A narrative logically lays out the foundations of events within a story. A narrative contains descriptive elements that allow the reader to understand the story and what the author is trying to convey. It can be a descriptive measure of time and helps the author to create a story of life. In fact, Abbott describes it as a, “principal way in which our species organizes its understanding of time” [1]. Life is a series of complicated emotional experiences many of which are impossible to describe at the moment of occurrence; what the narrative does is explain these unexplainable events in thoughtful descriptive tones. A narrative is not a cut and dry explanation of events, instead it uses language that evokes memories and beliefs of its readers that allows them to think of the literature in an unconventional way.
1. Abbott, H. Porter. "Narrative and Life, Defining Narrative." The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2008. Print
Your fifth sentence about life and emotional experiences really helps one realize how a narrative could relate to each individual.
ReplyDeleteYour opening sentence draws the reader in by straight up saying what a narrative is, in easily understood terms. This definitely helps the reader to clearly grasp the concept of what a narrative is.
You talked a lot about what a narrative is, in means of a book. However, I was wondering if you had considered what Abbott says about narratives happening all the time, because every time we tell someone something we did, we are telling a narrative. And therefore, there are so many different kinds of narratives. I am amazed at the different types that Abbott talks about, ranging from a piece of art to the type of narrative that you talked about.
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