Introduction: Sameness and difference in narratology

Abstract

Scholars from different fields of study have suggested that seemingly diverse phenomena such as humans’ everyday thinking, short trivial reports about events, longer elaborated storytelling, and fictional works like novels and short stories share certain salient similarities. All these phenomena are said to be narratives. How “narrative” shall be defined and hence where one should draw the line between narratives and non-narratives is, however, debated. As a consequence there is a discussion among theoreticians about similarities and differences that concern both the putative object, narratives (what are the similarities and differences between phenomena regarded as narratives), and theories about this object: is there one or several theories, do all theories share certain basic assumptions, et cetera. A central issue in this debate concerns the distinction of fiction and how fiction is handled by theories like narratology. Some scholars argue that narratology, due to an exaggerated focus on sameness, does not provide a valid description of what is often regarded as its prime object, narrative fiction. This discussion in turn generates questions concerning what is implied by the term “fiction” (does it refer to things made up or to generic fiction like short stories and novels); how we can distinguish between fiction and non-fiction; and how this distinction affects how readers interpret a narrative. Moreover, how does narrative fiction relate to readers’ everyday lives? Issues like these have kept coming back when Nordic and Baltic scholars interested in narratology have met at workshops and conferences. Accordingly, when the research environment Narration, Life and Meaning at Örebro university,