DIEGESIS 13.2, winter 2024
Date of publication: December 2024
Topic: “Narrative and Grammar”
Deadline for the submission of abstracts: November 6th, 2023
Deadline for the submission of articles: June 30th, 2024
About the Topic:
Linguistic analyses of narrative in general and of narrative fiction in particular can lay claim to a long tradition. In the last century, following the lead of initial approaches of Russian Formalism, Käte Hamburger’s reflections on the specific function of the preterite and the speaker origo in fictional texts in the 1950s triggered a controversial debate (Ann Banfield, Harald Weinrich) which has been shaping narratological discourses until today – for example by giving rise to new approaches such as optional narrator theory. During the 1960s and 1970s, several attempts were mounted in the field of text linguistics to model the macrostructure of narrative texts according to the rules of a generative transformational grammar (Claude Bremond, A.J. Greimas, Teun van Dijk). Similar objectives were pursued by conversational linguistics and socio-linguistic theories of conversational storytelling (Konrad Ehlich, Elisabeth Gülich, William Labov). Such approaches, which sought to analyze features of narrative at sentence level, but also in text structure as well as pragmatic context, have continued to engage conversational linguistics over recent decades, especially with regard to phenomena such as storytelling in everyday talk (Neal R. Norrick) and ‘small stories’ (Michael Bamberg, Ana De Fina, Alexandra Georgakopoulou). However, approaches with a grammatic orientation in the narrower sense have also been receiving further or renewed attention. These include studies on the use of personal pronouns in second-person narrative (Monika Fludernik, Brian Richardson) and we-narrative (Nalaya Bekhta), along with analyses of linguistic representations of speech and consciousness (free indirect discourse), narrative perspective and focalization (Manfred Jahn), as also the use of narrative tense (Carolin Gebauer).
While the project of a “linguistic narratology” (Fludernik 2012, 76) is far from exhausted, it deserves fuller attention from both a linguistic and a narratological perspective. Against this backdrop, we are inviting contributions to our issue on “Narrative and Grammar” which investigate grammatical phenomena of fictional and factual narration in a narrower sense. We likewise welcome case studies of the diachronic development of grammatical aspects of narrative as well as metatheoretical contributions. Articles are expected to critically engage with some of the following questions as well as related topics:
- What narrative functions do grammatical phenomena such as the use of personal pronouns and narrative tense perform in fictional texts?
- What are the differences between the use of grammatical forms in fictional and non-fictional texts? Are specific forms of narration deployed to the same end or for different purposes?
- How has the functional potential of specific grammatical narrative features developed over different periods of literary and cultural history?
- To what extent can a linguistic analysis of narrative texts enrich traditional narratological close readings – and vice versa?
- Which interfaces between narrative theory and linguistics have been insufficiently explored yet?
- What can a linguistically oriented analysis of narrative texts contribute to cognitive narrative theory or to approaches of contextualist narratology such as feminist narratology, queer/trans narratology or econarratology?
We invite abstracts of approximately 350–400 words by November 6th, 2023 at the latest. Please send your abstract, along with a brief CV, to the editorial team of DIEGESIS: diegesis@uni-wuppertal.de. The editorial team and the editors will de-cide on the acceptance of proposals by December 18th, 2023. Accepted contributions have to be submitted by June 30th, 2024. The issue will be published in December 2024.
In addition, we always welcome REVIEWS of new works (i.e., works published in the last two to three years) in the field of narratology; we specifically welcome cross-disciplinary contributions in addition to contributions from those working in the fields of language and literature. Recommendations for reviews can be sent to the aforementioned e-mail address at any time; in your e-mail, you should name the book(s) you would like to review and provide a brief overview of your academic career.
Furthermore, we would also like to invite suggestions for CONFERENCE REPORTS on any events in the field of narrative research. If you want to send us proposals for such reports please include brief information on the topic, venue, date, and organizers of the event as well as a short outline of your academic career.
About DIEGESIS:
DIEGESIS is the first interdisciplinary journal dedicated to narrative research that provides free online access to full-text articles and reviews (https://www.diegesis.uni-wuppertal.de). The high standard of work published in DIEGESIS is ensured by a combination of competitive calls for papers and a peer review process.
DIEGESIS is published at the University of Wuppertal and in cooperation with the local Centre of Narrative Research (CNR) (https://www.zef.uni-wuppertal.de/en/) by Matei Chihaia (Romance Studies), Sandra Heinen (English Literature and Media Studies), Matías Martínez (German Studies), Katharina Rennhak (English Literature), Michael Scheffel (Comparative Literature), and Roy Sommer (English Literature, Cultural Studies, and Media Studies).