Plato’s Proto-Narratology: Metanarrative Reflections and Narrative Paradigms

Plato’s contribution to narratology has traditionally been traced in his tripartite categorisation of narrative modes we read of in the Republic. Although other aspects of storytelling are also addressed throughout the Platonic oeuvre, such passages are treated as instantaneous flares of metanarrative speculation on Plato’s part and do not seem to contribute to the reconstruction of his ’theory of narrative’. Vasileios Liotsakis challenges this view and argues that the Statesman, the Timaeus/Critias and the Laws reveal that Plato had consolidated in his mind and compositionally put into effect one systematic mode in which to express his thoughts on narratives. In these dialogues Liotsakis recognizes the birth of a proto-narratology which differs in many respects from what we today expect from a narratological handbook, but still demonstrates two key-features of narratology: (a) a conscious focus on certain aspects of narrativity which are vastly discussed by narratologists and pertain to the structuring and reception of narratives; and (b) a schematised mode of interaction between metanarrative reflections and textual bodies which serve as the paradigms through which to explore the interpretive potential of these reflections.

Vasileios Liotsakis, Department of Philology, University of the Peloponnese, Kalamata, Greece.