NARRATIVEPub Date : 2022-05-01DOI: 10.1353/nar.2022.0016
Espen Aarseth, Veli-Matti Karhulahti
{"title":"In Search of Characters Without Signifiers","authors":"Espen Aarseth, Veli-Matti Karhulahti","doi":"10.1353/nar.2022.0016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/nar.2022.0016","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:This essay explores the question whether characters can exist without being signified in any way. If characters can exist trans-medially, independently of a particular form of signification or sign-vehicle, why not exist without any signification at all? What kind of existence would such a character have? And, paradoxically, what would examples look like? While the question at face value might appear logically invalid, I argue that at (or just beyond) the minimalist end of the character-representational spectrum, we find what might be called implied characters, that is, characters that are not in any way given, represented, named, or performed, but can only exist in the minds of their players during play, as a formal slot without physical, structural, communicational, or mental properties.","PeriodicalId":45865,"journal":{"name":"NARRATIVE","volume":"30 1","pages":"268 - 285"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42263287","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
NARRATIVEPub Date : 2022-05-01DOI: 10.1353/nar.2022.0029
P. Bertetti
{"title":"The Contribution of Semiotics to a Theory of Transmedia Characters","authors":"P. Bertetti","doi":"10.1353/nar.2022.0029","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/nar.2022.0029","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45865,"journal":{"name":"NARRATIVE","volume":"30 1","pages":"226 - 233"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47000098","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
NARRATIVEPub Date : 2022-05-01DOI: 10.1353/nar.2022.0024
J. Frow
{"title":"Character, Fiction, Formalism: A Response to James Phelan, \"Character as Rhetorical Resource: Mimetic, Thematic, and Synthetic in Fiction and Non-Fiction\"","authors":"J. Frow","doi":"10.1353/nar.2022.0024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/nar.2022.0024","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45865,"journal":{"name":"NARRATIVE","volume":"30 1","pages":"264 - 266"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42883797","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
NARRATIVEPub Date : 2022-05-01DOI: 10.1353/nar.2022.0015
James M. Phelan, J. Frow
{"title":"Reading Characters Rhetorically","authors":"James M. Phelan, J. Frow","doi":"10.1353/nar.2022.0015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/nar.2022.0015","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:This essay updates and extends the model for understanding the concept of character in literary fiction I proposed in Reading People, Reading Plots (1989). That model proposes that character has three simultaneously existing components, the mimetic (character as possible person), thematic (character as representative of a larger group of people and/or a set of ideas), and the synthetic (character as construct within the larger construct of the narrative). The model also specifies that the relations among the components varies from narrative to narrative, depending on the narrative progression. Using Joyce Carol Oates's flash fiction \"Widow's First Year\" as a test case, I develop three interrelated points: (1) character is a flexible resource that authors can deploy in a diversity of ways; (2) a rhetorical approach to audiences helps clarify the relations among the mimetic, thematic, and synthetic components; and (3) the approach works, with appropriate adjustments, for nonfictional as well as fictional narrative. Along the way, I also suggest how the updated model can address some of the tensions in the nature and functions of character identified by Alex Woloch and John Frow.","PeriodicalId":45865,"journal":{"name":"NARRATIVE","volume":"30 1","pages":"255 - 267"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48442510","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
NARRATIVEPub Date : 2022-05-01DOI: 10.1353/nar.2022.0012
S. Tosca, Elizabeth Evans
{"title":"The Construction of Transmedial Characters by Fans and Industry","authors":"S. Tosca, Elizabeth Evans","doi":"10.1353/nar.2022.0012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/nar.2022.0012","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:This paper explores how audiences build/actualize transmedial characters by studying the way in which fan fiction writers recreate the character of Toshizō Hijikata (Hakuoki). It proposes that transmedial characters can be understood as a network of recognizable traits and relations built from several media instantiations. It finally argues that considering the performative dimension of fan fiction writing can yield more productive analyses than focusing on canon, consistency or faithfulness to a historical truth.","PeriodicalId":45865,"journal":{"name":"NARRATIVE","volume":"30 1","pages":"210 - 224"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48212182","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
NARRATIVEPub Date : 2022-05-01DOI: 10.1353/nar.2022.0020
Nieves Rosendo
{"title":"On the Affective Reception of Characters: A Response to Nicolle Lamerichs","authors":"Nieves Rosendo","doi":"10.1353/nar.2022.0020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/nar.2022.0020","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45865,"journal":{"name":"NARRATIVE","volume":"30 1","pages":"206 - 207"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42406146","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
NARRATIVEPub Date : 2022-05-01DOI: 10.1353/nar.2022.0014
H. Backe, Petri Lankoski
{"title":"Theorizing the Player-Playable Figure Relationship","authors":"H. Backe, Petri Lankoski","doi":"10.1353/nar.2022.0014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/nar.2022.0014","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:The paper revisits a central question in the study of characters in digital games: Do players of, for example, a racing game steer the virtual car directly themselves, or are they controlling the body of a virtual driver? This seemingly technical question is shown to be primarily cognitive and conceptual: players draw on their real-life and fictional frames of reference in an ongoing epistemological process of situating themselves vis-à-vis gameworld and playable figure. The traditional metaphor for this relationship, that of a cyborg, neither captures the variety of relationships suggested by games, nor the range of interpretations open to players. To overcome this limitation, I propose six conceptual types, based on the significance that tools and vehicles have for the playable figure. I ask: is there a co-dependence between equipment and user, is it permanent, and do they have a metonymic relationship to each other? These abstract categories are shown to be connected to archetypical proto-narratives epitomized by characters from mythology and popular culture, which players implicitly refer to in conceptualizing their relationship to the gameworld. The essay, then, offers a framework for the conceptual variety of player-playable figure-relations, which, in drawing on cultural history, should be equally transparent to scholars of game studies and narratology.","PeriodicalId":45865,"journal":{"name":"NARRATIVE","volume":"30 1","pages":"240 - 254"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49241416","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
NARRATIVEPub Date : 2022-05-01DOI: 10.1353/nar.2022.0040
James Phelan
{"title":"Rhetorical Narratology's Sweet Spot: A Reply to John Frow","authors":"James Phelan","doi":"10.1353/nar.2022.0040","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/nar.2022.0040","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45865,"journal":{"name":"NARRATIVE","volume":"30 1","pages":"267 - 267"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44708075","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}