Narratology — Genette, Propp, Todorov & UGC NET MCQs

Vladimir Propp (1895–1970)

Russian folklorist — morphology, narrative functions, spheres of action

Propp's Morphology of the Folktale (1928) argues that all 100 Russian fairy tales he studied are structurally identical at the level of function. A function is an act defined by its significance to the plot — not by who performs it. He identified 31 such functions (e.g., Absentation, Prohibition, Violation, Villainy, Departure, Recognition, Wedding) occurring in a fixed sequence, though not all 31 appear in every tale. He also proposed 7 spheres of action: the Villain, the Donor, the Helper, the Princess (and her father), the Dispatcher, the Hero, and the False Hero. Characters may fill more than one sphere. Propp is the founding figure of structural narratology.

Gérard Genette (1930–2018)

French structuralist — narrative discourse, focalization, time, voice

Genette's Narrative Discourse (1972, English 1980) is the most technically precise framework in classical narratology. His three-level distinction — histoire (story), récit (narrative text), narration (the act of narrating) — organises the whole field. His analysis of narrative time introduces order (does the text follow chronological sequence?), duration (how much text is spent on events of different lengths?), and frequency (how many times are events narrated relative to how many times they occurred?). His analysis of mood introduces focalization (who perceives?) and distance (how directly is the story presented?). His analysis of voice introduces the homodiegetic/heterodiegetic distinction — the foundational vocabulary of narrator-type analysis.

Tzvetan Todorov (1939–2017)

Bulgarian-French structuralist — coined 'narratologie,' equilibrium model

Todorov coined the term 'narratologie' in Grammaire du Décaméron (1969) — the name became the field's official title. His most tested contribution is the equilibrium model: all narratives begin with a state of equilibrium (the world is in balance), which is disturbed by a force creating disequilibrium (conflict, complication), and which resolves into a new equilibrium (different from the first, but stable). He also proposed that narrative can be analysed as a transformation of predicates: a state (adjective) transforms into an action (verb) into a new state. For UGC NET: know his name as coiner of 'narratologie,' know the equilibrium model, and know Grammaire du Décaméron (1969).

Roland Barthes (1915–1980)

French critic — structural analysis, five codes (S/Z)

Barthes's 1966 essay 'Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narratives' applies Saussure's linguistics to narrative: every narrative follows a universal grammar. He proposes three levels — functions (units of action), actions (the level of characters), and narration (the telling). His S/Z (1970) analyses Balzac's 'Sarrasine' by identifying five codes through which readers produce meaning: the hermeneutic code (mystery — what is the hidden answer?), the proairetic code (action — what happens next?), the semic code (character traits), the symbolic code (deeper oppositions — male/female, life/death), and the cultural/referential code (background knowledge the text assumes). S/Z is a key UGC NET text.

Seymour Chatman (1928–2015)

American narratologist — story vs discourse, narrative communication model

Chatman's Story and Discourse (1978) translates Genette and the Russian Formalists into an accessible English-language framework. His central distinction: story (content plane — what happens, including events and existents such as characters and setting) vs discourse (expression plane — how the content is conveyed). He also develops the communication model of narrative: real author → implied author → (narrator) → (narratee) → implied reader → real reader. The implied author is his key concept — it is the inferred version of the author that the text constructs, distinct from the real biographical author and unable to speak directly (only the narrator can).

Story vs Discourse: The Foundational Distinction

The story/discourse distinction has multiple names across national traditions. The Russian Formalists called it fabula (raw events in their natural chronological order) and sjuzhet (the plot as constructed by the text). Genette calls them histoire (the events) and récit (the narrative text). Chatman calls them story (content) and discourse (expression). The key insight is the same across all three traditions: what a text tells us (its content) is separable from how it tells us (its form). A murder happens once — that is the story. A detective novel may withhold the murder until the final page, or reveal it on page one — that is the discourse. For UGC NET: know all three pairs (fabula/sjuzhet — Russian Formalists; histoire/récit — Genette; story/discourse — Chatman) and what each term refers to.

