Defining Narrative

What is Narrative?

“World-making is so much a part of most narratives” (173)

Aristotle defined narrative as “the mode of imitation of the epic (a poetic genrethat uses narrative to convey its plot to the audience), which is conveyed to the audience by a single storyteller or rhapsode, in contrast to the tragedy, in which the story is dramatized by the speech of actors and a chorus” (Poetics).

I would like to begin forming my definition around this aspect of narrative, “imitation of the epic,” and its lack of dramatization. The narrative, whether fiction or nonfiction, tells a truth.

Building off of Artistotle’s definition and this idea of a poetic truth, I would like to add some thoughts from Abbot.

The truth inherent in nonfiction narrative is cannot be completely true, as it is always told from some sort of biased perspective, whether intended or not; “what most audiences expect in historical narratives is not the truth but the intent to tell the truth” (Abbot 146).

For nonfiction narrative truth is less concrete. “Artistotle called this kind of truth philosophical or universal truth and compared it favorably to the kind of truth found in history, which was chained to the specifics of what has actually happened” (Abbot 153). This is the truth of life, with the narrative only serving as an example demonstrating the large abstract truths that connect us as humans. After all, Abbot cites truth as “the distinctive human trait” (Abbot 1). Plato calls this “Absolute Truth”; any fictional narrative carries with it ideas about the world that are not so much in the world to begin with as they are applied to it (Abbot 153).

Thus our realities are constructed from these narratives that emanate similar “truths”; we create narratives to make sense of the world. Abbot says, “Reality in other words is itself and effect that we subliminally decode” (Abbot 154-55). Just as news narratives construct our reality and our perception of what is important in the world, we shape our own realities; so they are in fact our own “experiential reality.” Abbot cites the example of what is supposed to be the truest, nonfiction: “Actual historical people and events cannot be separated from the feelings that we may have about them and the convictions we may have about what, in history, went right and wrong” (Abbot 152).

With all this in mind, I would like to attempt to convey my own definition of narrative, after a few more examples of Abbot’s definitions:

“The field of narrative is so rich that it would be a mistake to become invested in a more restrictive definition that requires either more than once event or the sense of casual” (Abbot 13). I agree with Abbot’s less specific approach (as opposed to Herman’s) and will aim to keep mine concise and clear, but not restrictive.

Narrative is “chrono-logic”: it entails movement through time not only externally (duration of the presentation of the novel, film, play), but also internally (duration of the sequences of events that constitute the plot)” i.e. an essay does not have internal time (Abbot 16). Narrative must involve both these forms of times to make sense, thus I must include this piece in my definition.

My definition: Narrative is the organization chronological events of the world that when produced transmit a truth, assisting in the greater construction of what we think of as reality.

Abbott, H. Porter. “The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative.” New York: Cambridge University Press. (2008) Print.

Aristotle. Poetics. Trans. S. H. Butcher. The Internet Classics Archive. Web Atomic and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 13 Sept. 2007. Web. 10 Oct. 2010. ‹http://classics.mit.edu/›.