Warhol, Robyn R. (2005) “Neonarrative; or, How to Render the Unnarratable in Realist Fiction and Contemporary Film” in A Companion to Narrative Theory (eds.) James Phelan & Peter J. Rabinowits: 221-230. Oxford: Blackwell.

‘disnarrated’ – those passages in a narrative that consider what did not or does not take place. (Prince 1988: 1) – 221

when disnarration or unnarration lead to genre change, they are participating in what I will call “neonarrative”, or narrational strategies for making narrative genres new. – 221

Varieties of Unnarratable in Classic Realist Fiction

Prince’s Dictionary of Narratology defines “the narratable” as “that which is worthy of being told; that which is susceptible of or calls for narration” (Prince 1987: 56). If “unnarratable” (which Prince does not define in the dictionary) is to be the antonym of this term, then it would mean “that which is unworthy of being told,” “that which is not susceptible to narration,” and “that which does not call for narration” or perhaps “unnarratable” as “that which, according to a given narrative, cannot be narrated or is not worth narrating either because it transgresses a law (social, authorial, generic, formal) or because it defies the powers of a particular narrator (or those of any narrator) or because it falls below the so-called threshold of narratibility (it is not sufficiently unusual or problematic)” (Prince 1988: 1). – 222

1.      The subnarratable: what needn’t be told because it’s normal

2.      The supranarratable: what can’t be told because it’s “ineffable”

3.      The antinarratable: what shouldn’t be told because of social convention

4.      The paranarratable: what wouldn’t be told because of formal convention

Narrative in Film: Stretching the Boundaries of the Unnarratable

1.      The subnarratable

2.      The antinarratable

3.      The paranarratable

Disnarration and Unnarration in Film