ABSTRACT
The researches into narrative structure of A.J.Greimas and Tzvetan Todorov-and, more lately, Claude Brémond and Mieke Bal-have sought to establish a concern with plot within the main arena of contemporary literary interests. Thomas Pavel’s The Poetics of Plot is a product of this recent history but holds out the prospect of breaking new ground in narratology by synthesizing and expanding on views already established. Pavel acknowledges the importance of Greimas, Todorov, Brémond, and others, yet proposes a new narrative grammar (designed to deal with the intricacies of Renaissance drama plot arrangements) which, he maintains, is better able to account for plot advance, the role of characters, and the relations between narrative and meaning. Against the strategies of Bal (and also Gérard Genette), Pavel holds that a discursive approach to plot precludes the study of narrative in the abstract and so rules out the possibility of extending this to other story-based activities such as drama, film, and narrative painting.
