The Difference Approach to Narrative Fiction

The Difference Approach to Narrative Fiction Just at this point a movement caught my eye and, glancing back to the apartment building, I saw that the front door was open. – Kazuo Ishiguro (The Unconsoled) Örebro Studies in Literary History and Criticism 13 TOMMY SANDBERG The Difference Approach to Narrative Fiction A Recurring Critique of Narratology and Its Implications for the Study of Novels and Short Stories © Tommy Sandberg, 2019 Title: The Difference Approach to Narrative Fiction: A Recurring Critique of Narratology and Its Implications for the Study of Novels and Short Stories Publisher: Örebro University 2019 www.oru.se/publikationer Print: Örebro University, Repro 09/2019 ISSN 1650-5840 ISBN 978-91-7529-297-7 Abstract Tommy Sandberg (2019): The Difference Approach to Narrative Fiction: A Recurring Critique of Narratology and Its Implications for the Study of Nov- els and Short Stories. Örebro Studies in Literary History and Criticism 13. The aim of this thesis is to advance the critical examination of narratology, or the study of storytelling. I analyze four versions of a critique of the dominant theory of narrative fiction in narratology and discuss this critique’s methodological implications. The critics, Sylvie Patron, Lars-Åke Skalin, Richard Walsh, and the proponents of unnatural narratology have, I suggest, similar understandings of narratology’s hand- ling of works like novels and short stories as well as similar alternative approaches. I situate the critique among relevant theories of fiction and salient aspects of narratology, and conclude that the most radical critics have a difference approach to narrative fiction. This means treating this literary practice as following another rule system for creating meaning than other kinds of storytelling. These critics seem to base their reason- ing on their readerly intuitions about how novels and short stories func- tion; yet their approach also lends itself to, for instance, discussions on how such works afford life visions or worldviews. In contrast to this approach, I describe narratology, in the critics’ view, as having a sameness approach that treats narrative fiction as a subtype of “narrative” in the sense of the communication of events by a narrator. The three opening articles of the thesis comprise a metadiscussion of the critique. I here describe, in part with Greger Andersson, the critics’ ideas, characterize the critique as a whole, and speculate about why it has had no apparent effect on narratology. The two latter articles utilize the difference approach in analyses of Angela Carter’s “The Loves of Lady Purple” and Sara Stridsberg’s Drömfakulteten (The Faculty of Dreams) while discussing narratological concepts and issues. Future studies might continue this discussion or inquire further about, for example, the rela- tions between different narrative practices or what role different intuitions about narrative fiction play in descriptions and analyses. Keywords: Angela Carter, narrative fiction, narrative theory, narratology, Sylvie Patron, Lars-Åke Skalin, Sara Stridsberg, unnatural narratology, Richard Walsh Tommy Sandberg, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences Örebro University, SE-701 82 Örebro, Sweden, [email protected] Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ......................................................................... 9 ARTICLES .............................................................................................. 11 1. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................. 13 1.1 A Recurring Critique of Narratology ................................................ 13 1.2 Aims and Research Questions ........................................................... 16 1.2.1 Article Summaries ...................................................................... 17 1.3 Outline .............................................................................................. 20 2. THE CRITIQUE OF NARRATOLOGY AND ITS SUGGESTED ALTERNATIVE ...................................................................................... 21 2.1 The Critical View on Narratology ..................................................... 21 2.2 Approaching Narrative Fiction as a Distinct Literary Practice .......... 27 2.2.1 The Critics’ Suggestions ............................................................. 27 2.2.2 Theoretical Starting Points in the Articles .................................. 32 3. THE CRITIQUE’S PLACE IN NARRATOLOGY .............................. 40 3.1 The Fact versus Fiction Debate ......................................................... 41 3.1.1 Possible Worlds Theory ............................................................. 42 3.1.2 Pretense Theory ......................................................................... 46 3.1.3 The Deviating Grammar of Fiction ............................................ 49 3.1.4 Fiction in History ....................................................................... 53 3.2 Narratology: Its Nature and Aspirations ........................................... 59 3.2.1 The Restrictive View on Narratology ......................................... 60 3.2.2 A Development towards Diversity? ............................................ 64 3.2.3 Cognitive Narratology ............................................................... 70 3.2.4 Narratology as Method .............................................................. 76 3.3 Summary: Problematic Aspects of Narratology ................................. 81 4. HOW THE ARTICLES ANSWER THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS .. 85 4.1 Articles I–III ...................................................................................... 87 4.1.1 Describing the Critique’s Central Notions ................................. 87 4.1.2 Suggesting Why the Critique Has Had No Apparent Effect ....... 89 4.1.3 A Reply to Hatavara and Hyvärinen’s Critique ......................... 92 4.2 Articles IV–V ..................................................................................... 93 4.2.1 Evaluating Core Concepts .......................................................... 93 4.2.2 Analyzing an Experimental Novel .............................................. 97 5. DISCUSSION .................................................................................... 100 5.1 Conclusions ..................................................................................... 101 5.2 Implications of the Critique ............................................................. 103 5.3 Evaluative Remarks ......................................................................... 106 5.4 Issues to Be Further Explored .......................................................... 110 SVENSK SAMMANFATTNING .......................................................... 113 REFERENCES ...................................................................................... 121 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In this PhD thesis I set out to continue the critique of narratology – the study of storytelling – that Lars-Åke Skalin and others at Örebro University have advanced for a while. The critique concentrates on narratology’s approach to and description of works like novels and short stories. The goal was to broaden the scope and include Skalin among scholars from abroad who have presented similar critiques and handled narrative fiction (novels and short stories) similarly. My examination of this critique has resulted in five articles and this volume about the articles, in which I interpret and synthe- size the included parts and present a general picture of the project. I would like to thank several people for making this thesis possible. First of all, I am grateful for the idea for the project from Greger Andersson as well as his engaged and wise supervision. Any mistakes in the finished pro- duct should be blamed on me. I have also enjoyed the conversations we have had in, mostly, my office during the past five years about a variety of sub- jects. My secondary supervisor, Pär-Yngve Andersson, should be thanked for his support and down-to-earth comments on parts of the draft(s). Also, I would like to thank my mid seminar reader, Sten Wistrand, and my end seminar reader, Roger Edholm, for fruitful comments and suggestions. Thanks to Lars-Åke Skalin and Erik van Ooijen, who have commen- ted on parts of the text, and to Helena Hansson-Nylund, rhetoric, for our exchange of ideas. I would never miss mentioning Per Klingberg and Linus Pentikäinen, my closest PhD colleagues in comparative literature and rhetoric, respectively! Thanks to the various proofreaders. Thanks to those who contributed to the symposium in Örebro on November 22, 2017, about “Sameness and Difference in Narratology.” Thanks to the administrators who were involved in this event and in other significant aspects of my time at the university. The symposium, by the way, resulted in a special issue of Frontiers of Narrative Studies (FNS 2019; 5:1), in which the article placed first in the thesis was published. A special thanks goes to Mari Hatavara and Matti Hyvärinen who took the opportunity to criticize, in academic journals, some ideas and distinctions presented in my articles. The image on the front page was painted by Johanna Brunzell, my part- ner in sunshine and rain; thank you for the picture and for being there. Tommy Sandberg, August 2019 TOMMY SANDBERG The Difference Approach to Narrative Fiction 9 ARTICLES I Sandberg, Tommy (2019). “The critique of the common theory of narrative fiction in narratology:

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