Narrative and theme : an exploration of the semantics of narrative
Abstract
Theme is a long-neglected topic in the study of narrative, partly due to longstanding views concerning the role of theme in narrative, partly due to shortcomings in semantics in the past. However, advances in semantics, particularly in Fauconnier and Turner’s work on cognitive blending, have revealed the fundamental role of theme in narrative interpretation. This paper demonstrates the relevance of these insights to solving various shortcomings in existing narratological theories, and in doing so develops a new thematic model of narrative interpretation.
Tulving’s research into memory distinguished between two kinds: experiential (episodic) and abstract memory. While Tulving emphasized their discreteness, Schank, Abelson and Langer’s research into cognitive scripts instead demonstrates their interdependence. This fundamental distinction is then linked to parallel linguistic concepts, such as instantiation vs. abstraction, transitive vs. ergative, basic-level categories and experiential vs. abstract metaphor, uni-directionality, type vs. token, embodiment and scientific vs. folk-modelling in language. On this broad basis of linguistic evidence, it is proposed that instantiation and abstraction are both fundamental universals of language and cognition.
Based on the linguistic evidence, we propose two primary kinds of memory, abstract memory, which is devoted to interfacing between concepts, and experiential memory, which is devoted to interfacing concepts and the sensory inputs which relate concepts to life experiences. While distinct in their particular functions, they are at the same time closely integrated and mutually dependent.
Furthermore, it is proposed that narrative is intimately related to this coordination between the two kinds of memory, and that likewise, this cognitive model is fundamental to an authentic understanding how narrative works. According to the thematic narrative model, narrative is one of the primary ways in which we interface between these two kinds of memory, namely experiential memory and abstract memory. This makes it unique compared to all other narrative theories, which define narrative only in terms of experiential
cognition, often deliberately exclusive of abstract cognition. For this reason, the thematic narrative theory is not only ground-breaking in terms of the extensive support from linguistics, psychology and cognitive science research, but also in completely overturning most accepted ideas about narrative.
From this theory of the mind, the thematic narrative model mainly builds upon three prior theories, namely Northrop Frye’s archetypal theory of narrative, Paul Ricoeur’s concept of narrative de-automatisation, and Fauconnier and Turner’s Blending theory. Following Frye, narrative is defined as a relationship between an exemplar, which corresponds with the literal narrative, and a theme, which is the message it serves to convey. In the thematic narrative model, the exemplar in turn is identified with experiential memory, and the theme with abstract memory.
Building upon Frye’s model, Ricoeur defined the primary purpose of narrative as de-automatisation. According to him, the mind takes the confusion of sensory input and gleans from it recurring patterns which then form the building material of concepts. Through conceptual integration, these concepts are refined and organized to form a unified conceptual framework. But in this process of refinement, concepts also lose much of the phenomenological significance of the original experiences. This is because the process of conceptualization is fundamentally one of generalization: identifying similarities at the cost of the unique. Ricoeur’s premise is supported by the linguistic evidence for uni-directionality. Narrative then is a process of reintegrating experiences and de-automatising concepts by reminiscing on these original experiences and meditating on their conceptual significance.
This process of narrative de-automatisation is effectively one of conceptual blending, and thus Fauconnier and Turner’s Blending model provides a handy means of explaining how this narrative de-automatisation blends experiential and abstract concepts. However, this is only achieved through a significant reconceptualization of the original theory. In Fauconnier and Turner’s model, two conceptual inputs (in this case an experiential and an abstract one) are integrated through the creation of a generic space on the basis of their similarities. However, in the thematic narrative model, the generic space is instead equated with Frye’s archetypes. According to Frye, narrative exemplar is primarily (but not exclusively) integrated with theme via a pre-existing vocabulary of integration schemas called archetypes. While Frye does make place for the kind of ad-hoc generic spaces Fauconnier and Turner describe (termed imagery by Frye), for him this is the exception
rather than the rule. Instead, Frye defines a kind of internal encyclopedia of integration models he terms archetypes which perform most of this work.
Thematic narrative in this way resolves many of the short-comings of the generally accepted definition of narrative (as a series of events). It is deeply entrenched in and integrated with research in the related fields of linguistics, psychology and cognitive science. It not only provides a more descriptive framework for defining narrative, but also provides a clear social function, something which most current narrative theories are rather deficient in. Aside from this it resolves a myriad other narratological problems. The accepted narratological definition, through its exclusive concern with experience as opposed to abstract cognition, isolates it from much of the current research and theory on language and cognition, while thematic narrative theory places narratology at the centre of the debate. This also affects their respective abilities to deal with a host of other narrative concerns such as cognitive perspective, narrative structure, narrative events, fictionality and figurative expression, affect, denotation and connotation and the language of narrative generally, and so on. For all of these criteria, the thematic narrative theory presents a remarkable advance compared to alternative theories.
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