Disnarration and the Unmentioned in Fact and Fiction

Lambrou, Marina

doi:10.1057/978-1-137-50778-5

Cited by 11 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Disnarration is an 'unconventional storytelling strategy' (Lambrou 2019: 2) which presents events that did not take place (see Prince 1988). Disnarration is 'created by the evocation of entities, states, acts or events the ontological status of which, as "actual" within the storyworld, is made temporarily or permanently ambiguous, or ultimately denied' (Macrae 2020: 159;after McHale 1987: 99-111).…”

Section: Disnarrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With a few notable exceptions (Macrae 2020;Lambrou 2019;Herman 1994Herman , 2002, the mechanisms of disnarration have historically been considered through narratological rather than linguistic perspectives. This paper builds on these recent studies by extending the stylistic exploration of disnarration, through an analysis of, firstly, how disnarration is linguistically marked, and secondly, the interpretative significance of these disnarration strategies within the context of Swift's songwriting more specifically.…”

Section: Disnarrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Untitled

2022

IJLL

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In a similar way to dramatic performances and plays, song lyrics establish a complex discourse structure whereby listeners are placed in a position to overhear 'the pretence of a conversation constructed to convey the performer's meaning' (Nahajec 2019: 25; see also Short 1996: 169). In Taylor Swift's songwriting, listeners are positioned not only to eavesdrop on the narratives presented but are also invited to conceptualise and enact particular roles and scenarios in the discourse. This paper offers a stylistic analysis of songwriting and narrative structure across Swift's oeuvre to identify how disnarration strategies are used to build stories in her two sister albums written and produced during the Covid-19 pandemic, folklore (2020) and evermore (2020). Specifically, this study examines how disnarration characterises the albums' narrators, establishes narrator-narratee relationships and invites listeners to adopt a participatory role in the meaning-making process. Through close analysis of four songs across the two albums, this paper builds on developing studies of the stylistics of songwriting (see West 2019) and argues that disnarration strategies foreground particular themes within the discourse, such as nostalgia, wistfulness and regret, and contribute to the fictionalisation and self-aware storytelling characteristic of these albums' storyworlds. The discourse architecture of Swift's songwritingTaylor Swift is a popular and influential contemporary music artist whose writing and genre choices are stylistically diverse. Since her first album, self-titled Taylor Swift, came out in 2006, she has released a further eight albums, moving from country and folk music to alternative rock and synth-pop. Through the writing and production of these nine albums, Swift's genre, writing and production choices have undergone significant changes. More recently, Swift's reach and cultural significance within the music industry has been further spotlighted in a public battle over ownership rights when the master recordings of her first six studio albums were sold to a third party, without her consent (see Bruner 2021). As a response, Swift has planned to re-record and re-release these albums, some of which are already available under the proprietary label 'Taylor's version' (at the time of writing, this includes Fearless 2021 [2008[ ] and Red 2021[ [2012). The release of Swift's two most recent albums, evermore and folklore, which were both written, produced and released during the Covid-19 pandemic and which focus on and celebrate storytelling, can be seen as an

show abstract

Section: Disnarrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Disnarrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Untitled

2022

IJLL

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Section: Narrativementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Three genres of texts, personal narratives, news stories and literary and film fiction, are analysed by Lambrou (2019) in Disnarration and the Unmentioned in Fact and Fiction, part of the Palgrave Pivot series. 'Disnarrated' elements of storytelling (Prince, 1988) that is those which do not happen but are nevertheless considered to be 'newsworthy, tellable and narratable' (Lambrou, 2019: 2)are comprehensively investigated in three main analysis chapters and a theoretical chapter which establish how disnarrated narratives violate story elements such as plot structure, temporality and characterisation. An account of children's personal narratives on danger argues that disnarrated elements form an important part of socialisation whilst news narratives, specifically 'near miss' type scenarios, are related to the news values of 'negativity' and 'personalisation' (Bell, 1991), to account for their prevalence in a narrative space that is ostensibly about truth and fact.…”

Section: Narrativementioning

confidence: 99%