From Epistolary Novels to Chat Fiction: A Comparative Study of Narrative Order and Duration

Abstract

This study compares the narrative forms in epistolary novels, a story in letters, and chat fiction: a story that is being told through text messages, using Gerard Genette’s narratology (order and duration) to compare the narrative structure between them. The samples are collected from four literary texts based on three-step media timeline: Dangerous Liaisons, TTYL, Private Chat, and WHO #KraiEekKhon. The study shows an epistolary novel’s arranges narrative order using a nonlinear, complete analepsis. At the same time, chat fiction may cause the narrative order to be more chronologically arranged with the combination the structural fragmentation of partial analepsis. In the case of narrative duration, a letter can cause the narrative duration of an epistolary novel to be comprised of “summary” and “descriptive pause”. Conversely, transitional print chat fiction (TTYL) simulates a typographical “scene”, whereas chat fiction platform enforces a dynamic “scene”, and “pauses” generated by simulated pace configuration and typing indicators (...). Furthermore, while both types of novels frequently use ellipses in their narratives, the structural delivery varies from the ellipsis between or implicitly within letters to the ellipsis between or within the chat box, introducing internal temporal skips within a continuous scrolling thread that simulates a state of “connected presence”. Finally, the observation shows that communication tools as a narrative medium significantly influence the construction of the narrative discourse, especially narrative order and time, which significantly cause different dramatic effects and shape the exploration of narrative themes such as love, affairs, gossip, friendship, and psychological horror.