Hans-Harald Müller in cooperation with Tom Kindt:

 "What constitutes a Narrative Theory?"

 Narratology Research Group at Hamburg University

Narrative theory, the Study of Narrative and Narratology are in one way or other evocative terms to every scholar of literature. The Study of Narrative, having developed in the context of Literary Studies' differentiation, supposedly raises so many questions regarding concepts and pragmatics that little effort has gone into reflecting itself from a historical or (meta-)theoretical point of view – this at least is the impression to be gathered from the relevant bibliographies.

Hardly ever do we raise questions such as the following in the context of the Study of Narrative:  What is the scope of Narratology, how far does the domain of its objects extend? What type of a theory is Narratology? How can it be distinguished from other theories, such as,  Rhethorics, the Theory of Genre, or Theory of Interpretation of literary texts?

However, what is called for is not only an investigation into the theoretical status of the discipline, but also one into its history. The last twenty years have shown that History and Theory of Science can hardly ever learn enough from each other.

Our Research Group comprises representatives of many different philologies and theoretical approaches. We therefore believe that it is most appropriate to deal with the above questions – in as much as they relate to all projects - by way of a careful program of explication.

 

For detailed information visit the Website of the Narratology Research Group: