Jezik in slovstvo, letnik 68 (2023), št. 1
Dr Alojzija Zupan Sosič, Full Pro-
fessor of Slovenian Literature at the 
Faculty of Arts of the University of 
Ljubljana, is a renowned researcher 
in the field of Slovenian literature, 
especially narrative. Her scientific 
monograph entitled A Theory of Nar-
rative is the fruit of twenty years of 
systematic research into a wide vari-
ety of narrative texts. It was written 
with the aim of furthering the un-
derstanding of narrative in literature. 
The author herself describes it as a 
cross between a scientific monograph 
and a professional manual, taking 
into account the latest knowledge in 
the field of literary studies. Althou-
gh Alojzija Zupan Sosič’s scientific 
monograph is based on a knowledge 
of Slovenian literary studies, it also 
takes into account numerous foreign 
theoretical works. Despite the in-de-
pth scientific discourse, it is transpa-
rent and readable. With its precision 
and breadth, it definitely exceeds the 
narrower Slovenian framework and 
can appeal to both literary researchers 
and students abroad, as its insights re-
ach into the European and global spa-
ce. It is therefore logical that the book 
was translated into Croatian soon af-
ter its publication (Teorija privijesti, 
2021, translated by Ksenija Premur). 
In autumn 2022, it was also translated 
into English (by Helena Biffio Zor-
ko) and published by the prestigious 
Cambridge Scholars Publishing Hou-
se in London.1
Since the original work is very extensi-
ve, comprising some 451 pages, the 
author and the publishing house deci-
ded to translate approximately half of 
the book, which has been condensed, 
updated and partially “adapted” for 
non-Slovenian readers in the process 
of preparation and translation. The 
English translation of the book is thus 
divided into three extensive parts and 
several chapters as well as an Introdu-
ction, which primarily illuminates the 
research area (theory, narratology, pro-
se, narrative theory, narrative, narrative 
turn). This is followed by the first part, 
entitled Classical and Post-Classical 
Theory of Narrative. Classical narrati-
ve theory includes Russian formalism 
and structuralism, poststructuralism, 
semiotics and deconstruction, as well 
as postclassical cultural, cognitive, 
rhetorical and feminist narratology and 
gender narratology. While the classical 
theory of narrative emphasises intertex-
tuality and breaks down the boundaries 
between literary and non-literary disco-
urse, highlighting the multi-meaning of 
1 Since the book already received positive (Slo-
venian) responses when it was published in 
2017, this review is intended for all other read-
ers, especially foreign ones. It has therefore 
been translated into English in order to reach 
a wider readership.
OCENE
Alojzija Zupan Sosič: A Theory of Narrative. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambrid-
ge Scholars Publishing, 2022.
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the text and the validity of different in-
terpretations, the post-classical theory 
of narrative emphasises the context, the 
text, the reader and the critic, and has 
a more interdisciplinary orientation. 
It is directed at the circumstances and 
consequences of different readings. A 
special chapter is dedicated to feminist 
narratology, which is part of the move-
ment for political, social and economic 
gender equality. The chapter is divided 
into several theoretical approaches: the 
starting point, for example, S. Beauvo-
ir, and later J. Kristeva, L. Irigaray, H. 
Cixous, G. Deleuze, etc. Like other nar-
ratologies, feminist narratology is deri-
ved from methodological pluralism, 
whereby it is constantly updated and 
examines story and discourse with the 
help of a gender perspective. It produ-
ces a gender-aware reading of narrative 
texts, focusing especially on the evalu-
ation and canonisation the texts by fe-
male authors. In A Theory of Narrative, 
Zupan Sosič also includes a chapter on 
the narratology of genders, so-called 
gender studies, which brings a very 
current approach to literature research.
