Abstract

Gerard Genette offered a comprehensive, structurally informed theory of narrative in his book Narrative Discourse, An Essay in Method. While the “grammatical” basis of his framework – he identified parts of narrative with parts of speech – is today less in vogue, many of his other concepts and terms remain highly useful in the analysis of a wide range of narrative, be they of literary, cinematic, or of other origin. Useful features of this work are that it drew on various traditions that preceded its publication, but was also discussed and refined in the years that followed. Indeed a number of his propositions seem in need of modification, and these modifications are here summarized and added to. A further advantage to his method, especially when compared to other modes of critical enquiry, is that they are firmly based in the texture and nature of the object being studied. That said, they also work well with other approaches which are less directly tied to the story. The work of Alfred Hitchcock provides a case study in the illustration of both the descriptive power of Genette’s ideas, and their ability to merge well with other approaches.