Some Thoughts On Narrative (1980)

[stilltrucking]

This paper incorporates parts of the Nina Mae Kellog Lecture given at Portland State University in the spring of 1980…

Recently, at a three-day long symposium on narrative, I learned that it’s unsafe to say anything much about narrative, because if a poststructuralists doesn’t get you a deconstructionist will…

Aristotle says that the essential element of a drama and epic is “the arrangement of the incidents.” And he goes on to make the famous and endearing remark that this narrative or plotly elements of a beginning, a middle, and an end:

“A beginning is that which is not itself necessarily after anything else, and which has naturally something else after it; …”

[lescaret]

Hey ST, wondering if you meant to post the link to the paper you refer to, I'd be interested in checking it out.

[e_dog]

yeah, second that, where's the paper?

also say more about the conference, if you will.

[stilltrucking]

The quote was from this book.

Dancing At
The Edge
of the World

Thoughts On Words, Women,
Places

Ursula Le Guin

I will check it out and see if I can find a link to that paper.

[Arcadia]

This week I was reading a book that my cousin is scanning at home.

"He ahí pues, otro rasgo de nuestra cultura. Siempre, es decir en todos los casos, la novela exige la presencia de un héroe preferentemente individual. Un personaje confiado a sus conflictos y más o menos enfrentado al mundo que lo rodea. Yo me pregunto ¿cómo habría héroes individuales en una cultura de conformación corporativa, donde la suma del poder público prometía protección y castigo sin exigir auténtica responsabilidad?. La novela pertenece al universo del detalle, al mundo de lo particular, su despliegue es siempre un desliz o un descaro; obscena por detallista y perversa por imaginaria nada es sin un pie bien afirmado en la realidad. Por eso creció en terrenos de democracias modernas o al menos en áreas donde la contingencia de la persona era tan importante como la contingencia colectiva"

Rodolfo Rabanal, La novela entre nosotros en La escritura argentina, UNL 1992.

[jimboloco]

"I have therefore, another characteristic of our culture. Always, that is to say in all cases, the novel requires the presence of a preferably individual hero. A confident personage to her conflicts and more or less faced al world that surrounds her. There I ask me ¿how would be individual heroes in a culture of corporate conformity , where the sum of the public power promises protection and punishment without requiring authentic responsibility? The novel belongs to a universe of detail, a world of the private thing, its unfolding is always a slip or an audacity; obscene by detail and perverse by imagination, nothing is without a foot grounded in reality. Therefore it grew in lands of modern democracies or less in areas where the contingency of the person was as important as the collective contingency"
Rodolfo Rabanal, The novel among us in The writing Argentina, UNL 1992

Well this is as good as I can translate.
I wonder about the sentiment here.

I mean, in the states USA we got modern democracy, yet we also have this corporate mentalityy for conformity.

But in a place like state communism, where the individual is suppressed, the novel would not be able to promote anything more that heroes of the state?

I think that absolutes to not apply.
It depende for example on you surrounding culture.

Oh shit. Sometimes I keep a low profile. I could be much more antagonistic than I am, but the serenity of my family demands that I compromise(I also have my limits) but also know that I am part of the underground that rears its head when called to do so.

I have rebelled YES!
But rebellion means one is ready for it.

I am mentoring a young nursing student ready for graduation.
She is also active military.
So, should I refuse to mentor her?
Should I attempt to debate her choice of career?
Well, I could.
But I prefer more skillful means, that is, to show her that one can both be professional and casual.
I will have an opportunity to tell her about myself and that will cause her some reflection. Also to let her know that she needs to keep her eyes open, to not give up her self-respect.
In a conformist situation, I mean, she is all calling me "sir" over the phone.
So I wanna engender her growth in that way. the rest is up to her.

Let the novella continue.

We need a collective contingency, no doubt, and as we shape it, we need an anarchist temperament as well.

[Arcadia]

I think that absolutes to not apply.

I agree with that.
What I posted it´s the end of Rabanal´s essay where he did something like a very wide generalization. Before that he was refering to literature during the Spanish Colonia and during the XIX siglo in my country. Nevertheless, there are some-things in this quote that left me thinking.
I´ll google Rabanal to search what he wrote besides this.