The Research Of Unnatural Narratology In Post-classical Narratology

The unnatural narratology is one of the most influential and rapidly developing branches of post-classical narratology. As we all know, the classical narratology attempts to construct a theoretical framework and conceptual system that applies to all narratives with the object of mimetic narratives. But the antimimetic narratives has been ignored of and rejected by the classical narratology because of its marginalization and strangeness. In Brian Richardson’s view, this phenomenon is actually a significant deficiency given that antimimetic postmodern narratives abound. So Richardson vigorously advocated the "unnatural narratology" to supplement the existing narratology. In his Unnatural Voices:Extreme Narration in Modern and Contemporary Fiction, Richardson began with the interpretation of antimimetic texts and put forward a series of propositions that contrast with the "natural narratology" raised by Monika Fludernik, thus the unnatural narratology began emerging. Then, four representative figures of unnatural narratology, Jan Alber, Stefan Iversen, Henrik Skov Nielsen and Brian Richardson published an essay named Unnatural Narratives, Unnatural Narratology:Beyond Mimetic Models viewed as the theoretical declaration of unnatural narratology that addresses some issues such as the definition of unnatural narratology, physically and logically impossible storyworlds, unnatural minds and unnatural acts. Thus, this thesis firstly attempts to explore the emergence and development of unnatural narratology and analyze the consensus and difference of these figures. For Brian Richardson, the fundamental criterion of unnatural narratives is their violation of the mimetic conventions. Jan Alber, on the other hand, restricts the use of the term "unnatural" to physically, logically, or humanly impossible scenarios and events. Stefan Iversen ties the notion of the unnatural to narratives that present the reader with clash between the rules governing the storyworld in the narrative and events producing or taking place inside this storyworid, in other words, clashes that defy naturalizaton. For Henrik Skov Nielsen, unnaturalness can appear on the representational level as well as on the level of the act of narration and unnatural narratives need special interpretative strategy. Secondly, studying the unnatural focalization, unnatural temporality, unnatural space and unnatural minds compared with the theories of classical narratology and the other post-classical narratology. Thirdly, seeking the proper interpretive strategies for unnatural narratology from the perspectives of reader’s reception including unnaturalized interpretive strategies and naturalized interpretive strategies such as the naturalization by Jonathan Culler, the natural narratology by Fludernik, the five mechanisms of integration by Tamar Yacobi, the nine reading strategies by Alber. Finally, discussing the cognitive narratology, rhetoric narratology and feminist narratology’s responses to and debates with the unnatural narratology and then summarizing the constructive meaning and future development of the unnatural narratology.