When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not; but my faculties are decaying now and soon I shall be so I cannot remember any but the things that never happened. Mark Twain (1924: 96)
Aims and Scope of Book
Why is it that stories where events that are explicitly referred to but do not happen are nevertheless considered to be tellable ? Why are stories where something could have happened, such as on near misses in news stories, or experiences about something almost happening in personal narratives , or gaps and omissions as well as counterfactual scenarios in film and literary fiction , be seen as newsworthy, tellable and narratable? Disnarration and the Unmentioned in Fact and Fiction sets out to discuss the continuing āfascination of what doesnāt happenā (Dannenberg 2014) by examining Princeās (1988) thought-provoking narrative dimension āthe disnarratedā, which describes āterms, phrases and passages that consider what did or does not take placeā (p. 3). Discussions also draw on Warholās (2005, 2007, 2010) work on narrative refusals in Victorian fiction which extends Princeās concept, where omissions are as communicative by their very absence as the text that is present. Dannenbergās concept of counterfactual divergence which generates what if scenarios when narrators, characters and plots follow alternative paths are also examined as are the forking paths and the multiple plot options that open as a consequence . Central to this exploration of unusual narrative techniques are the factual and fictional narratives, specifically chosen from across a range of genres: natural narratives, media new stories, a short story and a hugely successful Hollywood film to show the pervasiveness of disnarration and narrative gaps. This book sets out to understand the range of linguistic and literary techniques for communicating disnarration , textual gaps , refusals and hypothetical scenarios in an attempt to understand their importance and their relevance as part of our repertoire of storytelling.
As the title of this book suggests, Disnarration and the Unmentioned in Fact and Fiction attempts to examine the presence of disnarration as an unconventional storytelling strategy. Situated within the study of narratology, existing discussions of disnarration have tended to focus on literary fiction, consisting of characters inhabiting a storyworld , and enacting a series of temporally ordered and casually linked events to form a plot. This book differs in that it offers insights into disnarration as a narrative technique that goes beyond fictional texts to also consider factually based narratives such as oral narratives of personal experience and news narratives where the central concept of truth and the presence of crisis are important factors for evaluating these stories as worth telling. The discussion of disnarration is also extended to consider plot and story time in films where disruption to both arguably provides a more satisfying, though unconventional story. Underpinning the discussion of each of the texts is an analysis of the linguistic strategies that convey the various unconventional narrative dimensions to understand their form as well as their function.
Chapter 1 Introduction to Disnarration and the Unmentioned in Fact and Fiction presents the overall aims and scope of this book. The structure of the book thereafter is organised with each chapter focusing on a specific genre of storytelling, that is, either a factual or fictional narrative to explore disnarration , narrative gaps, counterfactual scenarios etc. Discussions of each of the texts will also describe the lexico-grammatical structures and their function in creating these compelling storytelling strategies. It is hoped that an exploration of both literary and non-literary texts will offer further insights to contribute to a greater understanding of unconventional storytelling strategies at the intersection of narratology and stylistics.
Chapter 2 Telling Stories presents an overview of some of the key concepts in the study of narratives to situate the disnarrated within a broader context of narrative storytelling as a universal activity. A useful discussion of what is understood by the term ānarrativeā looks to prototypical characteristics and models in literature (Todorov 1977; Forster 1927) and (socio)linguistics (Labov and Waletzky 1967; Labov 1972) to understand their form and function. Central to the effectiveness of a successful narrative is the presence of Trouble with a capital āTā (Bruner 1997; Burke 1945) which defines complication, conflict or disequilibrium to give the narrative the qualities of narrativity and tellability . The chapter describes Princeās disnarrated together with the extended work on narrative refusals , the nonnarratable and textual gaps. Also explored are the absences in the text generated through negati...