narratologyn.
/ˌnarəˈtɒlədʒi/, U.S. /ˌnɛrəˈtɑlədʒi/ Literary Theory.
The study of the structure and function of narrative, esp. (in structuralist and post-structuralist theory) as analogous to linguistic structure; the examination and classification of the traditional themes, conventions, and symbols of the narrated story.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > literary and textual criticism > literary criticism > [noun] > types of literary criticism
criticism1625
critical theory1799
literary theory1807
autocriticism1820
pseudo-criticism1851
Formgeschichte1923
form-criticism1928
form-history1928
practical criticism1929
New Criticism1941
contextualism1955
patternism1956
objectivism1961
narratology1971
new historicism1972
deconstruction1973
post-structuralism1975
deconstructionism1980
theory1982
1971 tr. T. Todorov in Diacritics 1 44 The typological remarks which I have just offered..pertain less to poetics than to a discipline which seems to me to have a solid claim to the right of existence, and which could be called narratology.
1974 Diacritics 4 iii. 2/2 The semiotic study of (verbal) narrative..has..refused to be called ‘narrative semiology’... It has kept or acquired other names..from the..banal ‘structural analysis of narrative’..to the newer..more fashionable ‘narratology’.
1983 T. Eagleton Lit. Theory iii. 103 It [sc. structuralism] created a whole new science—narratology.
1993 Eng. Today July 53/2 Genre studies can profit from the application of rhetorical modes; narratology develops the classical idea of the opening, development and conclusion of a persuasive discourse.
2000 Guardian Weekly (Nexis) 8 Nov. In terms of narratology, the author is almost a pioneer of post-modernism in his use of cyclical narrative.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1971