Narrative structure and the individual in the Íslendingasögur: motivation, provocation and characterisation ...

• Main Author: Shortt Butler, Joanne
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository 2016
• Subjects: old norse literature; medieval iceland; characterisation; narrative structure; oral tradition; icelandic family sagas; narratology; character and structure; minor characters; íslendingasögur; Iceland
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17863/cam.15633; https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/269413

This thesis takes a fresh, character-based approach to the Íslendingasögur. It is inspired by a narratological study that unites the functional and structural role of characters with their human, individualistic portrayal. My major objective is to demonstrate the important connection between characterisation and structure in the sagas.By drawing attention to characters that I term narrative triggers, I offer a way of reading the sagas that relies both on the narrative conventions of tradition and on the less predictable, personal interactions between the cast of any given saga.In the case of both major and minor figures in the Íslendingasögur a certain type of character is often present to perform necessary motivational functions, allowing the plot to develop.In Part I I emphasise the functional aspect of these characters, before exploring unusual examples that emphasise their individuality in Part II.The motivation of the plot is linked throughout to the figure of the ójafnaðarmaðr. A secondary objective is ...