The continuation of the scientific mo-
nograph deals with the analysis of 
wording methods in narrative. In the 
section entitled Storytelling as a Hu-
man Universality, the author explains 
storytelling as a universal human acti-
vity that has been treated by many the-
ories, from Croce, Barthes, Jameson, 
Lyotard, Prince, Herman, Abbott and 
Brooks, to Biti and Koron. She then 
focuses on the wording modes of the 
narrative, such as narration, descripti-
on and transmission of speech and their 
mixing, while also taking into account 
the structure and purpose of the text. In 
the author’s opinion, the term narration 
includes several meanings, from mode 
and procedure to action, as it takes 
into account the procedural nature of 
narration and its reception circumstan-
ces. The author then explains the ter-
ms narrative and narratability, taking 
into account the findings of Fludernik 
and Kernev Štrajn. She also addresses 
the mimetic nature of the narrative, 
pointing out that mimeticity includes 
not only imitation, but also the creati-
ve shaping of the presented reality. In 
the chapter Realism of Narratives, she 
states that, in the nineteenth century, 
for instance, literature was also based 
on found notes, memoires and diaries, 
which influenced the literary direction 
and the method and technique of wri-
ting, as well as the appearance of so-
-called ordinary subjects in the narra-
tive, in a shift towards objectivity and 
natural causality. All of this enabled 
many new narrative processes and tren-
ds in twentieth-century literature (so-
cial realism, neorealism, postrealism, 
etc.). In the chapter entitled Theory of 
Possible Worlds, the author writes that, 
although fictional worlds are often ana-
logous and similar to the real world, 
they are not an imitation of the real 
world, but instead represent autono-
mous worlds and various possibilities 
surrounding the world of reality, since 
the fictional world has been constructed 
by the author. In the continuation, en-
titled Fictional Narratives, the author 
states that every narrative is a state of 
fictional truth, but is connected to the 
real world in a complex way. Here she 
quotes Eco, who wrote about the “ficti-
onal contract”: when the reader reads 
a fictional narrative, he or she “plays” 
as if participating in the real event. The 
reader feels empathy, which is conditi-
oned by imaginative role-taking. Eco 
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also wrote about the fact that narrato-
logy deals with the signs by which a 
fictional text differs from a non-fictio-
nal one. Among the mentioned factors, 
the role of the narrator is most often 
reflected. Zupan Sosič also considers 
Abbot’s conclusions from his Introdu-
ction to Narrative (2009). She further 
discusses digressions in the narrative, 
viz. deviations from linearity, such as 
moving away or turning aside from the 
narrative line: essayisation, lyricisation 
and scriptisation. The scientific mono-
graph teaches us that essayisation is 
a process that already appeared at the 
beginning of the twentieth century with 
the advent of modernism. It introduced 
major changes to the traditional nar-
rative, leading to the birth of modern 
narrative techniques and the emergen-
ce of the so-called modern novel. All 
distances to the narrative belong to 
the subjective colouring of the essay, 
humour, irony, parody and grotesque. 
According to Zupan Sosič, essay wri-
ting deepens the narrative and gives it 
meaning. This chapter is supplemented 
by examples from literary works, e.g., 
Mira Mihelič and Milan Kundera. The 
author goes on to discuss lyricisation, 
which means enriching the narrative 
structure with lyrical elements, repla-
cing realistic conventions. Scenarios in 
the context of scriptisation, the intro-
duction of dramatic elements into the 
narrative text, are also common.
The second, more extensive section in 
the present scientific monograph deals 
with description. This second mode of 
wording mostly dominates modernist 
texts, in which description and speech 
are the most important elements. In li-
terary theory, the author draws attention 
to the contribution of Slawinski, who 
wrote about the fact that, in the modern 
novel, the individual is no longer the 
most important part of reality, having 
given up his or her place to objects, 
which is why description can become 
the central part of storytelling precisely 
in the age of modernity. Slawinski built 
his theory as a denial of Barthes’s the-
ses. He strove for the “emancipation of 
description” and argued that description 
does not interfere with the semantics of 
the narrative, and that it is an important 
guide to the narrative. Zupan Sosič also 
explains the characteristics and diffe-
rences between consended, dispersed 
and developed description, focusing on 
transparent and puzzle-like description 
and supporting her findings with the 
examples of novels such as The Tin 
Drum by Gunther Grass and Prišleki 
(Newcomers) by Lojze Kovačič.
