An approach to the analysis of character as a complement to structural analyses that focus only on plot. Propp's treatment of character roles in his Morphology of the Folktale is a point of departure. The work of linguists and logicians on propositional structure is drawn upon.

This article aims at clarifying the notion of style, beginning with a distinction between poetics and stylistics. The notion of verbal style as expression of the same content in different ways) is explored. -/- .

A discussion of Umberto Eco's notion of open and closed texts.

The structure of narrative discourse is the focus of much current research, but the classicist Walter Burkert argues for a revitalization of the historical approach to myth. He pushes the origins of myth beyond ritual to action patterns man shares with animals. His approach is evaluated in the context of Propp's historical analysis, which complements his 'morphological' approach to Russian folktales; and to Levi-Strauss's synchronic analysis of myth, which sees an ahistoric connection between the myths of North and South America.

Rather than an emphasis on style as unique to an author, this study argues for the notion of group styles. Three are proposed: tight, loose, and balanced. Examples of each type are illustrated.

This article examines Richard Bauman's conception of oral narrative as performance and argues instead for a view of narrative texts as autonomous entities, analyzable in language-internal Saussurian terms. Plot is viewed as a matter of syntagmatic relations, and character as a matter of paradigmatic relations. A contrast is drawn between narrative truth (cohesion) and historical truth (correspondence). Alternatives to some of Bauman's analyses of narrative texts are proposed.

This article argues for basic similarities between folkloric and literary narratives. It deals with the relation between narrative structure and the constituent sentences of the narrative text and proposes an adaptation of Hjelmslev's notion of connotative semiotics to account for this. It also draws upon philosophy of action and Austin's 'A Plea for Excuses'.