REPENSANDO ESTRUTURAS NARRATIVAS: RELATO DE UMA EXPERIêNCIA PEDAGóGICA

The present article reports the results of an experiment conducted during a course on English Literature focused on narrative fiction. The works read were analyzed using the elemental division exposition-complication-climax-dénouement—which is, in its turn, structured around the dichotomy desire x opposition—, so that this commonly taught but little employed scheme could be tested and recast, if necessary. Ten verse and prose narratives were analyzed, all belonging to different periods and genres; all displayed at least a threefold division (the climax wasn’t unanimously present) but rarely in its pure form: it became evident that, when put to use, it displays properties which make it truly functional as a constitutive principle of narratives, and therefore as a tool for narrative analysis. The article reports and exemplifies these properties.