When I think of the word “narrative,” I am overcome by thoughts of long, descriptive stories that take hours or days, to read. Abbott defines narrative as, ”the representation of an event or a series of events” (1). This definition, which is obviously more educated than mine differs because a narrative can actually come in many forms, not only writing, but in movies and music. Also, a narrative doesn’t have to be as long as six hundred page book, but as short as a sentence, or stanza. In addition, the way a narrative is defined is greatly affected by the way a narrative is told. Take Twilight for example (the movie), if the voiceover of Bella’s timid, emotional voice was more happy and promising during a bad moment, the story wouldn’t quite make sense. Barthes and Duisit explain this in their article, ‘Narratives on Narritives,’ “it is in that self-emphasis of narrative that the units at the lowest level take on their full significance” (2).
Abbot, H. Porter. The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Barthes, Roland and Duisit, Lionel. “On Narrative and Narratives”. New Literary History. Vol.6 No.2 (1975)
I like how you used an example we're are all very familiar with to express the importance of narratives. The separate explanations helps to better understand them as well.
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