Propp's 31 Functions and 7 Spheres of Action

Propp's Morphology of the Folktale (1928) defines a function as 'an act of a character, defined from the point of view of its significance for the course of action.' He identified 31 functions — from Absentation (a family member leaves home) through Villainy (the villain causes harm) and Departure (the hero leaves home) to Recognition, Exposure, and Wedding (the hero is rewarded, often with marriage). Functions always occur in the same sequence, though not all 31 are present in every tale. He also identified 7 spheres of action — character types defined by their narrative role: the Villain, the Donor (who gives the hero a magical item), the Helper (who assists the hero), the Princess and her Father, the Dispatcher (who sends the hero on the quest), the Hero, and the False Hero (who tries to claim the hero's reward). For UGC NET: know the exact number (31 functions, 7 spheres), know the key functions by name, and know that characters can perform more than one sphere.

Genette's Narrative Time: Order, Duration, Frequency

Genette analyses narrative time under three categories. Order concerns whether the narrative text follows the chronological sequence of events — or departs from it. A flashback (analepsis) is a narrative movement backward to an earlier event. A flash-forward (prolepsis) is a narrative anticipation of a future event. Duration concerns the ratio of narrative space (how many pages) to story time (how many hours or years). Genette describes five speed ratios: summary (years compressed into pages), scene (real time — drama), pause (narration stops, description continues), ellipsis (events skipped entirely), and stretch (a moment expanded at length). Frequency concerns how many times events are narrated relative to how many times they occur. Singulative narration tells once what happened once. Iterative narration tells once what happened many times. Repetitive narration tells many times what happened once. For UGC NET: know all three categories and their sub-terms — especially analepsis, prolepsis, and the five speeds.

Focalization: Who Sees? (Zero, Internal, External)

Genette's most important innovation in Narrative Discourse is the concept of focalization — his answer to the question 'who perceives?' Crucially, focalization is separate from narration (voice): 'who sees?' is a different question from 'who speaks?' A narrator can be inside the story-world (homodiegetic) while still focalizing through an external perspective; or outside the story-world (heterodiegetic) while focalizing internally through a character's mind. Zero focalization: the narrator knows more than any single character — the classic omniscient narrator of nineteenth-century novels. Internal focalization: the narrative is filtered through one character's perceptions, knowledge, and feelings — the reader knows only what that character knows. External focalization: the narrator knows less than the characters — observing from outside without access to inner states (common in Hemingway's iceberg style). For UGC NET: know the definition of focalization, the three types, and — critically — the distinction between focalization (who sees) and narration (who speaks).

Todorov's Equilibrium Model

Todorov coined the term 'narratologie' and proposed the equilibrium model in Grammaire du Décaméron (1969). The model has three phases: (1) Initial equilibrium — the world is in a state of balance, a norm that characters accept. (2) Disruption — a force, event, or character disturbs this equilibrium and creates conflict, complication, or desire. (3) New equilibrium — the disruption is resolved and a new, stable state is established. Crucially, the new equilibrium is not identical to the old one — it is transformed. The model is Aristotelian in origin: beginning (equilibrium), middle (disruption), end (new equilibrium). Todorov also proposed that narrative can be analysed as a transformation of predicates — a state described by an adjective transforms through an action (verb) into a new state. For UGC NET: know the three stages by name, know that the new equilibrium is transformed (not restored), and know that Todorov coined 'narratologie' in 1969.

Narrator and Voice: Homodiegetic vs Heterodiegetic

Genette's analysis of narrative voice distinguishes two fundamental positions. A heterodiegetic narrator is absent from the story-world they narrate — the classic 'third-person' narrator of most nineteenth-century novels. A homodiegetic narrator is a character within the story-world they narrate — 'first-person' narration in most cases. If the homodiegetic narrator is also the central character (like Pip in Great Expectations, or the narrator in Rebecca), Genette calls them autodiegetic. Genette also analyses the narrator's level: an extradiegetic narrator tells the story from outside any diegetic frame; an intradiegetic narrator is a character inside the story who tells another story. A metadiegetic story is a story within a story. For UGC NET: know homodiegetic vs heterodiegetic as the primary distinction; know autodiegetic as the special case; and know examples — Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby is homodiegetic; the narrator of Middlemarch is heterodiegetic.

