Abstract ‘Unnatural’ narratology has been a thriving new field of narrative theory in recent years. What its various sub-fields share is that they are concerned, very broadly, with narratives that transcend the parameters of conventional realism. One of the field’s promises is that it can also account for earlier ‘unnatural’ narrative scenarios, for instance in ancient and medieval literature. Focusing on two recent publications by Alber and Richardson, this essay challenges the historical trajectory the movement envisages. Paying special attention to the influence of religion on premodern narratives and its implications for the concept of the unnatural, this essay argues that unnatural narratology is reductionist and adheres to a structuralist paradigm, and thus cannot do justice to the idiosyncrasies of premodern narrative forms and functions. An alternative approach to the unnatural as a dynamic form is introduced as an outlook.

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不自然的叙事学和前现代叙事：历史化形式

摘要近年来，“非自然”叙事学一直是叙事理论蓬勃发展的新领域。它的各个子领域所共有的是，它们广泛地涉及超越常规现实主义参数的叙述。该领域的承诺之一是，它也可以解释早期的“非自然”叙事场景，例如在古代和中世纪文学中。本文重点关注阿尔伯和理查森最近发表的两篇论文，对运动设想的历史轨迹提出了挑战。本文特别关注宗教对前现代叙事的影响及其对非自然叙事的影响，认为非自然叙事学是还原论者，并遵循结构主义范式，因此不能公正对待前现代叙事形式和功能的特质。 。