Narratology and Imagology

Summarising recent developments in postclassical narratology and imagology, the article traces affinities between the two disciplines in order to observe the challenges that await the researchers of image and narrative in what Baudrillard called the simulation culture. Two case studies presented in the article (one devoted to Instagram visual narratives, the other – to a YouTube advertising campaign) illustrate challenges for the study of eventfulness, narrativity, and fictionality, and suggest - in line with the postulates of Mark C. Taylor and Esa Saarinen – that a radical change of educational and communicative practices is needed in contemporary Western societies. A change of this sort, it is postulated, might be instigated by the collaboration of researchers in visual studies and narrative theory.