Historical phases of narrative strategies

In any sphere of activity, the difference in strategies is generated, on the one hand, by the difference of initial conditions, and on the other hand, by the difference in potential goals. The purpose of narration is the communicative event of the interaction between consciousnesses, which can be strategically different. As for the initial conditions of narration, it’s determined by the narrative picture of the world, “which provides the scale for determining what constitutes an event” (Yu.M. Lotman). Such pictures of the world are phasic in their genesis: each of them takes shape in narrative practices at a certain stage in the development of human consciousness but can subsequently be actualized in historically later cultural contexts. The paper considers the precedent, imperative, adventurous, and probabilistic pictures of the world, and clarifies the specifics of the narrative points of view they manifest. Narrative strategies are directly expressed in the narrative through the relationship between the points of view of the narrator and the character (the basic perspectives that form a kind of framework of any narrative discourse) in their relation to the reader (the addressee of the narrative). In early narrative texts the diegetic world appears as if seen from one perspective, common to the narrator, the protagonists of the story and the reader. In post-mythological storytelling practices, all events are demonstrated and evaluated from the perspective of the narrator, the provider of an unquestionable system of values. The narrator of the adventure story appears as a private witness to events, allowing for an alternative view of the story being told, thus opening up the possibility of constructing the perspective of the hero in the narrative. Finally, in the novel and post-novel narratives, the narratorial point of view loses its former authority not only in witnessing and evaluating the narrated events, but also in identifying them and, in this respect, is likened to the character’s point of view, which, on the contrary, appears to be dominant.