by Manfred Jahn (University of Cologne).
Forthcoming in Poetics Today (Winter 1997).
The article discusses a model-oriented approach to how third-person narratives are read. Building on Minsky's (1979 [1975]) theory of frames, Jackendoff's (1983, 1987) concept of preference rules, Perry's (1979) theory of literary dynamics, and Sternberg's (1982) Proteus Principle, its main aim is to conceptualize third-person narrative situations (Stanzel 1984) in terms of cognitive models, and to explore the mechanics of top-down/bottom-up hermeneutic processes. Avoiding the "normal case" approach of classical "low structuralist" narratology, the essay (1) proposes new ways of analyzing protean phenomena such as description, free indirect discourse, and parenthetical discourse, (2) presents an integrative account of primacy/recency conflicts, and (3) sketches the possible direction of a genuinely reading-oriented narratology. [M.J.]