Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of Narrative

by Mieke Bal

Since its first publication in English in 1985, Mieke Bal's Narratology has become the international classic and comprehensive introduction to the theory of narrative texts. Narratology is a systematic account of narrative techniques, methods, their transmission, and reception, in which Bal distills years of study of the ways in which we understand both literary and non-literary works. In this third edition, Bal updates the book to include more analysis of film narratives while also sharpening and tightening her language to make it the most readable and student-friendly edition to date. Bal also introduces new sections that treat and clarify several modernist texts that pose narratological challenges. With changes prompted by ten years of feedback from scholars and teachers, Narratology remains the most important contribution to the study of the way narratives work, are formed, and are received.

Genres: Nonfiction, Writing, Theory, Literary Criticism, Literature, Narrative, Criticism

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Mieke Bal is a Dutch literary theorist, cultural and art historian.

Areas of interest range from biblical and classical antiquity to 17th century and contemporary art and modern literature, feminism and migratory culture. Her many publications include A Mieke Bal Reader (2006), Travelling Concepts in the Humanities (2002) and Narratology (4th edition 2017). Her view of interdisciplinary analysis in the Humanities and Social Sciences is expressed in the profile of what she has termed “cultural analysis”, the basis of ASCA. See the video clip on the right side of this page, where I explain the approach.

Mieke is also a video artist, her internationally exhibited documentaries on migration include Separations, State of Suspension, Becoming Vera and the installation Nothing is Missing and are part of the Cinema Suitcase collective. With Michelle Williams Gamaker she made the feature film A Long History of Madness, a theoretical fiction about madness, and related exhibitions (2012). Her following project Madame B: Explorations in Emotional Capitalism, also with Michelle, is exhibited worldwide. She just finished a feature film and 5-screen installation on René Descartes and his infelicitously ending friendship with Queen Kristina of Sweden.

Occasionally she acts as an independent curator. Her co-curated exhibition 2MOVE travelled to four countries. She is currently preparing an exhibition for the Munch museum in Oslo.

Reviews

[Bernard Norcott-mahany · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is supposed to be an excellent introduction to narratology, which I suppose it is, but I guess my head just wasn't up to reading what seemed to me a dry analysis of what makes a story a story. I suppose it's time for me to find and reread Cohan and Shires' "Telling Stories," which I think does the same job but with a little more verve.

[Kiki Bolwijn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Slaps.

10/10 would read again.

[Theryn Fleming · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Narratology, Mieke Bal argues that a narrative text can be divided into three layers: the fabula (elements, or series of events), the story (aspects, e.g. ordering, point of view), and the text (words). At each level there is an agent: fabula (actor, or agent who performs actions), story (focalizer, or subject of focalization), and text (narrator, or linguistic subject). The first two chapters (fabula, story) were clearly presented and fairly straightforward, the third chapter (text) a little less so. Although this chapter was the most theoretically dense IMO, it was also the shortest and felt somewhat rushed in comparison.

[Dajana]

Nadam se da nikad ovim neću morati da se bavim.

[María]

dikke pil

[Mick Parsons · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sometimes I read academic texts for information, sometimes for edification, and sometimes, simply because I want to brush up on my jargon in a particular area. This latter reason was why I picked up this book. It is groundbreaking in that Bal was one of the first to really codify the theory of narrotology into a field of study. And, on some levels, the discussion is useful... particularly the ways in which narrotology can offer a critical perspective outside of literature.

Beyond the jargon, however, the reader has to confront the fact that this perspective is eyeball deep in structuralism; and, despite the author's contention that finding an all encompassing formula for narrative is impossible, it still seeks that end... mostly by outlining, through the use of examples... what a real story is.

[Zeineb · Rating 4 out of 5]

The only thing that bugged me is that Bal kept referring to "story" as "fabula" and "narrative" as "story". By being a Genette follower myself, this distinction threw me into a loop especially when dealing with narrative rhythm.

Pretty dry at some parts. Yet, the choice of works as exhibits was spot on.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A thin book in which Bal analyzes the techniques of narrative, including the duration of a representation, its frequency, and its chronological order. Her discussion of focalization is particularly good.

