The Narreme in the Medieval Romance Epic : : An Introduction to Narrative Structures / / Eugene Dorfman.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Toronto Press eBook-Package Archive 1933-1999
• VerfasserIn: Dorfman, Eugene,
• Place / Publishing House: Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2017]; ©1969
• Year of Publication: 2017
• Language: English
• Series: University of Toronto Romance Series
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (278 p.)

In this study Professor Dorfman applies the methods of modern linguistics to literary analysis. Literature may be described as the structured use of language: the modern linguistic analyzes language in a search for the minimal units of sound and form, phoneme and morpheme, and determines the combinations by which they can communicate meaning. The author here searches for a minimal structural unit in the literary narrative analogous to the phoneme and the morpheme in language structure. Based on a detailed analysis of the Roland and the Cid and twelve additional Romance narratives, Professor Dorfman's argument is that the structure of the medieval Romance epics may be analyzed into functional units which he calls "narremes." He divides a narrative into two types of structure: the superstructure and the substructure. A narrative, by definition, is a series of incidents. All the incidents in the narrative, taken as written, form the superstructure. Analysis, however, shows that many of the incidents may be abstracted from the narrative without deflecting the story-line. On the other hand, other incidents reveal themselves as organically linked with each other, so they cannot be omitted, without destroying the story-line. These selected incidents are the narremes, which make up the substructure of the narrative. This method of analysis produces so interesting and surprising results, results which make an important advance in research in linguistics and Romance literature. Eugene Dorfman, as an orthodox structuralist, has focused strictly on the formal descriptions of the narratives; but his analysis leads into the great traditional problems of literary history, and in particular poses anew the problem of the origins of the epic.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Foreword -- Preface -- Acknowledgment -- Contents -- PART ONE. Methods of Functional Analysis -- Chapter One. Function and Structure in the Literary Analysis -- Chapter Two. The (Sub)Structural Pattern of the French Epics -- Chapter Three. The (Sub) Structural Pattern of the Spanish Epics -- Chapter Four. The (Sub) Structural Pattern of the Arthurian Romance -- PART TWO. A Functional Analysis of the Roland and the Cid -- Chapter Five. Chanson de Roland: The Family Quarrel -- Chapter Six. Chanson de Roland: The Insult -- Chapter Seven. Chanson de Roland: The Act of Treachery -- Chapter Eight. Chanson de Roland: The Punishment and Epilogue -- Chapter Nine. Cantar de Mio Cid: Prologue and Family Quarrel -- Chapter Ten. Cantar de Mio Cid: The Insult -- Chapter Eleven. Cantar de Mio Cid: The Act of Treachery -- Chapter Twelve. Cantar de Mio Cid: The Punishment and Epilogue -- Chapter Thirteen. The Roland and the Cid: Comparison -- Chapter Fourteen. Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index