Conclusions

Abstract

In these conclusions, a model of narrative comprehension is elaborated that takes into account the analyses developed in the first and second parts of the volume. Designed as a narrator’s point of view, a narrative understanding concerns the narrator’s Self and the meaning he attributes to what he tells that, in turn, then reverberates on his memory and thought. The narrative understanding developed by the narrator consists of a process of increasing awareness determined by the transformations that the narrative exerts on memory. Designed as listener’s point of view, the narrative understanding concerns the other, that is, the narratee. The position of listening (or reading a text) becomes an interpretative act that can take place in four directions: the one from the point of view of the author, the text, the reader, and the paratext. It is necessary, in order for the interpretation to be complete, for the person to know how to make these different interpretations cooperate with each other. The cognitive processes necessary for narrative comprehension consist in the ability to handle the binomial norm violation, trying to build new hypotheses able to normalize new violations and to constantly update one’s vision of normality.