Acquired Oct 15, 1999
City Lights Book Shop, London, Ontario

[Highlyeccentric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Useful guide to stating the bleeding obvious

[natalka · Rating 3 out of 5]

bo mi sie nalezy

[Iza Muskee · Rating 1 out of 5]

alsjeblieft nooit weer

[Carl]

I read (most of) this book for a course in narratology which I audited years ago. Am thinking of rereading it now, having run into someone who works on the incredibly awesome topic of Narrative AIs for video games. Not sure this is exactly the topic which most parallels that concern in the humanities, but hey, I should reread this anyway.

[Waybotaybo]

i dont know what i learned from this but it was something

[Joshua Harkey · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was... Okay. It does some things really well, but in other ways I found it frustrating. Which is to say, I learned a lot, but I feel like it could have been better. I want to give the book 3 stars simply because I don't want to suggest I didn't get much from it. It's just hard to give that when I have so many specific issues. I do need to emphasize that many of those issues are probably a matter of personal taste.

It's essentially a Narratology glossary. At a high level it's organized in a very rational way, with three umbrella chapters containing subchapters about distinct concepts. Bal jumps from one topic to the next discussing what the terms means and how they fit together. This structure works well I think.

An impossible challenge the book faces is giving examples. I'm far less well read than most people reading this book, so unfortunately many of the examples were lost on me. But I would say Bal did an admiral job trying to explain her point even if you haven't read the referenced text.

I do feel like the structure broke down too much at the subchapter level. I often had a hard time following where she was going, or how some specific point or concept fit into the bigger picture. Zoomed in, it changed from organized structure to a list of loosely connected (at best) ideas.

My biggest complaint is that I came out of the book with very little understanding of *what to do with all of this.* Maybe Bal simply didn't care to explain that. That it was out of scope. Maybe she felt it is obvious. (maybe it should be) Regardless, I assumed this book would teach me more about how to read a narrative with all of these concepts in mind and make interesting observations accordingly. I feel like I just have a big pile of ideas at my disposal now with no clue how to use them. (And that lack of practical understanding further undermines my theoretical understanding.)

[Marco Alegría · Rating 4 out of 5]

¿Es una introducción? Formalmente, sí, ya que expone un panorama de elementos a tomar en cuenta para un análisis o estudio narratológico, pero poco a poco, y sobretodo en el último tercio, el texto va perdiendo sus características lúdicas (muy acordes y bienvenidas para una introducción) y ganando aridez, lo que le juega doblemente en contra porque además le pide constantemente al lector que recuerde una multitud de ejemplos muchas veces apenas diferentes entre sí. Es la segunda vez que lo leo. De esta lectura rescato la importancia que la autora le da al papel de la intuición en el momento de seleccionar los elementos a estudiar dentro de nuestro material de origen, es decir, el texto narrativo.

[M. Altuğ Yayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kitabın başında kendi odaklarına/tercihlerine göre bazı tespitlerde bulunacağını ve daha önemlisi bunları sistematik olarak adlandıracağını belirtiyor. Bunu yapıyor da. Ancak tespitleri yer yer yüzeysel kalmış gibi hissettim. Ayrıca genelde belli tarz romanları merkeze almış. Bu da ama öyle olmayanlar da var tarzı eleştirmeme neden oldu. Özetle kötü bir giriş kitabı değil ama bu konuda daha iyileri var diyebilirim.

[Luka · Rating 3 out of 5]

meh, some stuff Nice, but she overcomplicates and Often gives no clarity. So some parts were a bitch to read.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's not as if this book has a lot in it to surprise-- I think most people who come to it know what they are getting into, a famously "systematic" take on narrative theory, with a share of complicated symbols, etc. But despite some sort of short-sighted statements, like the claim that a narrative is a among other things, a text with a first and last word, this is a remarkably durable book, and one that seems at least open to the possibility that readers process texts as they go along, not only at the end.... this is important to me, at least, and not only because I think it really reflects the process of reading anything longer than Poe's famous one-hour short story.

I like, too, the way that Bal dispenses with that sort of ludicrous when you think about it claim that stories are consistent in their point of view. Or that they should be.

Really, a wonderful book that is, if anything, even more revolutionary than she thinks.

