Monday, November 5, 2012

The Hundred and One Dalmatians, by Dodie Smith

A fairly widely accepted definition of narrative is that put forward latterly by Cohn, "a series of statements that deal with a causally related sequence of events that concern human (or human-like) beings" (quoted in Richardson 170). But, as Richardson notes, this definition has the flaw of limiting itself to literature by neglecting rigorously visual forms of narrative such as those found in painting, dance, or mime. In choose, of course, there is usually a variety of the visual and the verbal. But, as in 101 Dalmatians, narrative hindquarters, at times, proceed without the assistance of verbal means. Thus Richardson proposes that a bump definition states that "narrative is a representation of a causally related series of events" (170). Causality is perhaps over-stressed in this definition, since narratives argon not uncommon in which spring is of minor importance, as in a pic atomic number 18sque tale, or in which a great deal of non-related material exists comfortably alongside the causally related events. But for the purposes of the discussion of the sequence from 101 Dalmatians causality is a signalise element.

In any work featuring narrative, however, or so particular type of narratological code is employed. The code is "a key that shows how the text itself works" and is "a privileged construc


Herek, Stephen (dir.). 101 Dalmatians. Walt Disney: 1996.

From the beginning of the novel Smith strenuously works to establish the conventions of her fantasy world in which dogs (and cats) can acquire comprehension of human speech while military man never understand that they are being understood in this way. The novel employs such comic touches as the dogs' benevolence in taking their 'pets' for walks and pitying them for being unable to understand dog's-tooth violet speech. The degree to which these terms are reiterated is rather extreme, albeit understandable, perhaps, in a book intended for a very young audience. The spare-time activity example occurs after the ground-rules have already been established and reiterated numerous times:

Cohn, Dorrit. The Distinction of Fiction. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1999.
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In the novel a couple of Dalmatians (genus Pongo and Missis Pongo) and their respective owners (Mr. and Mrs. Dearly) marry and the dogs produce a herd of fifteen puppies which are then stolen by a former schoolmate of Mrs. Dearly, Cruella De Vil, whose passion for fur takes her to ridiculous lengths to secure a Dalmatian coat. The puppies (and many more) are recovered by the efforts of Pongo and Missis (called Perdita in the film, after one of Smith's canine characters who was dropped) and the operating theatre of a network of dog communication called the "Twilight Barking." in that location are many variations between the two works in terms of plot and characters, but these basic aspects of the plot are repeated in the film, except that Cruella De Vil is the young woman's employer rather than a social acquaintance. The villain is portrayed in both cases in comically exaggerated form, but the exaggeration in the film is many times greater.

Amiran, Eyal. "After Dynamic Narratology." Style 34 (2000): 212-23.

In these passages of the novel (and many others like them) the narratological code does and then worm its way to the surface thanks to the author's repeated attempts to sort out t
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