Dr Philip Holden (email: ellhpj@nus.edu.sg)

Narratology

Reading

• Jhumpa Lahiri, the remaining stories in Interpreter of Maladies. We will concentrate in lecture on "Sexy," but you'll need the other stories to do the first assignment.
• Pu Songling, "Painting the Human Skin" from Strange Tales of Liaozhai, in your COURSE PACK
• Peter Barry, "Narratology," Beginning Theory 222-247.

Some Pointers

Narratology has some similarities to the kind of close reading done at "A" Level, but it gives you a much more precise terminology in thinking about how a narrative works. You may find the terminology rather challenging, but some of the concepts develop what you will have studied before. When you've read the Barry chapter, think about how some of the concepts in it might be applied to the Pu Songling based comic strip. Then, read "Sexy" and the other stories. You might want to think about whether "Sexy" works as a short story. How would narratology, especially the notions of Aristotle and Genette, help us in understanding the effect the story has on the reader? What benefits do you think such narratological study has? What do you think it might leave out?

Last updated: 22 January, 2008