A narrative is the act of one or several people communicating events, fictional or non-fictional, to another. A narrative can be told through many different channels, such as oral, written, body gestures, paintings, and many more. Narrative has been a vehicle of communication since the beginning of time, since the time that people can put together events and share those events with another person. “Moreover, in this infinite variety of forms, it is present at all times, in all places, in all societies; indeed narrative starts with the very history of mankind; there is not, there has never been anywhere, any people without narrative...”[1] Through history societies have used narratives as a way to depict events within their personal life, events around the world, and others. Narratives have become an essential part of daily communication and begins from the fragile beginnings of a child combining words and creating a story.
A narrative is also a cycle of re-presentation from the original story to one person, to that one person’s version of the story to another person. It is an art when narratives become novels or paintings, “ but as true as it is that narratives can be an art and art thrives on narrative, narrative is also something we engage in, artist and non-artists alike.”[2] Narrative is an engagement between people, in which events are told and re-told time and time again. It has come to the point where the art of telling stories has been diminishing since people become unaware of the daily narratives that make up their daily lives.
[1] Bathes, Roland. “An introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narrative”. Volume 6, No.2 (1975), pg. 237. Print.
[2] Abbott, H. (n.d.). The Cambridge introduction to narrative (Second ed., p. 3). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press
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ReplyDeleteYour definition of narrative is well balanced, and descriptive; in particular the channels in which narratives are told, and the way you connected it to people who are artistic and to those who are not. The way in which you describe narrative as a "vehicle of communication" couldn't have been more accurate. Since narratives can be told in various forms, and like a vehicle, it travels and arrives at different destinations within the audience. Each and every narrative can be perceived distinctively depending on whom it reaches. And just like the game of two-cans-and-a-string, "events are told and re-told time and time again", and like any story, narratives have the ability to be altered. Like Comparative Literature Professor at Yale University, Peter books states, "We live immersed in narrative, recounting and reassessing the meaning of our past actions, anticipating the outcome of our future projects, situating ourselves at the intersection of several stories not yet completed." Narratives do make up our daily lives, and we tend to alter what happens in our lives, at times to make it seem more interesting possibly, but more so I believe it is to find meaning in our own existence and humanity.
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Thank you for your response. I agree, narratives are used to find existence.
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