative structure to interrogate ideas of mobility, location, destination and tourism through the virtual experiences they offer of travelled space. Chapter Two concludes by positioning the journey narrative within the context of film franchising and the “sequelled” narrative. Computer-animated films rarely exists in isolation, but are supported by a range of sequels, spin-offs and short films. This chapter identifies how narrative structure can be productively entwined with the wider role of film series and cycles that continues to define the franchise mentality of post-millennial Hollywood cinema.

CANONICAL NARRATIVE SCHEMA: A KEY TO UNDERSTANDING THE VICTORY DISCOURSE IN JUDITH: A GREIMASSIAN CONTRIBUTION

A historical critical approach to narratives has contributed significantly to the analysis of ancient narratives. However, this approach has somehow unfairly ignored some other critical aspects of many ancient narratives. Judith is no exception to this claim. While appreciating the contribution of historical critical approaches to Judith (i.e., the questions on authorship, historical and geographical inconsistencies etc.), the aim of this article is to go beyond the historicity of Judith, and reveal some narrative techniques employed by the author in creating a woman protagonist who is destined to achieve the unthinkable in the minds of the men of her contemporary world. This article explores these narrative techniques by employing the narrative analysis, narrative syntax in particular, of the Greimassian approach to narrative texts. Subsequently, this article contributes to research of Judith by revealing the path that Judith followed on her quest to save the Jewish religion from extinction during the Second Temple period.Â

Narratives, connections and social change

In this article, I suggest that narratives’ importance for social change may be understood by examining specific elements of narrative syntax — key rhetorical tropes within stories, and story genres. I argue that these stylistic elements generate social connections that themselves support and stimulate social change. I use Young’s (2006) theorisation of responsibility and global justice in terms of connection, to suggest how narratives may support or generate progressive social change. I then examine narrative tropes and genres of similarisation and familiarisation at work in narratives produced around the HIV pandemic, and the limits of those tropes and genres for supporting and catalysing social change.