A European Storyteller? Collective Narration in John Berger’s Into Their Labours
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Janine Hauthal
Abstract
Based on the understanding of cultures as narrative communities, this article explores the aesthetic figurations of Europe in John Berger’s Into Their Labours (1979-1990) and demonstrates how the trilogy’s generic hybridity, multiperspectivity, and collective narration support Berger’s creation of a communal voice. Adopting a cultural narratological approach, the case study first shows how interconnecting centripetal and diverging centrifugal narrative forces create a tentative sense of coherence akin to the short story cycle, while the trilogy’s macrostructural pattern transforms the individual stories into a master narrative of crisis. Secondly, an analysis of perspective structure and narrative voice in the three parts reveals that, in the trilogy as a whole, peasant culture emerges as a narrative community. Thirdly, in scrutinizing spatial markers as a means to connect the modernization processes depicted by Berger with Europe and European mobilities, the article draws attention to the trilogy’s previously neglected European dimension. Narrating Europe from a transnational perspective, Berger clearly counters the longstanding traditions of British Euroskepticism and insularity and, indeed, can be seen a ‘European storyteller’.
Abstract
Based on the understanding of cultures as narrative communities, this article explores the aesthetic figurations of Europe in John Berger’s Into Their Labours (1979-1990) and demonstrates how the trilogy’s generic hybridity, multiperspectivity, and collective narration support Berger’s creation of a communal voice. Adopting a cultural narratological approach, the case study first shows how interconnecting centripetal and diverging centrifugal narrative forces create a tentative sense of coherence akin to the short story cycle, while the trilogy’s macrostructural pattern transforms the individual stories into a master narrative of crisis. Secondly, an analysis of perspective structure and narrative voice in the three parts reveals that, in the trilogy as a whole, peasant culture emerges as a narrative community. Thirdly, in scrutinizing spatial markers as a means to connect the modernization processes depicted by Berger with Europe and European mobilities, the article draws attention to the trilogy’s previously neglected European dimension. Narrating Europe from a transnational perspective, Berger clearly counters the longstanding traditions of British Euroskepticism and insularity and, indeed, can be seen a ‘European storyteller’.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter i
- Contents v
- A Tale of Two Concepts: Ansgar Nünning at Sixty 1
- Stories of Dangerous Life in the Post- Trauma Age: Toward a Cultural Narratology of Resilience 15
- Mind the Narratives: Towards a Cultural Narratology of Attention 37
- The End of the World (as We Know It)? – Cultural Ways of Worldmaking in Contemporary Post-Apocalyptic Narratives 57
- Plumbing Distant Spatiotemporal Scales: Towards an Econarratology of Planetary Memory in Narratives of the Global South 75
- Narrative Forms in the Age of the Anthropocene: Negotiating Human-Nonhuman Relations in Global South Novels 91
- Fact, Fiction, and Everything in-between: Strategies of Reader Activation in Postcolonial Graphic Narratives 109
- ‘It’s Not Our Opinion, It’s the Opinion of Our Roles’ – Fremdverstehen Revisited or: Where Foreign Language Education and Narratology Can Meet 129
- Narrative and Visual Resources of Culture in Contemporary Indigenous Children’s Books from Australia 149
- Troubling Justice: Narratives of Revenge 165
- Erin Burnett in Mali: Bardic Television and the Genealogy of Cultural Narratology 185
- New Media Narratives: Olivia Sudjic’s Sympathy and Identity in the Digital Age 199
- The ‘Death’ of the Unreliable Narrator: Toward a Functional History of Narrative Unreliability 215
- Odyssean Travels: The Migration of Narrative Form (Homer – Lamb – Joyce) 241
- A European Storyteller? Collective Narration in John Berger’s Into Their Labours 269
- Brexit as Cultural Performance: Towards a Narratology of Social Drama 293
- Contributors 321
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter i
- Contents v
- A Tale of Two Concepts: Ansgar Nünning at Sixty 1
- Stories of Dangerous Life in the Post- Trauma Age: Toward a Cultural Narratology of Resilience 15
- Mind the Narratives: Towards a Cultural Narratology of Attention 37
- The End of the World (as We Know It)? – Cultural Ways of Worldmaking in Contemporary Post-Apocalyptic Narratives 57
- Plumbing Distant Spatiotemporal Scales: Towards an Econarratology of Planetary Memory in Narratives of the Global South 75
- Narrative Forms in the Age of the Anthropocene: Negotiating Human-Nonhuman Relations in Global South Novels 91
- Fact, Fiction, and Everything in-between: Strategies of Reader Activation in Postcolonial Graphic Narratives 109
- ‘It’s Not Our Opinion, It’s the Opinion of Our Roles’ – Fremdverstehen Revisited or: Where Foreign Language Education and Narratology Can Meet 129
- Narrative and Visual Resources of Culture in Contemporary Indigenous Children’s Books from Australia 149
- Troubling Justice: Narratives of Revenge 165
- Erin Burnett in Mali: Bardic Television and the Genealogy of Cultural Narratology 185
- New Media Narratives: Olivia Sudjic’s Sympathy and Identity in the Digital Age 199
- The ‘Death’ of the Unreliable Narrator: Toward a Functional History of Narrative Unreliability 215
- Odyssean Travels: The Migration of Narrative Form (Homer – Lamb – Joyce) 241
- A European Storyteller? Collective Narration in John Berger’s Into Their Labours 269
- Brexit as Cultural Performance: Towards a Narratology of Social Drama 293
- Contributors 321
