Social:Hypodiegetic narrative
In narratology, a hypodiegetic narrative is a narrative embedded in another narrative. The account of the monster in the novel Frankenstein is an example.[1] The term was coined by Mieke Bal in 1977 and narratologists often prefer it over the name metadiegetic narrative that was coined by Gérard Genette in 1980.[2][1][3][4]
Another name sometimes used is pseudo-diegetic narrative, although this more strictly is when the hypodiegetic status is forgotten and the narrative begins to function as a simply diegetic one.[1][4]
In Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH the life story of Nicodemus that he tells Mrs Frisby is such a narrative.[5]
When narrative levels are confused or entangled, this is metalepsis.[5]
Bal explained the terminological difference thus:
I continue to be unhappy with Genette's hierarchical inversion. I think that to indicate dependence, we have to replace higher with its opposite. To save the prefix "meta-"[lower-alpha 1] for a more appropriate use, I want to proppose, provisionally and for lack of anything better, that we speak of "hypo-"[lower-alpha 2]: "hypo-narrative", "hypo-diegetic".[6]
She noted that Robert Scholes in 1971 had used "metanarrative" to mean an exterior story wrapped around an interior story, and this required a name for the opposite framing.[7]
Footnotes
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 McQuillan 2000, p. 320.
- ↑ Herman, Jahn & Ryan 2010, p. 229.
- ↑ Prince 2003, p. 1939, hypodiegetic narrative.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Prince 2003, p. 1948, metadiegetic narrative.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Herman 2018, p. 338, hypodiegetic narrative.
- ↑ Bal 2006, p. 16.
- ↑ Bal 2006, p. 37.
Bibliography
- Herman, David; Jahn, Manfred; Ryan, Marie-Laure, eds (2010). "hypodiegetic narrative". Routledge. ISBN 9781134458400.
- McQuillan, Martin, ed (2000). "Hypodiegetic narrative". Psychology Press. ISBN 9780415205337. https://books.google.com/books?id=CcfqtUPoYuUC&pg=PA320.
- "Glossary". Narratology Beyond the Human: Storytelling and Animal Life. Oxford University Press. 2018. ISBN 9780190850401.
- A Dictionary of Narratology. University of Nebraska Press. 2003. ISBN 9780803287761.
- "Narration and Focalization". A Mieke Bal Reader. University of Chicago Press. 2006. ISBN 9780226035857.
Further reading
- Hühn, Peter; Meister, Jan Christoph; Pier, John et al., eds (2014). "Narrative levels". Handbook of Narratology. 1 (2nd ed.). Walter de Gruyter. pp. 554ff. ISBN 9783110316469.
See also
- story within a story
- diegesis
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