Narrative is best defined by Roland Barthes: "Among the vehicles of narrative are articulated language, whether oral or written, pictures, still or moving, gestures, and an ordered mixture of all those substances."[1] To go even further, I would say that narrating is a form of art, a skill that takes takes practice and creativity. The whole idea of a narrative, or story, can change when different words are used by the narrator. The narrator paints a picture to the naratee(s) of an event of object. If the narration is weak, the naratee is not engulfed in the story as one would be with a more convincing, or better narrative.
Furthermore, there are two types of narrative: those that involve words and those that do not. Each form of narration has a discourse, or a way in which the narrative is exposed to the naratee. "The sentence, writes Martinent, is the smallest segment that is perfectly and systematically representative of discourse."[2] For non-word narrations - a discourse is the material used: for example an painting's discourse is the canvas and the oils used. In addition, for there to be a narrative there must be a narrator: someone telling the story, and a naratee: someone who is there to hear/see/be the story and to interpret it- "a narrative cannot take place without a narrator and a listener."[3]
I will go in so far as to say that narrative is very subjective to every listener. When someone hears a song or sees a photo, they experience a mix of intense (if the art is good) emotions that define the meaning of that narrative. These emotions vary from person to person - each listener gets a different, "unique", copy of the the narrative and is left to draw his/her own conclusions about it. What is important is that a narrative is only as good as its naratee.
[1] Barthes, Roland, and Lionel Duisit. "An Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narrative."New Literary History 6.2 (1975): 237. Print.
[2] Barthes, Roland, and Lionel Duisit. "An Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narrative."New Literary History 6.2 (1975): 239. Print.
[3] Barthes, Roland, and Lionel Duisit. "An Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narrative."New Literary History 6.2 (1975): 260. Print.
You refer to narrating as an "art" and a "skill". In your opinion, what qualities of a narrator would result in a more effective narration?
ReplyDeleteI like your concluding sentence, that a "a narrative is only as good as its narratee." It's very well put because the true resounding effect of a narrative is most shaped by those consuming it. It takes a sophisticated person to examine not only the narrative itself but also the narrator and what his/her intentions in telling the story may be - which is why as we become adults we begin to clearly see the absurdity in certain media such as kids' toy commercials and fox news.
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