Genette in Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method. They are primarily used to look at the syntax of narratives, rather than to perform an interpretation of them. Order Say a story is narrated as follows: the clues of a murder are discovered by a detective (event A); the circumstances of the murder are finally revealed (event B); and lastly the murderer is caught (event C). Add corresponding numbers to the lettered events that represent their order chronologically: 1, 2, and 3. If these events were described chronologically, they would run B1, A2, C3. Arranged in the text, however, they run A2 (discovery), B1 (flashback), C3 (resolution). This accounts for the 'obvious' effects the reader will recognise, such as flashback. It also deals with the structure of narratives on a more systematic basis, accounting for flash-forward, simultaneity, as well as possible, if rarely used, effects. These disarrangements on the level of order are termed 'anachrony'. Frequency The separation between an event and its narration allows several possibilities. An event can occur once and be narrated once (singular). 'Today I went to the shop.' An event can occur many times and be narrated once (iterative). 'I used to go to the shop.' An event can occur once and be narrated many times (repetitive). 'Today I went to the shop' + 'Today he went to the shop' etc. An event can occur many times and be narrated many times (multiple). 'I used to go to the shop' + 'He used to go to the shop' + 'I went to the shop yesterday' etc. Duration The separation between an event and its narration means that there is discourse time and narrative time. These are the two main elements of duration. "Five years passed", has a lengthy narrative time, five years, but a short discourse time (it only took a second to read). James Joyce's novel Ulysses has a relatively short narrative time, twenty-four hours. Not many people, however, could read Ulysses in twenty-four hours. Thus it is safe to say it has a lengthy discourse time. Voice Voice is concerned with who narrates, and from where. This can be split four ways. Where the narration is from? Intra-diegetic: inside the text. e.g. Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White Extra-diegetic: outside the text. e.g. Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles Is the narrator a character in the story? Hetero-diegetic: the narrator is not a character