| Sumario: | This article investigates the value of the concept of narrativity and its modes for the investigation of the literary forms of non-Western cultures such as Japan's. Following Ben-Amos (1969), a distinction is made between 'ethnic' concepts of genre, which correspond to the types of text recognized by the members of a culture, and universally applicable 'analytical' concepts which form the building blocks of ethnic categories. 'Narrative' is shown to be one of these analytical concepts. This article situates narrative within the life of the mind through a Venn diagram, defines it in terms of several features whose presence or absence determine various degrees of narrativity, and outlines a descriptive theory that recognizes three types of 'modes of narrativity': semantic, discursive and pragmatic. The contribution of the study of the modes of narrativity to Japanese literature lies in the possibility of combining them in endless ways, creating ever new culture-specific literary forms.
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