ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses the status and effects of narrativity, including its relationship to genres, science, categories, fact and fiction, as well as the normalizing function of narratives. It describes the political import of narratives and the interplay of resistance and dominance evident in the way narratives are elaborated and received, stressing that narrative both reproduces existing power structures and provides a means of contesting them. The book focuses on the four core features of narrativity, namely temporality, relationality, causal emplotment and selective appropriation. It provides four key strategies for mediating the narrative(s) elaborated in a source text or utterance: temporal and spatial framing, framing through selective appropriation, framing by labelling, and repositioning of participants. The book examines four types of narrative and the way in which translators and interpreters mediate their circulation in society.
