Thursday, December 2, 2010

Definition of narrativization according to Monika Fludernik


Monika Fludernik's constitutive concept it that of narrativization. Inspired by Jonathan Culler's notions on naturalization, Fludernik sees narrativization as a process in which narrativiry is imposed on a discourse, thus turning it into a narrative. This process is a dynamic one, and Is facilitated only by a "interpretative recuperations" carried out during the reading or hearing (or viewing) process. Narrativization is an action, putting the title of narrative and the property of narrativity as something outside of the text which is imposed on it, thus constructing, rather than reviling, it as a narrative.

This is not to say that we are free to decide on our own what is a narrative and what is not, culture and discourse are at work here, and we grant in advance the expectation for narrative to something which is accepted as "literature" but not to "leaflet". But what this does mean is that narrative is a relative concept. This is why Fludernik is so focused on natural narratives. For while a western person might perceive experimental literature as a narrative, other cultures might not agree. But spontaneous oral narration of experience is much more universal, and therefore Fludernik asserts that this is the prototype for all subsequent cultural developments of mediums and forms of narrative. So Fludernik places the natural narrative at the head of the taxonomy of narrative types. This enables Fludernik's model to have an diachronic aspect to it, explaining how from natural narrative our cognitive parameters have expanded and matured into more complex forms and genres which are still based on that basic, innate, universal capacity to experience someone else's story. The fact that we are able to naturally consume a genre (such as 'stream of consciousness') is reducible to a. developments stemming from natural narrative, and b. our capacity to build upon our intuitive basic abilities to narrativize and extend them to different types of discourses.