Sur la vulnérabilité au récit. Aspects des « situations narratives », de la sentence et du « cas » dans récits et carnets intimes.

• Main Author: Miguel Olmos
• Format: Article
• Language: fra
• Published: Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Récits Cultures Et Sociétés 2021-07-01
• Series: Cahiers de Narratologie
• Subjects: Care; cas; journal intime; interprétation; literacy; locution
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/narratologie/12178
• ISSN: 0993-8516; 1765-307X

Rather than an analysis of vulnerability as a narrative subject-matter, such as war, bereavement or starvation stories, this article explores some of the ways in which, as subjects, we are exposed to the autonomous power of tales, a particular case of our vulnerability to language itself. This general vulnerability to stories arises not only in fictional narratives, but also in “natural” ones, regardless of the type of narrator. The situations in which stories are told usually involve interactions between a narrator and his audience; telling tales is a two-sided process in which the position of the participants in relation to the unfolding of the story may be reversible. Several aspects of the production and reception of narrative texts are examined from this perspective, namely a) the generation of precepts or maxims that sumarize or conclude different kinds of narrative sequences, including difficult “cases” that may challenge the receptor’s understanding of the tale; as well as b) the old and widespread connexion between grief and stories, exemplified with excerpts from Cervantes testifying to the strength of oral narratives. The deep correlation between narrative situations, suffering and relief account for several contemporary treatments, including those developed by the ethics of care. They may also explain some features of private diaries, a contemporary literary form that adapts the narrative communication devices to frames and supports that cannot be dissociated from writing.