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新約 馬太福音 課程大綱 (連 查經資料) - updated on 2003-12-11
New Testament - Matthew course:
譯名：尚未有官方的譯名．有人譯為－敍事評鑑法，故事批判，敘事批判，我認為譯作故事分析法，較反映應用的情況．
在八十年代初期，美國的聖經批判學者 與 非聖經的文學批評理論相結合而成．但文學世界並沒有相對應的敍事批判學，最相近的是敍事詩學(narrative poetics)和敍事學(narratology)．敘事批判學者以福音書是一個文學性的整體．他們關心的不再是福音書的起源，而是文本內各要素間的互動關係；以及它們怎樣產生意義．傳統上的分類包括：人物(Character)，佈局(Plot)，場景(Setting)．參考敍事學，他們加上修辭學(rhetoric)或論述(discourse)－－故事怎樣被講述．
Real Author ---> Implied Author ---> (Narrator) ---> (Narratee) ---> Implied Reader ---> ---> Real Reader The inplied author [coined by Wayner Booth] refers to the 'creating person who is implied by the totality of a given work when it is offered to the world'. Note that when the real author is dead, the implied author continues to communicate with the readers. The readers may not have direct access to the real author, but the implied author is always reachable.
方法 Method [taken from Narrative
Criticism]
To examine a text as a literary critic would, apply these four steps to it:
1. 分析文體 Analyze the form (literary aspect and genre) of the text. Is it fiction or non-fiction, prose or poetry? What is its genre?
N2.2.3. Here is an incomplete list of various narrative themes and genres.
- narratives of personal experience: Labov's (1972) famous analysis of a corpus of stories based on interview questions such as "Were you ever in a situation where you were in serious danger of being killed?".
- biblical narratives: Kermode (1979); Sternberg (1985); Bal (1987, 1988).
- teacher's narratives: Cortazzi (1993).
- children's narratives: Applebee (1978); Branigan (1992: 18-19).
- doctor's narratives: Hunter (1993).
- family narratives: Flint (1988); Jonnes (1990); Style 31.2 (1997) [special issue, ed. John Knapp].
- courtroom narratives/legal narratives: Brooks and Gewirtz, eds. (1996); Posner (1997)
- historiographic autobiography/fictional autobiography: Lejeune (1989); Cohn (1999: ch. 2); Loschnigg (1999).
- hypertext narratives: Ryan (1997)
- musical narratives: McClary (1997)
- filmic narratives: Kozloff (1988); Chatman (1978; 1990); see also this project's film page pppf.htm
- mental (or 'internal') narratives: Schank (1995); Ricoeur (1991); Turner (1996); Jahn (2003)
2. 分析文學結構 Analyze the literary structure of the piece. Follow this procedure:
a . 場景(Setting) - setting = The general locale and historical time in which the action of a story occurs; it can also refer to the particular physical location in which a particular scene or episode occurs.
- What is the setting of the story? -- Where does this happen? When? What is the social context? What is the particular significance of these settings?
b . 佈局(Plot) : plot = The structure of the action of a story, as these actions are ordered and rendered toward achieving particular emotional and artistic effects.
- 佈局的"起承轉合" Where does the plot begin, end, climax?
- What clues in the text support your choice of climax (look for evidence of foreshadowing, repetition that builds in some way, or a critical moment which must be resolved in the story's denouement)?
- 有否暗示性的分隔 Are there any suggestive gaps in the story -
- questions that come to your mind that the author does not resolve?
- Are there any suggestive antitheses presented (one character contrasted to another character, one story paralleling a similar one)?
- These antitheses can be evidence of irony; each also suggests meaning by presenting a commentary on the other.
- 文中是否有不正常的現象? Do there appear to be any anomalies in the text?
- digression/interruption,
- thematic inconsistency,
- apparent repetition.
- [Whereas in source criticism such anomalies are taken to suggest discrete sources, in this method they should be taken to reveal the meaning of the story, and not discrete sources.]
- Do you see signs of symbolism, irony, repetition, or other rhetorical devices?
c. 元素 Elements - What are the key symbol(s)? motif(s)? theme(s)?
3. 分析故事中的人物 Analyze the characters in the story. (人物造型 characterization)
- 誰是推動者和反對者 ? Who are the protagonist(s) and antagonist(s)?
- antagonist : One who opposes and actively competes with another (the protagonist); an adversary.
- protagonist : The leading or principal figure in a story or drama.
- 他們的動機如何? What are their motives? (An emotion, desire, physiological need, or similar impulse acting as an incitement to action. )
- 他們會否有變化? Do they change?
- What do you know about them from reading Matthew up to this point? (The following points are from this link.)
- What will you learn about them from finishing the story?
- How do you learn about them (what they do, what they say, what the narrator tells you about them, what other characters say to and about them, etc.)?
- Do these characters have root traits, are they "flat characters"?
- Or, are they composed of many traits, thus being "round" characters?
- Do they represent particular points of view?
- Does the reader have reasons to identify or disidentify with them?
