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English Language and Literature (100% English)
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FACULTY of LETTERS / WESTERN LANGUAGES and LITERATURE (%100 English) / English Language and Literature (100% English)
Katalog Ana Sayfa
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ELL2013Introduction to Narratology2+0+0ECTS:4
Year / SemesterFall Semester
Level of CourseFirst Cycle
Status Compulsory
DepartmentWESTERN LANGUAGES and LITERATURE (%100 English)
Prerequisites and co-requisitesNone
Mode of Delivery
Contact Hours14 weeks - 2 hours of lectures per week
LecturerProf. Dr. Mustafa Zeki ÇIRAKLI
Co-Lecturer
Language of instruction
Professional practise ( internship ) None
 
The aim of the course:
To equip students with foundational and advanced tools of narrative theory, enabling them to identify, differentiate, and critically analyze narrative structures, agents, and arrangements across genres, fostering precise and insightful literary interpretation.
 
Learning OutcomesCTPOTOA
Upon successful completion of the course, the students will be able to :
LO - 1 : - Students will be able to differentiate between discourse and narrative discourse; sjuzhet and fabula; author and narrator. 5 - 12 - 131
LO - 2 : - Students will be able to differentiate between author, implied author, narrator, focaliser, and character.51
LO - 3 : - Students will be able to differentiate between narrative levels, temporal arrangements, and spatial arrangements in a narrative.1
LO - 4 : - Students will be able to conduct critical analyses of narratives.
CTPO : Contribution to programme outcomes, TOA :Type of assessment (1: written exam, 2: Oral exam, 3: Homework assignment, 4: Laboratory exercise/exam, 5: Seminar / presentation, 6: Term paper), LO : Learning Outcome

 
Contents of the Course
This course introduces key concepts in narratology, exploring distinctions between discourse and narrative discourse, sjuzhet and fabula, and narrative agents such as author, narrator, and focaliser. Students examine narrative levels, temporal and spatial structures, and develop analytical skills to critically interpret diverse narrative forms across literary and cultural texts.
 
Course Syllabus
 WeekSubjectRelated Notes / Files
 Week 1Narrative Paradox Explores the tension between narrative coherence and fragmentation, questioning how stories remain meaningful despite contradictions.
 Week 2Fabula and Sjuzhet Introduces the distinction between story (fabula) and plot (sjuzhet), examining how narrative structure shapes perception.
 Week 3Narrative Discourse Analyzes how narratives are told, focusing on voice, temporality, and the mediation of events through language.
 Week 4Historical Author vs Implied Author Distinguishes between the real-life author and the constructed authorial presence within the text, and is explained with examples.
 Week 5Author vs Narrator Examines the separation between the author?s intention and the narrator?s voice, perspective, and reliability.
 Week 6Unreliability Investigates through examples unreliable narration, exploring how doubt, distortion, or bias affect narrative truth and reader trust.
 Week 7Narrator vs Character Analyzes the boundaries and overlaps between narrators and characters, and explains with examples, especially in first-person and third-person narration.
 Week 8Narrative Levels and Involvement Examines narrative levels (extradiegetic and intradiegetic categories) and related embedded stories, also illustrating the narrator's degree of involvement (homodiegetic and heterodiegetic categories) and how they engage with the story they tell.
 Week 9Midterm Exam
 Week 10Who Tells? Who Perceives? Discusses narrative voice and focalisation, asking who speaks and who sees within the story with examples.
 Week 11Focalisation Introduces focalisation as a tool for analyzing perspective, access to knowledge, and narrative control.
 Week 12Internal and External Focalisation Explores focalisation through characters? minds (internal) versus external observation, shaping narrative intimacy and distance.
 Week 13Free Indirect Discourse Explores a narrative technique blending third-person narration with a character?s inner voice. It allows access to thoughts and emotions without direct quotation or explicit attribution, creating intimacy and ambiguity. Common in modernist fiction, it blurs boundaries between narrator and character perspective.
 Week 1415. Focalisation from Within and Focalisation from Without Refines focalisation analysis by examining subjective immersion versus detached narration across genres and styles.
 Week 15Order and Duration Examines how narrative events are sequenced (order) and how long they are narrated (duration). Focuses on techniques like analepsis, prolepsis, ellipsis, and scene, revealing how time is manipulated to shape meaning, suspense, and reader engagement.
 Week 16Final Revision
 
Textbook / Material
1Rimmon-Kenan, Shlomith. (2002) Narrative Fiction: Contemporary Poetics. London: Routledge.
 
Recommended Reading
1Bal, Mieke. (2009). Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of Narrative. 3rd Ed. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
2Çıraklı, Mustafa Zeki (2015). Anlatıbilim: Kuramsal Okumalar, Hece.
 
Method of Assessment
Type of assessmentWeek NoDate

Duration (hours)Weight (%)
Mid-term exam 9 19.11.2025 50
End-of-term exam Final Sınavı 13.01.2026 50
 
Student Work Load and its Distribution
Type of workDuration (hours pw)

No of weeks / Number of activity

Hours in total per term
Yüz yüze eğitim 4 15 60
Arasınav için hazırlık 2 8 16
Arasınav 1 1 1
Uygulama 2 14 28
Dönem sonu sınavı için hazırlık 1 14 14
Dönem sonu sınavı 1 1 1
Total work load120