Narratologies

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The various frameworks and theories concerning the structure and function of narratives
2. The study of different storytelling techniques and their interpretations across genres and cultures
3. An examination of how narratives shape perception and meaning through distinct analytical lenses

Etymology: Narratology is the study of how stories are built, and its name was made in France before it was taken into English. The English word is formed from "narrate" and the suffix "-ology", meaning a field of study or body of theory, and it follows the French "narratologie". The plural "narratologies" simply refers to the several competing schools of this study, each offering its own account of how narratives work. The plural matters here because the field never settled on one framework. Its concerns range from the basic units of a plot to the relationship between a narrator and the events they describe, so scholars have produced many distinct approaches, and the word has come to cover all of them at once.