We always come back to our original definition of “Narrative”:

a chain of events that is situated in time and space.

The relationship between space and time is one of the keys to understand how fictional stories are constructed.

This relationship between narrative time and space implies that the authors have the option to create meaning with the mere presentation of both the space and the time.

In this regard we will establish a theoretical distinction between

Narration and Description.

Narration is the purely temporal presentation of the events, what we could denominate “action” in the traditional sense of the word.

Description is, on the other hand, the purely spatial presentation of objects and space disconnected from the aspect of time.

Both in literature and film, the authors can introduce comments on the characters or actions,

The comment is neither spatial nor temporal.

It is an assessment of situations, events, characters, etc.

Of course, comments are much more frequent in literary fiction than in film.

Still, filmmakers have a variety of techniques to introduce comments in the narrative.

There are scenes and shots that may have, descriptive functions, purely narrative function – or just as comments to the actions.

TIME

TIME, in narrative fiction, can be understood as the chronological relation between story and discourse (the filmic or literary version of the story).

Thus, narrative time can be link to three main terms:

Order (the answer to the question WHEN did the event of the story happen).

Duration (the answer the question HOW LONG did the story, and every single event in the story, take).

Frequency (the answer to the question HOW OFTEN did the events happen).

Order

Order refers to the temporal sequence of events in the story, and most importantly, to the fashion the fashion these events are presented in the narrative discourse.

Anachrony

“Anachrony” is the term used in narrative theory to define narrations that do not follow the chronological order of the story.

Two forms of anachrony:

Analepsis (or flashback)

Prolepsis

Analepsis

The evocation of an event at a point in the text (discourse) where later events have already been related.

(Jacob Lothe)

External vs Internal Analepsis.

External analysis

The narration jumps back to a point in the story before the main narrative starts.

(Jacob Lothe)

Example: Paris Remembrance in “Casablanca”

Internal Analepsis

The narration goes to an earlier point in the story, but this point is within the main story.

(Jacob Lothe)

Example: “Forrest Gump”

Mixed Analepsis

The time period covered by the analepsis starts before but leads up to or jumps into the main narrative.

(Jacob Lothe)

Examples: David Lynch’s “Lost Highway” and Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction”

Prolepsis

Evoking in advance an event that may – or may not – take place later.

(Jacob Lothe)

Example: Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction” (The Bonnie Situation)

Duration

When we talk about duration in narrative theory, we are asking HOW LONG story actions or events take.

We will discuss in this learning unit the following four concepts:

• Descriptive pause
• Scene
• Summary
• Ellipsis

Descriptive Pause

narrative time=n ; story time=0

Scene

narrative time = story time

Summary

narrative time < than story time

Ellipsis

narrative time = 0 ; story time = n

Explicit Ellipsis

The text indicates the exact amount of time in the story time the narration skips.

Implicit Ellipsis

The author gives us no exact information about the time that has passed in the story.

Frequency

Frequency refers to the relationship between how many times an event occurs in the story and how many times it is told in the narration.

Three main concepts to distinguish in relationship to duration:

• Singulative Narration
• Repetitive Narration
• Iterative Narration

Singulative Narration

What happens once is told once.

Repetitive Narration

What happened once is told several times.

Iterative Narration

What happened several times is told once.