Name Naeem Akram

Roll no 19011517-026

Course code TRAN-312

Course Name 20th Century Literary/ Critical Theory

Assignment Topic Eco-criticism and Narratology

Submitted to Ms Faria Shaheen

Department CeLTS
Narrative
An indispensable notion in narratological studies is the narrative. Narrative in its broad sense
may refer to a variety of genres. Narrative is associated above all with the act of narration and is
to be found wherever someone tells us about something: a newsreader on the radio, a teacher at
school, a school friend in the playground, a fellow passenger on a train, a news-agent, one’s
partner over the evening meal, a television reporter, a newspaper columnist or the narrator in the
novel that we enjoy reading before going to bed. We are all narrators in our daily lives, in our
conversations with others, and sometimes we are even professional narrators (should we happen
to be, say, teachers, press officers or comedian.
Narratives have as their features:
a) a degree of artificial fabrication or constructedness
b) a degree of prefabrication
c) “trajectory” meaning that they have a beginning, middle, and an end
d) a “teller” (even if he is invisible)
e) the feature of “displacement” (the ability of human languages to be able to refer to things or
events that are removed, in space or time, either from the speaker or the addressee)
f) narratives involve the “recall” of happenings

Narratology
The study of narrative, as put forward by Fludernik (2006), is narrative theory. Narrative theory,
or narratology, is the study of narrative as a genre. Its objective is to describe “the constants,
variables and combinations typical of narrative and to clarify how these characteristics of
narrative texts connect within the framework of theoretical models (typologies).
Prince (1982), for instance, defines it as: “the study of the form and functioning of narrative”
This term is moreover defined by Meister (2009) as a “humanities discipline” which is dedicated
to “the study of the logic, principles, and practices of narrative representation”. However,
Schmid expresses that there is a criticism by which writers are warned that narratology must not
confine itself to be merely analytic; because this will result in objective descriptions which hence
will be deprived of any free interpretation
Narratology can be considered based on two classifications introduced by Jahn.
Discourse narratology analyzes the stylistic choices that determine the form or realization of a
narrative text (or performance, in the case of films and plays). Also of interest are the pragmatic
features that contextualize text or performance within the social and cultural framework of a
narrative act. Story narratology, by contrast, focuses on the action units that 'emplot' and
arrange a stream of events into a trajectory of themes, motives and plot lines. The notion of
emplotment plays a crucial role in the work of theorists like the historian Hayden White (1996
[1981]) and cultural philosophers such as Paul Ricoeur (1991) and Michel Foucault. (Jahn, 2005,
N2.1.3)

Classical and post-classical narratology

Narratological studies consist of two phases: 1) the classical phase, and 2) the post classical
phase. “During its initial or classical phase, from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s,
narratologists were particularly interested in identifying and defining narrative universals”. This
tendency was in air even a decade later in 1993 which is evident in a definition of narratology
from those years: “the set of general statements on narrative genres, on the systematics of
narrating (telling a story) and on the structure of plot”
However, a decade later, narratology was alternatively described as (a) a theory), (b) a method,
or (c) a discipline. However, the third option seems more suitable since it subsumes the two
previous terms that is theory and method. They explicate that the term discipline covers both
theoretical and practical approaches to narrative and narratology.
A second phase in narratological studies is the post-classical phase. Narratology is not limited to
only one theory and discipline. From post-classical perspectives, narratology is a discipline
which is wide enough in scope to be applied to other disciplines. As quoted from Rimmon-
Kenan (2004), the transition to post-classical narratology is a “shift from a fairly unified
discipline to one characterized by a diversity of approaches”. This phase is the time for the
emergence of inter-disciplinary approaches like ‘feminist narratology’, ‘cognitive narratology’,
‘postmodern narratology’, and other sub-disciplines.

Components and elements of narratology

In narratology, a narrative is analyzed from the point of view of its constituent components. In
this section, we may point to Jahn’s (2005) classification of these components. Jahn suggests
three broad categories. The first of these, is narration (voice), focolization (mood), and narrative
situation, the second is Action, story analysis, tellability, and the third broad category is about
Tense, Time, and Narrative Modes.As one can see, each of these categories carry some
subcomponents

Narration (voice), focolization (mood), and narrative situation

Narration is highly dependent on narrators. Narrators may be overt or covert. An overt narrator is
one who refers to him/herself in the first person ("I", "we" etc.), one who directly or indirectly
addresses the narratee, one who offers reader-friendly exposition whenever it is needed. A covert
narrator, in contrast, is “one who has a more or less neutral (nondistinctive) voice and style, one
who is sexually indeterminate, …, one who does not intrude or interfere, one who lets the story
events unfold in their natural sequence and tempo”.
Narrators may be homodiegetic, autodiegetic, heterodiegetic. This classification is based on the
narrator’s relationship to the story.
A homodiegetic narrator is present as a character in the story. Jahn explains that the prefix
‘homo-’ suggests that the narrator is within the level of action. There is another term in relation
to homodiegetic narrator, which is autodiegetic narrator and which has the same meaning; but
the only difference is that the narrator here is the protagonist. But in a heterodiegetic narration,
the story is told by a heterodiegetic narrator who is not present as a character in the story
Focolization centers on the idea that a specific narration or story is seen/told from whose
perspective. In this respect, two terms are introduced: external focolization and internal
focolization. External focolization refers to “the candidate for a text's perspectival orientation
who is the narrator” (Jahn, 2005, N3.2.4.). Internal focolization is when the narrative events are
“presented from a character's point of view
According to Jahn (2005), the term narrative situation refers to complex arrangements or patterns
of narrative features. Based on the same source, Genette hires the classifications of voice
(narration) and mood (focolization) so that he can come to some possible combinations of these
two. Stanzel is more interested in “describing ‘ideal-typical’ or (as we shall say) prototypical
configurations and arranging them on a ‘typological circle’ ”. Concepts like first-person
narrative, authorial narrative, and figural narrative are raised in the discussion of narrative
situation which are related to voice. Moreover, we-narratives, you-narratives, simultaneous
narration and camera-eye narration are further debates within the situation. All in all, in the
narrative situation the aim is to mix some other components in order to achieve a number of new
interpretations.

