結構主義敘事學的興起,有其理論源頭和理論前奏,理論源頭包括索緒爾對語言的關注和俄國形式主義對"形式"的重視,理論前奏包括英美對"視角"的關注、小說理論的貢獻、普羅普的《故事形態學》和列維-斯特勞斯的結構人類學研究。在這些理論準備之后,結構主義敘事學在法國興起,形成三種研究路徑:或是注重故事結構,或是注重作品的構成體系,或是注重敘述者的作用,這三個方面都取得了各自的成就。但結構主義敘事學在微觀層面和宏觀層面及其適用范圍方面,都有一定的局限。

The rise of structuralist narratology has its theoretical source and theoretical prelude. Its theoretical source includes Saussure’s concern of the language and Russian formalism’s attention to"form". Its theoretical prelude includes the concern of‘perspective’in the U. K. and the USA,the contribution to novel theory,Propp’s Morphology of the Folktale and the study of Lévi-Strauss’ s structure anthropology. After the preparations of the above theories,structuralist narratology emerged in France which developed into three research approaches: focusing on the story structure,focusing on the composition system of works and focusing on the function of the narrator. Though each approach has its own achievements,structuralist narratology has its limitations at the micro and macro levels,as well as in the scope of application.