More reference from Narratology 7.7-7.8
N7.7. E.M. Forster's distinction between flat characters and round characters concerns the psychological depth or sophistication of a person's perceived character traits:
flat character/static character A one-dimensional figure characterized by a very restricted range of speech and action patterns. A flat character does not develop in the course of the action and can often be reduced to a type or even a caricature (e.g., "a typical Cockney housewife", "a bureaucrat" etc.). Flat characters are often used for comic effect.-- Mrs. Micawber in Dickens's David Copperfield is characterized by keeping on saying "I never will desert Mr. Micawber".
round character/dynamic character A three-dimensional figure characterized by many, often conflicting, properties. A round character tends to develop in the course of the action and is not reducible to a type. Forster (1976 [1927]); Rimmon-Kenan (1983: 40-42); Pfister (1988: 177-179). Rimmon-Kenan (1983: 41) identifies Stephen in Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Strether in James's The Ambassadors as round characters.
N7.8. Here is a brief list of functionally determined character types (to be expanded):
confidant (fem., confidante) Somebody the protagonist can speak to, exchange views with, confide in -- usually a close friend. -- Dr. Watson is Sherlock Holmes's confidant (and also his 'foil', see below). Sam is Frodo's confidant in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.
foil character A foil is, literally, "a sheet of bright metal that is placed under a piece of jewelry to increase its brilliancy" (Holman 1972); one meaning of to foil is 'to enhance by contrast'. In literature, a minor character highlighting certain features of a major character, usually through contrast. -- In Weldon's "Weekend", Janet is a foil for Katie and Katie is a foil for Martha. Sherlock Holmes's cleverness is highlighted by Dr. Watson's dullness.
chorus character Originally a convention in drama, an uninvolved character ("man in the street") commenting on characters or events, typically speaking philosophically, sententiously, or in clichés.
"One time we had a mayor of Chicago punched your King George right in the snoot [...]. Don't forget now," says the cabbie, "It's better here, so if you don't like it go back where you came from." (Bradbury, "Composition" 289) [The American taxi driver who takes William, a British student, to the campus.]
4. 故事的角度 Examine the narrative perspective of the account. (How the story is told? Narrator) Narration
- From whose perspective is the story told?
- Is it told in the first or third person?
- Is the narrator omniscient?
- Given the perspective and the story's form, suggest a location or occasion for the recitation of your story.
- Consider how the narrator presents the story. Is the narrator a participant, an observer, an omniscient evaluator?
- What about narrative time? Does the story speed up or slow down here?
- How much or little detail is offered?
- Does the narrator focus on certain characters or elements of the story?
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Characters
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Events (or Plot)
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Settings
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Overt and implicit
commentary (Narrator, point of view) |
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Implied author - the image of the author derived from reading the story.
Implied reader - "the one who performs all the mental moves required to enter into the narrative world and respond to it as the implied author intends" (R. Alan Culpepper, Anatomy of the Fourth Gospel [Philadelphia: Fortress, 1983] 7).
The following outline is taken from Narratology 7.6
N7.6. The implicit self-characterization of a narrator is always a key issue in interpretation. Is the narrator omniscient? competent? opinionated? self-conscious? well-read? ironic? reliable? See Genette (1980: 182-185); Lanser (1981); Rimmon-Kenan (1983: 59-67, 100-103); Stanzel (1984: 150-152); Nünning (1997; 1998; 1999).
reliable narrator A narrator "whose rendering of the story and commentary on it the reader is supposed to take as an authoritative account of the fictional truth" (Rimmon-Kenan 1983: 100).
unreliable narrator A narrator "whose rendering of the story and/or commentary on it the reader has reasons to suspect. [...] The main sources of unreliability are the narrator's limited knowledge, his personal involvement, and his problematic value-scheme" (Rimmon-Kenan 1983: 100). Many first-person narrators are unreliable.
True! - nervous - very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am! but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses - not destroyed - not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily - how calmly I can tell you the whole story. (Poe, beginning of "The Tell-Tale Heart") [Not at all a "healthy" and "calm" way of beginning a story!]
Some theorists make an explicit distinction between 'mimetic (un)reliability'
and 'evaluative' or 'normative (un)reliability': "a narrator may be quite
trustworthy in reporting events but not competent in interpreting them, or may
confuse certain facts but have a good understanding of their implications"
(Lanser 1981: 171). According to Cohn (1999: ch. 8), Thomas Mann's Tod in Venedig
is told by a mimetically reliable but normatively unreliable narrator. See also
Nünning (1999); Yacobi (2000).
not as a
character |
as a character |
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reliable |
implied author = narrator |
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unreliable |
The following outline is taken from THE HERMENEUTICAL SPIRAL: A Comprehensive Introduction to Biblical Interpretation By Grant R. Osborne
6. Narrative
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The Methodology of Narrative Criticism 1. Implied Author and Narrator |
The Weakness of Narrative Criticism 1. A Dehistoricizing Tendency |
Methodological Principles for Studying Narrative Texts 1. Structural Analysis
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With great clarity Powell outlines the principles and procedures that narrative critics follow in exegesis of gospel texts and explains concepts such as "point of view," "narration," "irony," and "symbolism." Chapters are devoted to each of the three principal elements of narrative: events, characters, and settings; and case studies are provided to illustrate how the method is applied in each instance. The book concludes with an honest appraisal of the contribution that narrative criticism makes, a consideration of objections that have been raised against the use of this method, and a discussion of the hermeneutical implications this method raises for the church.