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2A | Digital Media and Storytelling in Higher Education
to the recipient is referred to as the stylization of the text, consisting of word
pictures and figures of speech which are not independent of the cultural,
linguistic and genre conventions of the time the work was created. The second
level is the spatial and temporal nature of the text, where space is subordinated
to temporality. Moving towards deeper structures, on the third level are the
narrator, the character and the recipient of the story, and it is at this level
that the speech situation and point of view appear. According to Szegedy¬
Maszak (1998), the constant principle of the narrative is that it consists of an
opening balance, a process and a closing balance. This division corresponds to
Freytag’s and Todorov’s description. According to Todorov (1971), the stages
of transformation in a narrative are: (1) equilibrium; (2) the disruption of
equilibrium due to an event; (3) recognition of the disruption of equilibrium;
(4) the attempt to restore equilibrium; (5) new equilibrium. The main task of
the narrative is therefore to showcase the events related to the disruption and
restoration of the equilibrium, while linking these events with chronological
and motivational elements. The fourth level is the narrative’s level of values,
its world view which is the source of the literary work’s impact.
A literary text is a complex system and as such is both synchronic (being
produced at the same time) and diachronic (reflecting on earlier works)
in relation to other texts. The relationship between texts is intertextual —
meaning that texts incorporate the meanings of other texts into their own
space. Texts may contain references to other specific texts, genres, or cultural
works. In intertextuality, the emphasis is on the relationship between texts
and the author is relegated to the background. A prerequisite for reception
is that the reader recognizes the intertextual references and is familiar with
the work that is being referred to. Since both the referencing work and the
referenced works have different meanings for each reader, the work becomes
open to interpretation (Orosz, 2003).
Barthes (1970) developed an interesting approach to narrative, positing
that communication is not from the author to the reader, but that writing
is the voice of the reader. Thus, it is through the reader’s psychological
participation in the narrative that the text gains true meaning. Being in the
narrative is therefore an experience for both the writer and the reader. This is
a dynamic way of understanding the text since it presupposes a multiplicity of
perception and interpretability. In his early work, Barthes saw writing as an
act of historical solidarity, as the possible writing modes of the author depend
on the combined effects of tradition and history. In The Zero Degree of Writing
(1953), he gives the example of 19-century novels written in the simple
narrative past tense, with actions depicted in the singular third person in order
to maintain distance from the characters. Ideally, the text would be stylistically
deprived, of which Barthes cites Camus’s The Indifference as an example. In
‘The Death of the Author, Barthes (1968) finally goes so far as to separate the
narrator and the writer completely. In ancient societes, the use of the narrative
code was the task of the shaman, who performed on behalf of and for the