John Pier Livres

By redefining established topics of narratology, research has become highly diversified. The contributions to this volume neither synthesize developments nor work from shared postulates, but represent a fresh look at ongoing issues. Some scrutinize focalisation in a linguistic framework or in a poststructuralist vein; others take on reliable and unreliable narration in a pronominal perspective or the „unaddressed“ reader who upsets the tidy schemes of narrative communication. Also outlined are a possible worlds approach to narrative time, a systematic treatment of metanarrative and a transgeneric application of narratology to poetry. The sequential ordering of narratives as a way of controlling reader response is examined in one article and in another is seen to elicit intertextual configurations. Both divergent and complementary, the contributions seek to integrate into narratological categories and methods the dynamic processes of narrative itself.

Theorizing Narrativity is a collective work by an international array of leading specialists in narrative theory. It provides new perspectives on the nature of narrative, genre theory, narrative semiotics and communication theory. Most contributions center on the specificity of literary fiction, but each chapter investigates a different dimension of narrativity with many issues dealt with in innovative ways (including oral storytelling, the law, video games, causality, intertextuality and the theory of reading). There are chapters by Gerald Prince on narrativehood and narrativity, Meir Sternberg on the narrativity of the law-code, Werner Wolf on chance and Peter Hühn on eventfulness in fiction, Jukka Tyrkkö on kaleidoscope narratives, Marie-Laure Ryan on transfictionality and computer games, Ansgar Nünning and Roy Sommer as well as Monika Fludernik on the narrativity of drama, Beatriz Penas on (non)standard narrativities, David Rudrum on narrativity and performativity, Michael Toolan on textual guidance, John Pier on causality and retrospection, and José Ángel García Landa on retelling and represented narrations.

John Pier prohloubil ve svých literárněvědných studiích problematiku intertextové naratologie, k níž se dostal zprostředkovaně přes angloamerickou literaturu 18.–20. století. Sémiotika mu umožňuje schematizovat znakové systémy a procesy, je tudíž jedním z nejvhodnějších prostředků pro analýzu literárního díla, vyhýbá se strohosti strukturalistické naratologie, vychází z potřeby komplexního přístupu a strategie, při zachování významových rovin zkoumaných narativů. Intertextovost je tedy pro Johna Piera základní interpretační technikou a hlavním metodickým nástrojem pro analýzu literárního textu. Postklasická naratologie zohledňuje výzkum kontextu, a to i v řadě jiných vědních disciplín. Přítomné studie představují stručný nástin intertextové naratologie.