Narratology

Narratology is a discipline within the humanities which investigates structurally the arrangement, principles, and techniques of representation in narratives. Since in drama there is no "external narrator", it is disputed whether narratology is even applicable to drama; but since in comedy "internal narrators" also present embedded, secondary narratives, the narratological method can undoubtedly be meaningfully applied to it even on Genette's stricter definition. The broad, genre-independent approach which dissolves in performativity the specific difference between narration and drama, makes it possible to understand appropriately the genre peculiarities of Old Comedy, an open genre which follows a transmedial poetics (GENRE CRITICISM). The plot of New Comedy, on the other hand, in its strong closure which makes it an important precursor of the novel and of the Western narrative model, is well adapted for narratological analysis as object and performance with reference to its structural sequence.