Social Minds in Drama. Golnaz Shams
value. Fludernik is pointing out an issue that not many theorists have tackled; a reverse argument one could say that of how much performative quality a novel does have. She asks, once we see novel and drama as similar and consider both as narratives, whether we could compare narrative elements in drama and novel. Could we argue in the same way about narrativity in drama as we do in novels, and could we do the same to novels and discuss the dramatic level or even the performative ←62 | 63→aspects in a novel or other types of narratives as well? These questions help us see a more complete definition of narrative fiction which does not limit itself to generic differences.
For the purpose of this study I have chosen (textual) narratives. To qualify as such, they must consist of fictional worlds, storyworlds that inhabit at least one human (-like) consciousness that experiences in some way that storyworld. As I mentioned before I maintain that there is a niche for a narratological model focusing on playscripts. I believe cognitive narrative theory can provide very good analytical toolkits which one can apply to playscripts. The analysis of playscript independent from the performance is a valid endeavour. Jahn’s introductory work of written/printed vs performed and assigning separate categories for both scripts and performances already pave the way for a narratological model of drama. In this work, then, I would like to propose one such model. The model I am proposing is concerned with playscripts only. All the theory and concepts I will be using are taken from cognitive narrative studies, mainly following the approach Palmer suggests. For reasons of space, as already discussed in the introduction, my focus will be on Palmer’s theoretical framework to trace the construction of the fictional minds in the plays of Ibsen, Wilde and Shaw. After examining the construction of the characters’ consciousness in different narrative parts of the playscripts regarding their intramental relevance (in Chapters Four and Five), I will analyse the intermental dynamics between the characters (Chapters Six–Eight). Using Palmer’s concept of intermentality I will find collective minds at work in the plays and determine the dynamics of group formation. Before the analysis of the playscripts, I would like to elaborate on some major concepts of drama especially in relation to narrative studies in the next chapter. I will first explain how the concept of characterisation has been developed in narrative studies so far. Then I will move on to explain what existing theories have to say about character and consciousness in the embedded and doubly embedded parts of the playscript, and also in the stage directions. I will point out how these approaches can benefit immensely by applying Palmer’s approach of consciousness construction and intermentality to consequently achieve a better and richer reading experience of the playscripts.
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15 Marie-Laure Ryan further compares the two approaches with the syntax, semantics, and pragmatics categorisation of grammarians and further states that if we regard narrative as a discourse that conveys a story, as a mental representation it should not be tied to any particular medium. (2007: 27).
16 “In contrast to his formalist predecessors and structuralist colleagues, Genette had no intention of designing a fully coherent and self-contained theory of narrative. This sparked fundamental narratological controversies over Genettian concepts such as “focalization” (Bal 1997; Jahn 1996, 1999) and set the stage for numerous debates that were to result in postclassical narratology. Some of this criticism was addressed in Genette ([1983] 1988)” (Meister 2015).
20 Eder (2003),Kindt/Müller (2003), Fludernik (2005), Herman (2005), Mildorf (2010), Jaén and Simon (2012).
21 See Gerard Genette (1980), Porter Abbott (2008), Lisa Zunshine (2010c), and Gerald Prince (1987) to mention a few.
22 See Mandler (1984) and Herman (2002).
23 See Schank and Abelson (1977).
25 See Emmott (1997) and Jahn (1997).
26 See van Peer and Chatman (2001), and Dancygier (2011).
28 See Bortolussi and Dixon (2003).
29 See Cohn (1978), Eder (2003), and Fludernik (2003).
30 A more detailed account on character and characterisation in narratology will be provided in the next chapter.