ABSTRACT
In this excerpt from chapter 1 of Reading for the Plot (1984) Peter Brooks sets out to update and redefine the traditional concept of ‘plot’, fallen into disuse in the English-speaking world after the adverse criticism of such modernist critics as E. M. Forster. In line with French narratology, Brooks reiterates Aristotle's contention in the Poetics that plot, defined as ‘the combination of the incidents, or things done in the story’, is the most important element of narrative. He analyses various aspects of such concepts as the Russian formalist ‘fabula’ and ‘siuzhet’, Gérard Genette's ‘histoire’ and ‘discours’ and Jonathan Culler's ‘story’ and ‘discourse’, concluding that a purely structuralist definition of plot would be restrictive and inadequate. In order to be explanatory, the analysis of plot – understood as the organizing line of a narrative – should be able to take account of intentionality. To this end, Brooks proposes a leap beyond formalism and specifically towards Freudian psychoanalysis, which is in line with much feminist criticism of the 1980s. In this connection it is interesting to point out the similarity between the title of chapter 2 of Reading for the Plot, ‘Narrative Desire’, and Teresa de Lauretis' ‘Desire in Narrative’, also published in 1984, which is reprinted as chapter 17 of this book. But whereas de Lauretis applies Freudian psychoanalysis to the desire of the woman spectator in film, Brooks's re-reading of Freud remains male-oriented. The main emphasis of his formulation lies in his conception of narrative as a psychological structuring device which governs both human behaviour and the definition of self.
