Originating in Russian Formalism, the terms fabula and sujet describe two different aspects of the timeline of events in a narrative. The fabula of a story is the sequence of events as they are experienced in the world of the characters. In contrast, the sujet is the sequence of events as they are presented to the reader. This distinction is based in what literary scholar Dr. Ritivoi calls the “fundamental narratological assumption: that the universe of utterance and the uttered world … are distinct” (27). The author’s words as they are given to the reader make up the sujet, but the characters belong to a world where those same actions proceed in a chronological manner, known as the fabula. If the reader and the characters proceed through the story in the same sequence, fabula and sujet coincide. However, creative choices in crafting the sujet profoundly influence the reader’s interpretation of the fabula. The sujet affects the reader’s perception of cause and effect, allows for satisfactory moments of discovery, and can build suspense or relieve it.
The reader only has direct access to the sujet, but from that knowledge he or she reconstructs the fabula. As author Doxiadis describes, “Narratives flow linearly in time, yet they mediate between worlds that are largely nonlinear … like specific paths taken through these worlds—partial, linear views of nonlinear environments” (81). The fabula is a linear path of events in the characters’ world, yet the author’s crafting of the sujet can better convey the rich non-linearity of the world in which these characters exist.
In Mrs. Dalloway the sujet frequently departs from the fabula as characters remember past events, offering flashbacks for the reader. This effect parallels the non-linear form of the characters’ thoughts as they constantly make connections between experiences in other times and places. In other narratives the sujet and fabula differ even more drastically. In Speak, Memory, Nabokov’s autobiography, the chronology of his life is rarely considered. Stories shift from one moment to another with coherency found in topic or motivation rather than time. Nabokov acknowledges this, warning readers, “I confess I do not believe in time. I like to fold my magic carpet, after use, in such a way as to superimpose one part of the pattern upon another. Let visitors trip.” (139). His construction of the sujet offers readers a richer sense of the fabula of his life than if the two ran synchronically.
Baldick, Chris. “Fabula.” The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2008. Oxford Reference. 2012. Web. 19 Oct. 2013
—. “Sjuzet.” The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2008. Oxford Reference. 2012. Web. 19 Oct. 2013
Doxiadis, Apostolos. “Narrative, Rhetoric, and the Origins of Logic.” StoryWorlds: A Journal of Narrative Studies 2.1 (2010): 77-99. Project Muse. Web. 16 Oct. 2013.
Nabokov, Vladimir. Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited. New York, NY: Vintage International, 1989. Print.
Ritivoi, Andreea D. “Explaining People: Narrative and the Study of Identity.” StoryWorlds: A Journal of Narrative Studies 1.1 (2009): 25-41. Project Muse. Web. 16 Oct. 2013.
Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway. Ed. Mark Hussey. Orlando, FL: Harcourt, 2005. Print.
– Hanna Torrence
Narrative and Memory 