Narratology by Bal Mieke

Author:Bal, Mieke [Bal, Mieke]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: LIT006000
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Published: 2011-07-06T18:30:00+00:00

Construction of Content

When a character appears for the first time, we do not yet know very much about it. The qualities that are implied in that first presentation are not all grasped by the reader. In the course of the narrative the relevant characteristics are repeated so often – in a different form, however – that they emerge more and more clearly. Repetition is thus an important principle of the construction of the image of a character. Only when our attention has been focused on it a few times do we begin to regard, for instance, Frits van Egters’ tendency (in Reve’s The Evenings) to notice baldness in others as typical of this character. And only then do we realize that this characteristic recurs constantly throughout the rest of the narrative.

In addition to repetition, the piling up of data also fulfils a function in the construction of an image. The accumulation of characteristics causes odd facts to coalesce, complement each other, and then form a whole: the image of a character. In The Evenings we notice not only Frits’ preoccupation with baldness, but his obsession with other signs of decay as well, autumn, illness, old age, death, time. And these facts together convey a clear picture of the character, in the areas where unconnected data might have been striking but would not have been particularly meaningful.

In the third place, relations with others also help to build the image of a character. The character’s relation to itself in an earlier phase also belongs to this category. These relations tend to be processed into similarities and contrasts. A semantic model to describe these categories is only a reflection of cultural cognitive habits.

Finally, characters change. The changes or transformations which a character undergoes sometimes alter the entire configuration of character as it looked during the analysis of mutual relations. Once a character’s most important characteristics have been selected, it is easier to trace transformations and to describe them clearly.

Repetition, accumulation, relations to other characters, and transformations are four different principles which work together to construct the image of a character. Their effect can only be described, however, when the outline of the character has been roughly filled in. This is a constant element in narratological analysis: a dialectic back-and-forth between speculation and verification through open-minded analysis.

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