A Narratological Analysis of Surah Nūh on the Basis of Barthes and Genette's Viewpoints

Narratology is a new approach, derived from linguistics, for analyzing the techniques and the structures of narrations, and through it, it seeks to find the narrative's grammar. Methods and views of narratology can provide us with better and more accurate analyses of Quranic stories and illuminate new manifestations of the beauty and the miracle of the Quran. The Holy Surah Nūh is entirely devoted to Noah's (UHBP) story, and it is unique among all Quranic surahs in this respect. The main purpose of the present analytical-descriptive study was using ideas proposed by two French narratologists, i.e. Roland Barthes and Gerard Genette, to narratologically analyze the aforementioned surah. The findings of this study show that the combination of these two thinker's views on two spheres of narratological functions and narratological discourse yields an appropriate model for the analysis of Quranic stories. This model opens one's path to achieving learnings on the one hand and reveals some structural beauties concealed in the Quranic stories on the other hand.