Eco Criticism

Definition
The definition of ‘ecological criticism’ is very different from others. Michel P. Blanche and
others in ‘Reading the Earth’ said: ‘The implicit (and usually explicitly included) among the
many ways of this new criticism is a call for cultural change. It is not just a means of analyzing
the nature of literature; it also means moving towards a more biological center of the worldview,
an extension of ethics that extends the humanity of the global community to accommodate non-
human life, Form and physical environment. Just as feminist and African-American literary
criticism calls for a cultural change that seeks to promote a more inclusive worldview by
exposing the narrowness of early ideas; ecocriticism examines our view of the natural world. The
narrowness of cultural assumptions limits our ability to look at an ecologically sustainable
human society and call for cultural change.’
Lawrence Buell, a professor of English at Harvard University, puts the ecological spirit into a
deeper level of literary and literary theory in his book Environmental Imagination: Thoreau,
Natural Writing, and the Composition of American Culture. In this book, ‘A Milestone of
Ecological Literary Criticism,’ Buell points his finger at a major tendency in literature and
criticism since the 20th century: the loss of the dimension of reference to the real world. Buil
believes that ecocriticism is usually carried out in the spirit of an environmental movement
practice. In other words, ecocriticists not only see themselves as people engaged in academic
activities. They are deeply concerned about the current environmental crisis. Many people are
also involved in various environmental improvement movements. They also believe that
humanities, especially literary and cultural studies, can contribute to understanding and saving
the environmental crisis. Ecological criticism is interdisciplinary.
Generally speaking, ‘ecological criticism’ is a literary theory criticism method that enters
ecological problems from the perspective of literary criticism. On the one hand, it must solve the
deep relationship between literature and the natural environment; on the other hand, it should pay
attention to literary art and social ecology, cultural ecology and spirit. The intrinsic link of
ecology. Ecocriticism focuses on how the text rejects, displays, or ignites the nature of human
love for life: “The inner human tendencies that are concentrated in life processes or similar life
processes that inspire our imagination and emotions in connection with the non-human natural
world. After the sense of security, the anxiety of modernity, the fragmentation and chaos of
postmodernism, writers began to explore new ways for human beings to belong to the world and
explore new ways to develop a cautious and reciprocal ethic between us and nature.

Ecological Aspects
There have been two waves of ecocriticism: the first in the 1980s and the second in the 1990s.
 The first wave emphasized writing about nature as both a field of study and as a meaningful
practice. It maintained the distinction between human and nature, but promoted the value of
nature and the need to speak and stand up for nature. People believed it was the duty of the
humanities and the natural sciences together to raise awareness and come up with solutions
for the environmental and climate crisis.
 The second wave expanded upon the first, broadening the reaches of environmentalism. Eco
critic of this wave redefined the term environment to include both nature and urban areas and
challenged the distinctions between human and non-human and nature and non-nature. This
wave also led to the ecojustice movement by examining the way that the poorest and most
oppressed members of a population fall victim to the most adverse effects of climate change
and environmental degradation.
Features of ecocriticism:
 Ecocritic study work to find out representation of nature in writings, adverse effect on
nature, nature in its violent form, role of human in destroying nature etc.
 Rejected the notion that everything is socially or linguistically constructed. Nature has a
real physical entity.
 Ecocritic believed that too much attention to nature as cultural and ideological construct
may neglect an objective, material and vulnerable reality.
Characteristics of ecocriticism
 Ecocriticism is primarily concerned with the application of the rules of criticism and
ecology of literature.
 Attempt to find out environmental concerned voiced by writers in literature.
 Foreground nature and environment in literary text.
 Re-reading of major literary works from an ecocritical perspective.
 Emphasis on relevant factual writing especially topographical material such as essays,
travel writings etc.
 Three approaches of ecocriticism
1) Ecofeminism: this term was coined by the French writer Francoise d’ Eaubonne in his
book “feminism or death” (1974). It examines the relationship between all oppressed
group of society (women, black people, poor) and the oppression of nature (animal,
lands, water). Ecofeminism analyses the connection between the domination of women
and the domination of nature, usually by men.
2) Wilderness: it examines the ways in which the wilderness is constructed, valued and
engaged with.
3) Pastoral: it found primarily in British and American literature, focuses on the dichotomy
between urban and rural life, often idealizing nature and rural life and demonizing urban
life.