Analysing the Black Cat Using Labovs Narrative Structure

OBJECTIVES For this assignment, the study aims to: 1. produce a frequency chart according to the elements of Labov’s Narrative Structure 2. discuss the way Edgar Allen Poe structured his short story to form the elements of tragedy, mystery and terror as presented in the short story In completing the task, I will use Labov’s Narrative Theory to conduct narrative analysis of the short story, The Black Cat written by Edgar Allan Poe. The structure of this essay begins with the introduction to narrative and narrative analysis. The second part develops in the literature review where I will explain Labov’s Narrative Structure and introducing the author of the story, Edgar Allan Poe. The section ends with the discussion of The Black Cat†¦show more content†¦By looking at many narratives, they wish to identify and relate formal linguistic properties of narratives to their functions. Labov and Waletzky have come out with a framework functions as a tool in analyzing narrative literary text linguistically. The understanding behind this framework is narrative can be seen as socially situated through sociolinguistic approach. Cortazzi (1993) stresses that narrative is more than a linear order of narrative structure. In fact, if a narrative plainly follows the order or sequence of this circular structure, perhaps it may be abnormal. Narrative is an author’s personal touch and it serves as an additional function of personal interest, determined by a stimulus in the social context in which the narrative occurs. Definition given by Toolan (2001), is comprehensively acceptable that narrative is defined as a perceived sequence of non-randomly events, typically involving, as the experiencing agonist, humans or quasi-humans, or other sentient beings, from whose experience we human can ‘learn’. He also extends the definition by stating that our preference is often for the sequence of connected events to take shape around a state or period of turbulence or crisis, subsequently resolved that is while a sequence of events entails some sort of change of state, a sequence containing a resolved crisis or problems entails a pronounce change of state. The Importance of Narrative Analysis (NA) of Literary Text Stories are in important