What is the difference between story and discourse in narratology?

Story refers to the events themselves — what happened, in the order things actually occurred. Discourse refers to the way those events are presented — the order the text chooses, the amount of space given to each event, the perspective through which they are filtered. Think of a film based on real events: the actual events are the story; the film's structure and technique are the discourse. The Russian Formalists called this fabula (events) vs sjuzhet (plot as constructed). Genette called it histoire vs récit. Chatman called it story vs discourse. For UGC NET: know all three pairs and what each term refers to.

What are Propp's 31 narrative functions and 7 spheres of action?

Propp (Morphology of the Folktale, 1928) found that all 100 Russian fairy tales he studied share the same structure. A function is an act defined by its role in the plot — not by who performs it. He identified 31 functions that always occur in the same sequence (Absentation, Prohibition, Violation, Villainy, Departure, and so on through to Recognition, Wedding, and Punishment of the False Hero). Not all 31 appear in every tale, but those that appear maintain the same order. He also identified 7 spheres of action — character types: the Villain, the Donor, the Helper, the Princess and her Father, the Dispatcher, the Hero, and the False Hero. A single character can perform more than one sphere.

What does Genette mean by focalization, and how does it differ from narration?

Focalization answers the question 'who sees?' or 'who perceives?' — it identifies the consciousness through which events are filtered. Narration answers 'who speaks?' — it identifies who tells the story. Genette introduced focalization to separate these two questions, which the older term 'point of view' had conflated. Zero focalization: the narrator knows more than any single character (omniscient). Internal focalization: the narrative is restricted to one character's perceptions and knowledge. External focalization: the narrator observes from outside, knowing less than the characters know. The narrator and the focalizer can be different entities — Genette's key insight.

What is Todorov's equilibrium model of narrative?

Todorov (Grammaire du Décaméron, 1969) proposed that all narratives follow a three-movement structure. They begin with an initial equilibrium — the world is stable and characters accept the norm. A force then creates disequilibrium — conflict, disruption, desire, or complication. The narrative resolves into a new equilibrium — a different, transformed stability. Crucially, the new equilibrium is not identical to the original; it has been changed by the events of the disruption. The model is Aristotelian: beginning (equilibrium), middle (disequilibrium), end (new equilibrium). Todorov also coined the term 'narratologie' in this same 1969 work.

What is the difference between homodiegetic and heterodiegetic narrators?

These are Genette's terms for the narrator's relationship to the story-world. A homodiegetic narrator is a character within the story-world they narrate — they were there, they participate in the events, and they typically narrate in first person. Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby, Pip in Great Expectations, and the narrator of Jane Eyre are all homodiegetic. A heterodiegetic narrator is absent from the story-world — they narrate events they did not participate in, typically in third person. The narrator of Middlemarch or War and Peace is heterodiegetic. Autodiegetic is the special case of a homodiegetic narrator who is also the central protagonist.

What is the difference between classical and post-classical narratology?

Classical narratology (1960s–1980s) is structuralist — it aims to describe the universal formal properties of all narratives, building a systematic grammar of story. Its key figures are Propp, Genette, Todorov, Chatman, Barthes, and Rimmon-Kenan. Post-classical narratology (from the 1990s) keeps the formal tools but asks questions classical narratology could not answer. Feminist narratology (Susan Lanser) asks how the narrator's gender shapes what can be narrated. Cognitive narratology (David Herman) asks how minds — in texts and in readers — shape narrative. Unnatural narratology examines narratives that violate the laws of physics or logic. Post-classical narratology does not replace classical tools; it extends and contextualises them.