Narratology and narrative theory

From its origins in the structuralist study of folktales and literary fiction to the broad and thriving ensemble of narratologies it has become today, narrative has developed into a critical concept adopted and embraced by an array of disciplines. This chapter provides a brief overview of how narrative theory has been used as an analytic tool in translation studies, where it is relatively new, and in history, where for decades it has been a driving force in debates over how we know, study, communicate, and make sense of the past. Hayden White (1928–-2018) was among the most influential scholars in these debates, arguing that historiography could be interrogated using the same narrative tropes used to study literature. Whether this is because narrative is the cognitive tool we use to make sense of our lives, or whether it is because we seek to impose narrative order on chaos lies at the heart of these debates. In both translation studies and history, narrative foregrounds the constructed nature of the narratives we tell to explain and justify actions and events, and the chapter concludes by commenting on the minimal overlap between the two fields, a surprising state of affairs given the shared interest in narrative and yet indicative perhaps of scholars’ struggle to navigate genuine interdisciplinarity. Nevertheless, the theoretical resonances to be found at the points where narrative, history, and translation studies intersect are strong, and the chapter ends by advocating for increased and intense dialogue and collaborations between all three fields.