Callander, David, “Die diachrone Entwicklung der Erzählung in der kymrischen Heiligendichtung”, in: Eva von Contzen, and Florian Kragl (eds), Narratologie und mittelalterliches Erzählen: Autor, Erzähler, Perspektive, Zeit und Raum, 7, Berlin: De Gruyter, 2018. 101–124.
- article in collection
- DOI: 10.1515/9783110566536-006
This article examines how we can productively study and compare narrative length in the short poems of late medieval Wales. One of the key models for investigating narrative at a local level is that provided by William Labov. This article highlights the ways in which Labov’s model needs to be adapted in order for it to work most effectively with these medieval poems. Utilising and revising the narrative model first presented by Labov allows us to create some basic statistical data on narrative length which can contribute to our understanding of diachronic developments in narrativity. The adapted model is applied to the corpus of medieval Welsh poetry to saints, spanning the twelfth to sixteenth centuries, and shows that in certain periods there is a demonstrably greater potential for more extended narratives than in others. The use of progressive temporal markers is also examined and appears to follow the same pattern. The possible applications of this research are then discussed, including its use in dating anonymous Welsh poems and for investigating diachronic changes in narrativity in other literatures.
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