Cover not available
Article published In:
Localization and Interculturality
Edited by Maria-Cornelia Wermuth and Priscilla Heynderickx
[The Journal of Internationalization and Localization 3:2] 2016
► pp. 113–132

Cultural dimensions and an intercultural study of narratorial behavior

This paper introduces the concept of ‘cultural dimension’ as developed in intercultural communication, into the field of intercultural narrative studies. Since cultural dimensions describe and explain social human behavior, the question emerges whether they can also help to study narratorial behavior. If so, cultural dimensions may assist scholars to study the cultural localization of global values in narratives. When conceiving of narrative as the representation of characters acting in situations, one may distinguish two levels of narrative behavior: the level of character behavior, i.e. the represented, and the level of a narrator behaving narratively, i.e. the representation. This paper focuses on the level of the narrative agency. Borrowing some classical concepts from narratology (real authors, implied authors, narrator, narratee, implied audience and real audiences), it examines how narratorial behavior may display cultural, i.e. localized values at various levels. By way of conclusion, this essay suggests how the concept of ‘cultural dimension’ could assist a study of cross-cultural audience empathy.
Keywords: cultural dimension, localized values, cross-cultural audience empathy
Published online: 21 December 2016
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jial.3.2.01cat
References (35)
Bearden, William O., Bruce R. Money, and Jennifer L. Nevins. 2006. ‘Multidimensional versus Unidimensional Measures in Assessing National Culture Values: The Hofstede VSM 94 Example’. Journal of Business Research 591: 195–203. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Booth, Wayne. 1991. The Rhetoric of Fiction. 2nd Edition. London: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Bordwell, David. 1985. Narration in the Fiction Film. London, New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
. 2008. Poetics of Cinema. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bordwell, David, Kristin Thompson, and Janet Staiger. 1985. The Classical Hollywood Cinema. Film Style and Mode of Production to 1960. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Carroll, Noël. 2001. ‘On the Narrative Connection’. In New Perspectives on Narrative Perspective, 21–41. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
. 2011. ‘On Some Affective Relations between Audiences and the Characters in Popular Fictions’. In Empathy. Philosophical and Psychological Perspectives, 162–84. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cattrysse, Patrick. forthcoming. ‘Cultural Dimensions and an Intercultural Study of Screenwriting’. In Transcultural Screenwriting: Telling Stories for a Global World. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
. 2010. ‘The Protagonist’s Dramatic Goals, Wants and Needs’. Journal of Screenwriting 1 (1): 83–97. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chatman, Seymour. 1980. ‘What Novels Can Do That Films Can’t (And Vice Versa)’. Critical Inquiry 7 (1): 121–40. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
de Waal, Frans. 2009. The Age of Empathy. Nature’s Lessons for a Kinder Society. New York: Harmony Books.Google Scholar
Genette, Gérard. 1972. Figures III. Collection Poétique. Paris: Editions du Seuil.Google Scholar
Grodal, Torben. 2009. Embodied Visions. Evolution, Emotion, Culture, and Film. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hall, Edward T. 1966. The Hidden Dimension. New York: Anchor Books Editions.Google Scholar
. 1976. Beyond Culture. New York: Anchor Books Editions.Google Scholar
Hall, Stuart. 1980. ‘Encoding/Decoding’. In Culture, Media, Language, 128–39. London: Hutchinson.Google Scholar
Hofstede, Geert. 1980. Culture’s Consequences. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
. 2001. Culture’s Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions, and Organizations across Nations (2nd Ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Hofstede, Geert, and Gert Jan Hofstede. 2005. Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. Revised and Expanded 2nd Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Keen, Suzanne. 2007. Empathy and the Novel. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kitcher, Philip. 2011. The Ethical Project. Cambridge MA; London: Harvard University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kluckhohn, Florence, and Frederick Strodtbeck. 1961. Variations in Value Orientations. Evanston, IL: Row, Peterson.Google Scholar
Liu, Shuang, Zala Volčič, and Cindy Gallois. 2015. Introducing Intercultural Communication. Global Cultures and Contexts. 2nd Edition. London: SAGE Publications Ltd.Google Scholar
Minkov, Michael, and Geert Hofstede. 2014. ‘Clustering of 316 European Regions on Measures of Values: Do Europe’s Countries Have National Cultures?’ Cross-Cultural Research 48 (2): 144–76. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Morton, Adam. 2011. ‘Empathy for the Devil’. In Empathy. Philosophical and Psychological Perspectives, 318–30. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nünning, Ansgar F. 2005. ‘Reconceptualizing Unreliable Narration: Synthesizing Cognitive and Rhetorical Approaches’. In A Companion to Narrative Theory, 89–107. London: Blackwell Publishing. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Parsons, Talcott. 1951. The Social System. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Phelan, James. 2005. Living to Tell about It: A Rhetoric of Ethics and Character Narration. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Rimmon-Kenan, Shlomith. 1983. Narrative Fiction: Contemporary Poetics. New Accents. London, New York: Methuen Publishing Ltd. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rotter, Julian B. 1966. ‘Generalized Expectations for Internal versus External Control of Reinforcement’. Psychological Monograph 6091: 1–28. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schwartz, Sholom. 1994. ‘Beyond Individualism/collectivism: New Cultural Dimensions of Values’. In Individualism and Collectivism: Theory, Method, and Applications, 85–119. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Smith, Brandon (2015) A Moral Code for the Post-Collapse World, available online: [URL]; visited on 06-01-2016.Google Scholar
Trompenaars, Fons, and Charles Hampden-Turner. 1998. Riding the Waves of Culture. Understanding Cultural Diversity in Global Business. 2nd edition. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Verstraten, Peter. 2008. Handboek Filmnarrotologie. 2nd edition. Nijmegen: Vantilt.Google Scholar
Wimsatt, William K., and Monroe C. Beardsley. 1946. ‘The Intentional Fallacy’. Sewanee Review 541: 468–88.Google Scholar
Cited by (3)

Cited by three other publications

Ashok, Pratiksha
2023. Game localization: A comparative case study of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG Mobile) in India and China. Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds 15:2 ► pp. 129 ff. DOI logo
Cattrysse, Patrick
2021. Screenwriting: Between Art and Craft. Palabra Clave 24:2 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
O’Hagan, Minako, Julie McDonough Dolmaya & Hendrik J. Kockaert
2019. Pandemic, localization and change of guard. The Journal of Internationalization and Localization 6:2 ► pp. 69 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 4 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.