Rhetorical Narratology by Michael Kearns (review)

Michael Kearns. RhetoricalNarratelogy. Stages Vol. 16. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1999. 207p. Eleni Anastasiou University of Pittsburgh Primarily a descriptive rather than an ovettly theoretical text, Rhetorical Narratology brings together rhetorical and structuralist approaches to narrative through the medium ofspeech act theory. There is, therefore, an emphasis on the (situational) context in which a narrative is both produced and consumed, a position that critiques implicitly theories based on the notion that a text is, and should be discussed as, an autonomous whole. Building primarily from Genette's structuralist narratology modified mainly by Lansers The Narrative Act (while inflected also by the work ofBooth, Pratt, and Phelan), Kearns asserts the significance ofthe reader ofthe text and lays out the various assumptions that influence how a reader will approach a narrative (Kearns focuses on literary narrative), recognize and interact with it, and differentiate it from other speech acts. Kearns indicates that the impetus for the book was his need for a text for his courses in narrative theory. His work is well organized and lucidly written, not requiring specialized or prior knowledge. The lengthy first chapter, "Introduction to Rhetorical Narratology and Speech-ActTheory," focuses on giving a definition ofthe discipline (which is now approximately thirtyyears old) and an overview of the position ofvarious practitioners ofnarratology, interspersed with discussions as to the relative merits oftheir terms which he rejects or extends with his qualifications . It also presents the aims and concepts of rhetorical narratology. In general, narratologyaims at uncoveringa "grammar" ofnarrative— its structural elements — to establish codes and rules regardless ofspecific plots and subject matters. Thereby, narratology has, heretofore, relied upon formalism or structuralism for its tools. Kearns shifts the emphasis to rhetoric, addressing what he thinks is an "imbalance" between text and reader, because he believes narrative is not autonomous — for Kearns, situational contexts and effects on audience are paramount. In order to indicate the relation between text and reader, he proposes, speech act theory is required. Key speech act theory terms such as "principles of relevance," the "cooperative principle," and "markedness" are carefully defined as well as other terms he will make use ofin subsequent chapters. The following two chapters highlight the importance ofnarrative transmission through the features audience and voice — positions either taken or inferred by a reader. In chapter two, authorial and narrating audience are discussed; in chapter three, actual author, extrafictional author, implied author, narrator, and focalizer. This listofinterconnected and shifting positions discussed indicates how methodiFALL 2000 * ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW * 155 cally Kearns sifts through the narrative experience of the reader and how careful he is not to limit the possibilities he sees in literature by enforcing these codes onto texts. Kearns is aware ofthe simultaneity and slipperiness ofthe positions he describes and insists that there are many potential relationships among these positions , even, a couple oftimes, giving alternate readings from his own. The different roles discussed in these two central chapters are usefully exemplified through Dickens' Bleak House and Robbe-Grillet's In the Labyrinth, and Kearns uses a variety of other examples, tables, and diagrams to clarify his descriptions of these structures. Chapter four discusses four narrative structures that have been significant to narratologists: the relation of plot and theme to narrative, gendering narrating voices, temporal structures, and the representation of inner and voiced speech. Chapter five is a script ofa possible rhetorical reading ofboth Written on the Body byJeanette Winterson and WaitingfortheBarbarians byJ.M. Coetzee, exemplifying the book's methods through the already-defined concepts. In his reading of Written on the Body, Kearns brings the script itselfinto question, indicating how narratives can trouble already-existing rules, assumptions, and expectations. Kearns writes Rhetorical Narratology for both students and teachers of narrative . In fact, he often cites his own readings or those ofhis students to ground his descriptions of narrative structures and their effects. He believes that, at best, narratology is subjective and can only give possible readings since, through rhetorical narratology's focus on the reader, it cannot be as prescriptive as other narratological approaches. This is because different readers have different levels of exposure to various types of narrative, they may be more or less willing to accept narratives that challenge their expectations...