I’ve come across a bibliography of works published by the French Department at the University of Toronto. I am interested in the following item: Patte, Daniel. Organisation sémantique et narrativité. 1978-7[9?].
No sign of it in the university’s library catalogue. No mention showing up on the World Wide Web.
My interest was piqued by a little misreading. I read “semiotic” for “semantic”. I was wondering if the work by Daniel Patte would be an early theorizing of how a narrative drive influences human encounters with the stuff of perception. Just curious.
And so for day 568
03.07.2008
Addendum: There is a section in Carré sémiotique et syntaxe narrative. (Documents de recherches du groupe de recherches sémio-linguistiques de l’institut de la langue française, 1981) that has the following two headings “Organisation sémantique et narrativité dans un récit simple; Organisation sémantique et narrativité dans un texte complexe”. In that book, Patte acknowledges colleagues in Montréal: “L’élaboration de ce travail doit beaucoup à de nombreuses discussions […] mais aussi pour son ultime révision, aux questions soulevées et aux suggestions faites par le Groupe de Recherches Sémiotiques de l’Université de Montréal (sous la direction de M. Hammad) lors d’un séminaire (septembre 1980)” Might he also have visited the University of Toronto during that period. All speculation since I have yet to recover the document with the bibliographic reference to verify the transcription which at this remove looks erroneous. But there is still the University Archives to consult — there may be some clue in the documents relating to the activities of the French Department.