Narrative Elements and Dramatic Genre Structures

Narrative Action and Plot Structure

Action: The narrative re-creation and the narrator are the sequence of events following an order called the mesh, which can conclude with the history. The classic schema organizes episodes into production, node, and outcome, but there may be alterations, such as starting the narration through the conflict or the end.

Character Classification and Development

The Characters: These are beings that carry out the action and can be classified as protagonists, secondary, and incidental. Characterization for these characters can be flat (they do not present psychological conflicts or evolve throughout the text) or round (they possess great psychological complexity and evolution through the narration).

Modes of Speech and Thought Playback

We can identify two playback modes of thought:

• Direct Playback (Direct Style): The speaker reproduces dialogue through introductory verbs. This includes the direct verbal exchange established between characters. When dialogue appears embedded in a narrative context and the foreign direct discourse disappears, it is considered narrativized. When we hear the voice of a single character, it is a monologue.
• Indirect or Mediated Playback:
  • Indirect Style: The narrator does not provide a literal reproduction of the speech or thoughts of the characters but conveys them in their own words and from their own point of view.
  • Free Indirect Style: This may appear when reproducing the thoughts and feelings of the characters directly within the narrative flow.

Temporal and Spatial Dimensions

Narrative Time and Techniques

Time: This refers to when and where the activities take place in a given moment. There are two types of time: history and discourse. In a narrative text, it is common to find anachronies, of which we distinguish two types:

ol>Analepsis: Retrospective recalls or jumps into the past.Prolepsis: Prospective anticipations or jumps into the future.

The author also uses certain techniques, including:

• Summary: A long time-span of history is summarized in a few lines.
• Scene: The contrary technique to summary, showing events in detail.
• Ellipsis: The omission or summarization of sectors of history in a few lines.
• Break: The opposite of an ellipsis, slowing the narrative pace.

Space and the Narratario

Space: This is where the resulting facts are spoken. The site of action may appear as real or unreal, existing only in the imagination of the author. In the latter case, we speak of the ideal and the fantastic.

The Narratario: Sometimes the receiver can appear within the narrative as a specific recipient of the narrative message.

The Dramatic Genre and Its Structure

The Dramatic Genre: This is identified with the theater and works that develop conflict through representation before a spectator.

Structure

• External: The work can be divided into acts and scenes. The entries and exits of characters mark the beginning or end of a scene.
• Internal: This consists of the dramatic action (formed by three elements: exposure, climax, and outcome) and the characters who perform the dramatic action.
• Language: The primary forms of expression are dialogue and the monologue.