In the next, more comprehensive chap-
ter, Zupan Sosič focuses on the mediati-
on of speech, the role of which has only 
gained importance in narrative theory 
in recent decades (Biti, Fludernik, Tho-
mas et al.). Representation of speech, 
that is, dialogue, monologue, inner mo-
nologue, stream of consciousness and 
experienced speech, increased signifi-
cantly in modernism, and dialogues are 
important for the cohesion of the action 
structure. In this context, Zupan Sosič 
examines two dialogue novels: Philip 
Roth’s Deception and Da me je strah? 
(That I’m afraid?) by Maruša Krese.
In the continuation of her scientific mo-
nograph, Alojzija Zupan Sosič devotes 
herself to narrative elements: story and 
narrative, the beginning and end of the 
narrative, narrator, focalization, litera-
ry person, literary event, and literary 
time and space. In the section Story and 
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Narrative, she discusses the two-level 
conception of narrative. In this context, 
she considers intertextuality, which in-
cludes the reader’s “weaving” of the 
current reading with all other readings 
interwoven in his or her reading mem-
ory and a certain cultural environment. 
This replenishment process, however, 
is never finished. She then analyses the 
elements of the narrative and, following 
Culler, draws attention to the so-called 
double logic of the narrative. The sto-
ry is a precursor to narrative discourse, 
while at the same time emerging from 
it. This is followed by the definition 
of a framework narrative, examples of 
which can be found both in Boccaccio 
and Calvin, as well as in the Slovenian 
writer Tavčar.
Theoretical treatment of the beginnings 
and ends of narratives is rarer in lite-
rary studies, and it was the author of 
the present monograph who introduced 
them to Slovenian literary studies. The 
beginnings and ends of the narrative 
are indispensable in directing the rea-
ding narrative. At the same time, they 
belong to the so-called strong positions 
of the text, to which Zupan Sosič adds 
the title, the epigraph (motto), the sub-
title, stylistic figures, proverbs, quotati-
ons and personal names. The beginning 
of the narrative can also be connected 
with the end, which often determines 
how we should understand the text as a 
whole (as discussed by Biti 1997; Prin-
ce 1987; Phelan 2007; Dillon 1980; 
Eco 1999, etc.). Furthermore, the pre-
face can be both an extra-literary and 
an intra-fictional element, as it is part of 
the entire book (Lanser 1981), Genette 
(1997). There is also the so-called anti-
-beginning, when the reader is “thrown” 
into the action as a process, instead of 
being introduced to it gradually, such 
as in the works To the Lighthouse and 
Jacob’s Room by Woolf. According to 
Zupan Sosič, the title is the “text of the 
text”, directing reading attention. Well-
-known examples are listed, such as the 
title Ana Karenina, which foreshadows 
the character’s novel, the title Beloved, 
which is abstract, the title Childhood, 
which comments on the content, etc. In 
addition to the beginning, Zupan Sosič 
also devotes herself to the end of the 
narrative, which should be read as a 
conclusion, as the sum of the entire me-
aning, since it is supposed to “hide” the 
essence; although every narrative has 
an end, not every narrative has its own 
conclusion. Kafka’s novel The Trial, 
for instance, does not have a conclusi-
on; its end is a so-called open end.
The third chapter of this part of the mo-
nograph deals with the narrator, taking 
into account the research of Adorno, 
who, in Notes on Literature, dealt with 
the place of the narrator in the modern 
novel. Zupan Sosič writes that the nar-
rator has never withdrawn from narra-
tive texts, but recently he or she has re-
appeared in basic metaliterary texts (as 
noted by Abbott, Fludernik, Zerweck, 
etc.). The author treats the narrator as a 
structural part of the text or a linguistic 
subject, as he or she plays an impor-
tant mediating role. German narrative 
science (Friedmann, Stanzel) has dealt 
with this extensively, while Anglo-A-
merican and Russian narrative science 
has devoted less attention to this questi-
on. In the narrative, in addition to the 
narrator, there is also the category of 
the narratee (a term introduced by Prin-
ce), that is, the person to whom the nar-
rator is narrating. The narratee appears 
in the text as a fictional listener. Zupan 
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Sosič defines the types of narrators 
according to four criteria: grammatical 
person (first-person, second-person and 
third-person), mode of transmission 
of narrative information (authorial or 
omniscient and figural), reliability of 
information (reliable and unreliable) 
and typical declarative action, the so-
-called reporter, interpreter and evalu-
ator. She also writes about the qualities 
of an authorial and omniscient narra-
tor (who has an overview of the entire 
event) and a figural narrator (who nar-
rates the viewpoints of the characters 
in the story, such as in Proust, Butor, 
Woolf, Zupan), as well as reliable and 
unreliable narrators. In this way, Zu-
pan Sosič systematically introduces the 
unreliable narrator into Slovenian lite-
rary knowledge, which she supersedes 
with the category of a three-part divi-
sion according to the narrative positi-
on: the division into the category of re-
porter, interpreter and evaluator of the 
narrative. This last innovation is also 
something new in the field of world 
literary studies, which until now has 
used the three aforementioned categori-
es only to define an unreliable narrator.
