EVENTFULNESS AS THE MAIN FEATURE OF NARRATIVE (A CASE STUDY OF R. DAHL’S FAIRY TALE “BILLY AND THE MINPINS”)
Abstract
The research focuses on the substantiation of eventfulness as the peculiarity of narrative, its requirements and gradation criteria, a case study of R. Dahl’s fairy tale “Billy and the Minpins”. A brief analytical analysis considering the specificity of fairy tale events, peculiarities of plot and placing of events in R. Dahl’s fairy tale “Billy and the Minpins” and the requirements and criteria of eventfulness gradation applying to the fairy tale’s main events has been foregrounded. The article examines the views on the main properties of narrative. We consider an event to be a change of state that is not a part of an everyday routine. Events can be active and stative. Genres of narrative with the predomination of active events are more dynamic. Fairy tales also belong to this type of narrative. Fairy tales present unusual and fantastic events, but it is implied that they can happen to a child reader as well. The problems depicted in fairy tales reflect real children’s problems, so it is easier for readers to imagine themselves in the characters’ shoes and empathise with them. The plot of fairy tales mostly consists of a mundane and ordinary beginning (Billy is bored and watches the Forest of Sin through the window), fantastic events in the body (escaping from the Gruncher, meeting the Minpins, defeating the Gruncher and flying on the Swan) and a soothing return to reality (Billy returns home and eventually grows up). To be considered an event, a change of state must be real (valid for the characters of the fictional world) and resultative (ending within the narrative text). W. Schmid lists five additional criteria for assessing eventfulness: relevance, unpredictability, persistence, irreversibility, and non-iterativity. The most important of these are relevance and unpredictability, while persistence, irreversibility and non-iterativity may be unevenly present in different events. Unpredictability is specific to R. Dahl’s fairy tales, as the author combines traditional fairy tale moves with unexpected elements.
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