Fundamentals Of Story Logic: Introduction To Greimassian Semiotics (semiotic Crossroads)

Drawing largely on Propp's and Greimas' work on the narrative, this book is aimed at consolidating and extending their views through a series of concrete applications. The volume offers a critical examination of narrative structure in terms of its two basic syntactic units or sets of operations, namely the “eventual or dynamic configurations corresponding to communication or to contract or, more general, to the structure of exchange.” Because of the emphasis it lays on the logical frame underlying the syntagmatic dimension of the story, the book contributes to an integrated descriptive model deliberately centered on “narrative semiotics as a branch of descriptive poetics.” The discussion of value in its social and legal context brings to light the links between the theory of narrative and its anthropological sources. This book shows that a strict concern with story logic requires a reevaluation of the basic premises of semiotic theory and raises important epistemological questions about its evolution. This Book May Be Viewed Not Only As N Post-proppian, Post-greimassian Reconstruction And Theoretical Advance But Also As A Neo-proppian, Neo-greimassian Remodelling Of Story Logic Leading To An Integrated Descriptive Model Which Focuses, By Design, On Narrative Semiotics As A Branch Of Descriptive Poetics. The Investigation And The Revision Of The Actantial Model And The Narrative Schema Are Made Concrete Through Multiple Small Narratives From Literary Fiction, Specifically Nathanael West's Miss Lonelyhearts, A Parable Of Pascal, And A Historical Chronicle.--book Jacket. The Modifications Which Therese Budniakiewicz Proposes Are Turned, As It Were, Backward Towards A Theoretical Foundation That Is Both Re-found And Re-founded, And What Emerges Is A Methodology Of Textual Analysis The Scope Of Which Extends To Include Hermeneutics And Interpretation. At The Same Time, Through The Analysis The Author Makes Of The 'contractual And Communication Events' And The Central Position She Gives To The Sender And Receiver, The Book Is Led To Place Emphasis On The Social And Interactional Nature Of Discourse And, Thereby, Integrating The Basics Of Narrative Within The Framework Of Law And Society And Justice.--book Jacket. By Putting The Theory In Perspective While Carefully Analyzing Its Premises And By Consolidating A Broad Spectrum Of Interdisciplinary Concepts Crucial To Narrative, Fundamentals Of Story Logic Will Be Welcomed By All Students Of Fiction, Narratology, And The Classical Greimas.--book Jacket. By Therese Budniakiewicz. Includes Bibliographical References. The aim of this work is to extend Propp's and Greimas' view of the narrative through a series of applications. It examines narrative structure in terms of its two basic syntactic units: the dynamic or evantual configurations corresponding to communication, contract or the structure of exchange.