Toward a Poetics of "Descriptized" Narration

Bibliographic Data

ID4375995
AuthorsHarold F Mosher (corresponding author)
Year1991
Volume12
Issue3
Pages425
Publication date1991-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePoetics Today (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0333-5372 • E-ISSN: 1527-5507
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/1772646
OpenAlexW2320593750
LanguageEN
Citations received15
References cited6

Description, especially detailed description, has been considered a distinguishing element of realism in narrative since the movement's beginnings in the nineteenth century (Auerbach 1953: 413, 417), and the question of description in narrative theory and practice was an important consideration (Stang 1959). Somewhat less than a century later, description had fallen out of favor, at least with some theorists. In the 1960s, some structuralists neglected description because it was thought to be alien to narrative and of little signifying purpose (for example, Barthes 1968: 85-87). More recently, many narratologists have rejected this position, including Barthes himself, whose idea of the plurality of the text, as developed in S/Z, potentially assigns several functions to any given statement in narrative, including descriptive ones (see, for example, his commentary on lexie 8 [1970: 30-31]). Other theorists have studied many different functions of description: characterization, prediction (Bal 1977: 96, 98, 104-5), delay, development of theme (Jacques 1975: 173-77, 180-85, 196-97), parody (Culler 1974: 108), and even self-contradiction, as in the French new novel, depending on the explicitness and placement of the explanation of the description's meaning (Ricardou 1967: 92-95, 109-11). Whether descriptive passages are full or devoid of thematic meaning, it has become generally recognized that they often fulfill several functions, one of which can be the communication of theme. As Michael Riffaterre puts it, description's primary purpose is not to offer a representation, but to dictate an interpretation (1981: 125)

Art · Literature · Narrative · Poetics · Poetry · Digital Humanities and Scholarship · Narrative Theory and Analysis · Natural Language Processing Techniques

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