Understanding Narrative: Structure, Characters, and Time

Understanding Narrative

A narrative is a story told to convey what happens to characters in a specific time and place.

Difference Between History, Narrative Text, and Narrative

• History: Refers to the actual events that have occurred.
• Narrative Text: The message conveyed in the act of communication.
• Narrative: The story told; how the text appears to have a narrative.

Essential Elements of a Narrative

A narrative requires:

• Someone who tells the story (narrator)
• Characters to whom events happen
• A place and time for the events to occur

Types of Narrators

The narrator is the one who tells the story. They can be classified based on their involvement in the story and the grammatical person used:

• Internal Narrator: Involved in the story.
  • Autobiographical Narrator: The main character telling their own story, using the first-person singular (I, me).
  • Witness Narrator: Not the main character but a witness, using the third-person singular (he, she, it).
• External Narrator: Not involved in the story.
  • Omniscient Narrator: Knows everything in detail, including characters' thoughts, motivations, past, and future.
  • External Narrator: Conveys the story as if observing from the outside.

Character Types

• Protagonist: The character who acts most directly in the events and often gains the advantage or benefit.
• Secondary Characters: Other characters involved in the story.

Time in Narrative

Time in a narrative can be deduced from the succession of events. However, it is flexible and can move forward or backward through:

• Prolepsis: An "advance" or "flash-forward" to what will happen after a certain point.
• Analepsis: A "retrospection" or "flashback" to a past event.

Space in Narrative

Space is where the story takes place.

Narrative Structures

• Short Story: A narrative form focused on a particular event, often surprising to the reader, without delving into the consequences.
• Folk Tale and Fable: Among the oldest forms of narrative, transmitted orally from generation to generation.
• Parable: A folk tale or fable with a moral or teaching, often with no known authorship.