Dream Reports: A Narrative Genre

 A paper from Ukraine in which I'm quoted in passing:

The article addresses the genre proper-

ties of oneiric narratives (dream reports) as a case-study

of the English language online dream journals. To justify

the status of oneiric narrative as a distinct genre, I review

available approaches to narrative genres and relevant classifi-

cations. The deployed theoretical approach integrates the prin-

ciples of classical and modern cognitive narratology as well

as genre studies. To pinpoint the main genre-specific features

of the dream reports, two following categories were considered:

eventfulness (tellability) and narrator that overlap the category

of perspective. In the study, I propose a model of double (exter-

nal and internal) eventfulness that would account for the epis-

temic status of dreaming experience. The analysis departs from

the idea that in dream reports, the narrator faces an experience

of a distinct epistemic status. In the presented model, exter-

nal eventfulness resides in the mere fact of a certain oneiric

experience and its relation to real events. External eventfulness

stems from attempts to interpret a dream; I hence associate

the narrator's viewpoint with external eventfulness as narra-

tors remember and retell dreams in the context of their real-life

experience. The internal eventfulness consists in the dream's

scenario and its suspense. It correlates with the dream concep-

tualizer's viewpoint that functions rather independently from

the conscious narrator’s knowledge and attitudes. Double

manifestations of the categories of eventfulness and narrator in

dream narratives allow to classify these narratives as a consist-

ent narrative genre, the oneiric narrative. In addition, I divulge

the reflective nature of dream retelling as a practice, which

resides in the aesthetic and artistic perception of the dream

rendering an imaginary, fictional world.

 

Ніколаєнко, В. О., (викладач кафедри англійської філології Харківського національного університету імені В. Н. Каразіна). "ЖАНРОВА СПЕЦИФІКА ОНІРИЧНОГО НАРАТИВУ." Науковий вісник Міжнародного гуманітарного університету. Сер.: Філологія  55 (2022)  ("Dream Reports: A Narrative Genre").

https://doi.org/10.32841/2409-1154.2022.55.16

2025