In the fourth chapter, called Focaliza-
tion, the author explains the concept 
of perspective and focalization, which 
was previously included in the field of 
the narrator in Slovenian literary studi-
es. Since the term perspective is more 
general, encompassing both voice and 
eyes (Wales 1990), it defines the focali-
zer as “the owner of the point of view, 
of central consciousness”. This is fol-
lowed by the division of focalization 
according to the theories of G. Genett 
and M. Bal, as well as the definition of 
internal and external focalization.
The fifth chapter is called Literary Cha-
racters. According to Zupan Sosič, the 
latter has a particularly emphasised 
position in the narrative, as it remains 
in the reader’s memory the longest. 
According to her, characters evoke 
sympathy or antipathy, love or hate, 
pity, etc. The author uses the designa-
tions literary person, literary character, 
protagonist or figure, claiming that the 
designation “hero” is outdated. Lite-
rary figures move between mimeticity 
and fictionality. The main literary fi-
gures, writes Zupan Sosič, can “emer-
ge” from the texts and become part of 
general cultural discourse, such as Don 
Quixote, Emma Bovary and Odysseus. 
The author draws attention to the dou-
ble identity of a literary figure: on the 
one hand, it functions as an illusion of 
imitation, while, on the other, it crea-
tes a new idea in a literary constructi-
on. She therefore uses a new term for 
them: amphibian. Zupan Sosič also 
researches characterisation and moti-
vation in the context of flat and round 
literary characters (where the former is 
a typical, simplified character, and the 
latter is an unpredictable literary cha-
racter), the reception of a literary cha-
racter (when the reader creates fictional 
characters in his or her performance 
by composing textual details that are 
“transmitted” by the narrator) and the 
internal view (when we experience lite-
rary characters mainly from the inside, 
with the help of their thoughts, experi-
ences and beliefs).
The penultimate and last chapters in 
the scientific monograph are entitled 
Literary Events and Literary Time and 
Space. Within the framework of the for-
mer, the event, situation, incident, etc. is 
analysed in terms of plot, suspense and 
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gap, while the latter examines the con-
nection of time and space, objective and 
subjective time and space, simultaneo-
us time, narrative and story time, ana-
chrony (analepsis and prolepsis), space 
in the narrative, and narrative and story 
space.
Intended for both literary scholars and 
students, A Theory of Narrative by uni-
versity professor Alojzija Zupan Sosič 
is the first synthetic scientific work of 
its kind in Slovenia. This testifies to the 
fact that writing such a book is a very 
ambitious and demanding task, which 
in the past was beyond many otherwi-
se excellent Slovenian literary resear-
chers. All of the research of her prede-
cessors in the field of literary studies 
was more or less partial in the light of 
this monumental monograph, which is 
also reflected in the ranking of her mo-
nograph in the prestigious place of hu-
manistic research in Slovenia. Despite 
the fact that the monograph is an in-de-
pth and scientifically innovative work, 
Alojzija Zupan Sosič deliberately 
does not offer complete models for the 
analysis and interpretation of literary 
texts, as she wants her scientific work 
to remain open to further possibilities 
and research. I am convinced that, with 
its English translation, the monograph 
A Theory of Narrative will become an 
indispensable part of scientific literatu-
re abroad, just as it has been for some 
time in Slovenia.
Silvija Borovnik
Univerza v Mariboru
Filozofska fakulteta
Oddelek za slovanske jezike in 
književnosti
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