A methodological proposal intersecting story, plot, and the structure of Social Network Analysis (SNA)

Authors

• Paulo Eduardo Silva Lins Cajazeira UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE PELOTAS https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8060-9358

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17058/rzm.v15i1.20797

Keywords:

Narrative Methodology, Applied Social Network Analysis, Plot Architecture, Narrative Intersectionality, Literary Data Modeling

Abstract

This study investigates literary and audiovisual narrative structures, proposing an innovative analytical method by adapting Social Network Analysis (SNA) principles to Narrative Analysis (NA). The work compares the theoretical foundations of Field (1992), Genette (2012), Wasserman and Faust (1994), and Recuero (2018), focusing on the distinction between story — the chronological sequence — and plot — the web of causality. The proposed methodology treats narrative as a network, where characters and concepts are nodes and their interactions constitute edges, allowing the visualization of the plot as a complex graph. The approach is illustrated by a comparative analysis of Brazil, a Land of the Future (Zweig) and the documentary Utopian Paradise (EBC). The objective is to promote the understanding of narrative architecture, revealing the relational gears that sustain meaning production and cognitive experience. It questions how the articulation between SNA and Narratology can provide a methodological tool for understanding narrative structure.