Cognitive types of causality in the plot of a novel

Abstract

Since ancient times, narrative has been perceived as closely linked to causality. In his Poetics, Aristotle establishes that a well-constructed plot must have a beginning, a development and a conclusion, with each event linked to the previous and subsequent ones according to the laws of necessity or verisimilitude. This classical conception, although reinterpreted and adapted over the centuries, remained dominant until the nineteenth century. At the same time, it seems indisputable that the evolution of the novel between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries can be read as a progressive redefinition, leading to its dissolution, of the principle of narrative causality. This contribution seeks to highlight the cognitive types of causality that seem to be predominant in the plot of novels from naturalism to postmodernist fiction.