ABSTRACT
There is currently a bifurcation in the theorizing and practicing of comparative narratology that reflects a larger division in postclassical narratology between structuralism and contextualism. My article proposes to bridge their gap by considering a geohistorically variable cultural narrative as a constitutive structure of all individual narratives, constantly engaged in dialogic interactions with its host narratives. I offer a comparative analysis of Infernal Affairs and The Departed to illustrate how such an understanding of narrative structure informs interpretive practices by inviting investigations on the dynamic interactions between individual and cultural narratives. Specifically, my analysis demonstrates how cultural narratives strongly influence the narrative as well as stylistic choices of the filmmakers, hence their differences in the representation of essentially the same story, and how both films reinforce or challenge their cultural narratives in return.
