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Telling Stories

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Disnarration and the Unmentioned in Fact and Fiction

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Abstract

This chapter discusses what is understood by the term narrative by turning to well-known literary and linguistic models to examine prototypical features associated with the discourse of storytelling. A discussion of the purpose of telling stories as a social activity and a closer look at the characteristics of narratives, such as the importance of causation and the presence of Trouble with a capital ‘T’, will provide further insights to contextualise the aims of the book and highlight the important qualities of narrativity and tellability. The chapter goes on to describe the various forms of Prince’s (1988) disnarration, before discussing narrative refusals and textual gaps as unconventional dimensions. As disnarration makes explicit reference to that which does not happen, it simultaneously conjures up ‘what might have been’ negated scenarios, so the concepts of possible worlds, counterfactual storytelling and forked paths that give rise to alternative plots paths are also outlined.

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  1. Department of Humanities, Kingston University, Surrey, UK

    Marina Lambrou

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  1. Marina Lambrou
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Lambrou, M. (2019). Telling Stories. In: Disnarration and the Unmentioned in Fact and Fiction. Palgrave Pivot, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-50778-5_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-50778-5_2

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  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-50777-8

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