the naming of... narrative phenomena... is a difficult matter.
I just spent half an hour attempting to write up the implications of the rhetorical differences between serial homodiegesis and embedded autodiegesis-terms that I came up with earlier this morning and which I genuinely hope will provide a useful shorthand for some of the concepts I'm trying to deal with, but which also make me think of "For god's
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Very, very slowly.
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Apropos of nothing, do you want a recipe for chicken in apricot-curry sauce? (It was the apricot that made me think of you.)
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"Serial homodiegesis" - well, serial means related events occurring linearly in time, basically. Homo: the same. Diegesis: within the narrative or created universe rather than outside.
Embedded autodiegesis" - embedded means planted within or fully enclosed. Auto: ... well, "self", but in this case probably more without external influence, and diagesis we covered above.
So.
My *guess*, which is going to be wrong - Serial homodiagesis: the same trope of narrative occurring repeatedly. Embedded autodiagesis: a built-in function of narrative which must occur in order for a story to be told.
Am I anywhere near right?
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"Homodiegesis" and "autodiegesis" are pre-existing terms within narrative theory (which I've geeked about before, and I've simply borrowed them. "Diegesis," in this context, simply means "mode of narration."
heterodiegesis - a narrative in which the narrator exists at a different level than the characters, e.g. a third-person omniscient narrative in which the narrator may provides commentary on the action but does so from outside the story.
homodiegesis - a narrative in which the narrator exists at the same level as the characters, e.g. the narrated-by-a-friend device in The Great Gatsby or the frame narrator in Frankensteinautodiegesis - a subset of homodiegesis in which the character-narrator is also the protagonist ( ... )
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As soon as humanly possible.
autodiegesis - a subset of homodiegesis in which the character-narrator is also the protagonist.
I refuse to believe that this is just a fancy term for "first-person singular". Can you differentiate?
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Homodiegesis and autodiegesis are both first-person narration, so the distinction between homo- and autodiegetic narratives has to do with the relative centrality of the narrator to the main story. David Copperfield is an example of autodiegesis: David tells his own story. The Great Gatsby is an example of heterodiegesis: Nick tells Gatsby's story.
The distinction is meaningful largely because the different terms indicate how much we can know about the inside of the protagonist's head; they take the emphasis off the pronouns and shift it to the rhetorical situation (who is telling the story, to whom, and for what purposes).
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I've explained the terms in response to tzikeh's comment; let me know if I've been fuzzy, or if I should provide other examples, and I'll give it another go.
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Well, homodiegesis isn't really an English word, we're just using it like it is.
Why, yes, I am being a smartass.
So, serial would mean the story would have more than one narrator in sequence, all of whom are taking part in the story, and embedded would be more like...second person? Or "embedded" meaning the narrator is really integral to the story as opposed to more of an observer? Is it possible to explain your terms briefly, or should I just wait for the final product?
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Nearly as bad as "homosexual," which commits the linguistic infelicity of packing Greek and Latin together in one absurd portmanteau.
Terms explained in response to tzikeh a couple of comments up.
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