Matt

[Jose Lomo Marín]

El contenido del libro es interesante, a más no poder, pero es de una densidad expositiva abrumadora. Apropiado para lectores con un alto nivel teórico, pero difícil para el lector medio que, como yo, trata de aproximarse a las entrañas de la narrativa. Incluso considerando que ciertas personas más acostumbradas a ello no tendrán tantas dificultades para asimilarlo, creo que Mieke Bal hubiera dotado a la obra de más trascendencia con un lenguaje algo más asequible, tal vez dedicando más espacio a los ejemplos. No ayuda nada la edición de Cátedra, que es muy pobre: desde el papel, delgado hasta la transparencia, la densidad tipográfica de los párrafos (para ahorrar páginas), las deprimentes tablas y diagramas de primero de Word, y la tristísima portada (contraportada, ni tiene). Aún así, es de agradecer a Cátedra su esfuerzo por publicar una obra tan especializada.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is essential - if you're interested in narratology - the study of narrative. most people aren't. this book is extremely dry, but gains in clarity in a pretty difficult topic. it's hopelessly structuralist, but mieke bal does a good job, in this second edition, to tie narratology to other means of doing ideological critique.

[Aline Job · Rating 4 out of 5]

Um livro básico para estudantes, pesquisadores e interessados em narrativa e narratologia. A abordagem é bastante detalhada e faz um caminho estruturalista necessário para um conhecimento preciso sobre as categorias da narrativa.

[Ron · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found the title to be misleading.

Rather than being a comprehensive introduction to the discipline, it read more as a feminist literary critique towards some aspects of mainstream story building.

I don't think I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to get informed on the topic

[The reader in the haar · Rating 4 out of 5]

A revisited conceptual frameworks of narratology, packed with tons of academic gibberish that are useful when you need to cite something 'sophisticated'.

[Alejandra Díaz de León · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me gusta porque es súper sencillo de entender. El autor es muy directo y usa mucha ejemplificación.

[Pablo Del · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un buen ensayo que no hace sino añadir algo más de claridad, o al menos ofrecer nuevos puntos de vista, al maravilloso mundo de la narratología desde un punto de vista funcionalista. Son especialmente interesantes apartados como el de los actores basado en el método actancial de Greimas, el del ritmo muy esclarecedor, útil los diagramas para determinar los personajes por medio de ejes, y, cómo no, está el asunto de la focalización tan discutido con Greimas por sus puntos de vista diferentes a la hora de interpretarlos, y donde Bal añade los elementos de Focalizador de objetos perceptibles y no perceptibles, que puede ayudar a determinar la importancia de la focalización y el papel que desempeñan los personajes en la fábula.

A fin de cuentas, y como Mieke Bal indica, estas propuestas narratológicas se platean para que cada investigador seleccione los elementos de la teoría más útiles para su trabajo concreto, y nom para seguir todo a pie juntillas.

[Thiago Nasi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect for beginners, although you won't understand it if you haven't studied the topic before (lots of recurring terms that are not explained in depth).

The only thing that bothered me was the notations. I don't understand the necessity to transform everything into a bracket labelled structure, or to make a parallel with Linguistics all the time. Still, a really good insight into the overall theory.

[Carly]

a lot of interesting ideas, although most were a lot more simplistic than I was hoping for and all the stuff I found interesting got little follow-up. despite playing with the idea a bit, these theories were generally distant from interactive storytelling or even reader-response theory, as narrative texts are fundamentally defined as constructs of a communicator, not constructs communicated or directly engaged with (sucks for me ig)

[Douglas · Rating 2 out of 5]

This rating is not a reflection on the information - which is dense with information and researched well. Unfortunately, it is a very difficult read. I read this in a creative writing class and every time I had to sit and read this book I dreaded the time spent in doing so.

[John Fitzgerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. I'm a little disappointed because this book has been on my "to-read" for a long time. I happened to read a bunch of other "narrative theory" before I got here, so maybe that spoiled the introduction for me. Interesting and insightful in places, but formulaic and underdone in many others.

[Ki · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Introduction” assumed A LOT about me and the knowledge I (didn’t have) had but I made it through. It took A LOT of sectional rereads but I made it through. My research was bolstered by this book and it COMPLETELY shifted how I read literature.