Annotating Narrative Levels: Review of Guideline No. 7

Abstract

The guideline under review builds on the acquired knowledge of the field of narrative theory. Its main references are to classical structuralist narratology, both in terms of definitions (Todorov, Genette, Dolezel) and by way of its guiding principles, which strive for simplicity, hierarchy, minimal interpretation and a strict focus on the annotation of text-intrinsic, linguistic aspects of narrative. Most recent attempts to do “computational narratology” have been similarly “structuralist” in outlook, albeit with a stronger focus on aspects of story grammar: the basis constituents of the story are to some extent hard-coded into the language of any story, and are thus more easily formalized. The present guideline goes well beyond this restriction to story grammar. In fact, the guideline promises to tackle aspects of narrative transmission from the highest level (author) to the lowest (character), but also demarcation of scenes at the level of plot, as well as focalisation. Thus, the guideline can be said to be very wide in scope.