Vol. 31, No. 8
This article argues that combining oral poetics with narratology—an "inherent" or internality-based approach—offers a powerful lens for contemporary epic studies, and applies it to the living oral tradition of Naxi Dongba epics. Drawing on Tzvetan Todorov's tripartite model of narrative perspective (omniscient, internal/limited, and external), the author examines Dongba epic texts and finds that they are dominated by an omniscient-limited perspective, supplemented by two additional modes: a predictive (prophetic) perspective and an emotion-oriented perspective. Crucially, in actual ritual performance contexts, these perspectives are not fixed but undergo continual transformation, interaction, and integration. The study links this multiplicity to deep structural factors: plot development, prophetic utterances, emotional experience, and the ritual field in which performance occurs. The paper thus reveals how narrative viewpoint in oral epic is dynamically shaped by performative and ritual context rather than remaining a static textual property.
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