What is a Narrative?

Narrative is presented to society in various different forms and structures. These include “articulated language, whether oral or written, pictures, still or moving, gestures, and an ordered mixture of all those substances; narrative is present in myth, legend, fables, tales, short stories, epics, history, tragedy, drame [suspense drama], comedy, pantomime, paintings stained-glass windows, movies, local news, conversation.” [1] Everyone holds their own form of narrative; it does not hold any judgment or prejudice; it is “present at all times, in all places, in all societies” for all humans. As Barthes puts it, “narrative is a random assemblage of events” [1] and comes in boundless amounts. To analyze the infinite number of narratives, it is beneficial to focus on a gradual logic method. By breaking down each measure of the description, a final level of classification can be achieved. The structural form of narrative can be truly defined by simply looking at a sentence’s linguistics. By providing a “decisive concept,” it becomes easier to clarify “the enormous mass of elements that go into the making of a narrative.” [1]

Narrative is a feature that presents itself almost immediately once someone has engaged in a conversation. It serves in society just as many other everyday aspects, entering the realm as a “distinctive human trait.” Abbot cannot summarize the importance and overall impact that narrative has more perfectly when he explains how “the gift of narrative is so persuasive and universal that there are those who strongly suggest that narrative is a “deep structure,” a human capacity genetically hard-wired into our minds.” [2] Narrative’s gift is that it allows different events in history to be placed in a set order. This allows for an easier way to make sense of a chain of events. By listing events in a particular order, narrative itself steps aside and allows them to “create the order of time.” It is a simple task of coordination, or as Abbot so eloquently puts it, “the principal way in which our species organizes its understanding of time.” [2]

[1] Barthes, Roland. An Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narrative. United States of America. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975. Book. p. 237-239.

[2] Abbot, H. The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative. Cambridge University. Cambridge University Press, 2008. Book. p. 1-5.