A TAXONOMY OF AUSTRALIAN LITERARY ETHNONARRATIVES FOR CHILDREN IN THE CONTEXT OF NARRATIVE POETICS

Abstract

The article focuses on the classification of Australian literary texts for children, literary fairy tales and short stories in the context of poetic narratology and the peculiarities of the narrative construing of different narrative types. Australian literary texts for children are qualified as Australian literary ethnonarratives for children created within the framework of Australian ethnoculture, the dominant characteristic of which is explicit or implicit ethnocultural meanings embodied in their elements. Stories of literary ethnonarratives for children consist of a series of narrative episodes connected by means of narrative techniques and describing events that happened to an ethnoculturally marked character and unfold within an ethnoculturally marked chronotope. The aim of the paper is to substantiate the classification of Australian literary ethnonarratives for children according to the story plot, narrative episode arrangement, type of narrator and focalizer, characters, and chronotope. The article presents the results of a narratological and cultural analysis of Australian literary ethnonarratives for children based on the achievements of modern narratology and linguistic and cultural studies of literary texts for children. We reveal the means of embodying ethnocultural specificity in the narrative building and highlight the main narrative and ethnic and cultural peculiarities of the four identified narrative types: etiological, didactic, initiation, and adventure. Etiological narratives include stories about the emergence of some objects of reality due to metamorphosis. Didactic narratives are stories about a case that happened to a character or their actions aiming to teach the readers some moral values. Initiation narratives are stories about the main character growing up and searching for something desirable and valuable. Adventure stories narrate exciting but risky adventures of an ethnoculturally marked static character that illustrate correct and incorrect behaviour patterns. The peculiarities of the narrative building of narrative types are demonstrated in the case study of famous and popular Australian ethnonarratives for children.