A four-part model for narrative genres and identities: evidence from Greek data

Abstract

This article presents a tentative typology of narrative genres based on Greek data and following a discourse analytic perspective. Taking into consideration the contemporary literature on narrative, I maintain that the reassessment of the interlocutor’s role and, in general, participants’ interaction in the unfolding of the narrative event have played an important role in shifting the research interest from ‘big’ to ‘small’ narratives. Furthermore, taking into account the medium of the narrative, I propose a four-part model that emerges if a vertical oral/written continuum is intersected horizontally by a dialogue/monologue one (Politis 2001). In this context, I discuss narrative genres such as the monological autobiographical narrative, the conversational narrative of past or future events, the online journalistic narrative (news bulletin), and the printed journalistic narrative (newspaper article). Finally, I argue that, in interactive environments, symmetrical and intimate relations between the interlocutors permit the construction of collective in-group identities. On the contrary, in monological environments, where relations are asymmetrical and there is social distance between interlocutors, the latter’s positionings and, consequently, their identities tend to be primarily –but not necessarily– individual ones.

Keywords

• Oral narratives
• co-narratives
• written narratives
• online journalistic narratives
• printed journalistic narratives