Diversities in Ethnic Female Narratology — Meryem Ayan

This book titled Diversities in Ethnic Female Narratology presents a survey of narratological diversification and tries to integrate narratological analyses with ethnic female narratives that are constructed with the act of narration Ethnic female narratives constituted from narrations are not only factual and fictional in writings but also in spoken language and are reconstructed through individualistic stories emphasizing how particular ethnic female experiences have brought unpredictable turns and unexpected developments in diversifying ethnic female narratives 180 As ethnic female narratives continue to be studied other discourse styles and narrative patterns may emerge that refine our sense of what constitutes the norm and which may or may not correlate with gender values in various ways The relationship between gender and narrative structure is thus an indirect and mediated one inextricably part of the interplay between content form and context that culminates in the practices of interpreting meanings from a given text Page 181 Feminist narratolgy seems to have moved some way along the road toward feminist narratology but the question remains how far feminist narratology is still a relevant concern for postclassical narratology and beyond Ethnic female narratolology would widen the scope narratology and could be further analyzed within other disciplines and theoretical frameworks Both Bal 1999 and Warhol 2003 argue for feminist narratology s use within cultural studies Indeed there are obvious points of compatibility between narratological concerns such as focalization and theories of the gaze spectatorship and audience that are of such relevance within the related subfield of feminist film theory Postmodern feminist narratology has stressed the need to understand gender as a concept inseparable from female narrative but ethnic female narrative stress ethnic and gender as an inseparable aspect in ethnic female narratives For example the relationship between gender and sexuality is highly contentious and has led to confusion within literary studies Warhol 2003 2 3 If the need to disentangle these parameters has been a vexing problem within feminism and literary criticism it is no less so for feminist narratology It is here that queer theory may be of use which itself is dominated by debates about normativity gender and sexuality but is crucial in helping the analyst to see beyond the limitations of the homo hetero opposition Walters 1996 831 Understanding the relationship between gender and ethnicity may be assisted by the insights of postcolonialism Given that minority literatures remain an underused resource within thnic female narratology this kind of theoretical integration is pertinent and in line with recent developments in postclassical narratology Doyle 1994 Gymnich 2002 These kinds of integrations are vital but are not uncontentious and raise further questions about the relative status of gender within such discussions For example does one variable assume priority over the other I have proposed that ethnic female narratology is characterized by diversity including multiplicity along the lines of culture ethnicity sexuality and gender issues Others have argued that these other factors are at least as important as gender Bing and Bergvall 1998 498 in which case the primacy of gender as a master status variable Bergvall 1999 274 is thrown open to debate This in turn might have significant implications for the status of feminist narratology As many would contend the cause of feminism is not over yet Bryson 1999 In this respect questions about the female male dichotomy need to be raised as a means of moving towards changing such situations But in the case of feminist narratology these need to be framed as questions not so much about how women and men might differ as to how stories might function to reinforce or challenge gendered i