A narrative is the telling of meaningful events that occur. There are many different ways in which narratives appear, and various ways in which they are structured, communicated and/or expressed. As humans, we each have the ability to create and shape our own individual stories until the day that we die, and even after, there are some accounts that continue to be re-told for hundreds, and thousands of years (i.e, war and conquest narratives, biblical stories, etc). Nonetheless, narratives require one thing: relevance to some audience. "The fact remains, however, that a narrative is made up solely of functions: everything, in one way or another, is significant." [1] Whether it is of importance to the narrator, or to any audience; and even in its own meaninglessness, there's still a point. Therefore, everyone has a narratives; has a story of their own, whether it's relevant to millions, or to just one sole person.
"We make narratives many times a day, everyday of our lives", states Abbott in his work, The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative. It can be as simple, and light-hearted as a two year old fishing for words to explain why they're upset for the first time, or as complex, and affecting as a Holocaust survivor recalling their horrific experience. [2] A narrative can involve an exchange between a narrator and a narratee, or between numerous narrators and narratees. [3] There is no limits as to how many people can partake in a discourse, or how they all go about doing so, or how a narrative can be perceived. Thanks to technological advancements in the way in which people interact, (i.e the internet, blogs, motion pictures, 24/7 news channels, video chatting, instant messaging, social networks, text messages, etc), all of those with access are now able to go about sharing, exchanging, and responding to narratives very differently than ever before. Technological advancements have changed the way in which a reader can interpret the elementary act of "someone telling someone else that something happened". [4] More than ever before there are countless ways to demonstrate the happening of an event, and just as well, there are endless ways to perceive them, and their importance or lack of.
[1]Barthes, Roland. "Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narrative". New Literary History, Vol. 6, No. 2, On Narrative and Narratives (1975), p. 244. Print.
[2]Abbott, H. Porter. The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative. 2cnd Ed. Cambridge University press. P. 1. Print.
[3]Prince, Gerald: Dictionary of Narratology. Revised edition. Lincoln, London: University of Nebraska Press 2003, P. 58.
[4] Kreiswirth, Martin: Merely Telling Stories? Narrative and Knowledge in the Human Sciences. Poestics Today 21:2 (Summer 2000), p. 294.
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ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your posting, Ruth. I agree that our narratives have no expiration date since our stories can be retold time and time again. When a person dies the narratives that he or she has told will live on with the audience. Narratives become a cycle of telling and re-telling. That cycle is seen on a daily basis with something like gossip. One person can tell a narrative of something they witnessed and they can alter what they actually witnessed and go on to tell their audience. As soon as the audience gets a hold of the persons account they become to narrator of another persons story. It because a vicious cycle that spreads like wild fire.
ReplyDeleteI love your metaphor, "it becomes a vicious cycle that spreads like wild fire". I agree that definitely describes the way in which narratives tend to spread, especially nowadays, considering all of the mediums that people might have available to them.
ReplyDeleteHowever, even though I believe that some narratives have lasted for hundreds or thousands of years (i.e narratives of the Civil War, and Biblical stories, etc), and they have not expired, and continue to be re-told with relevance to our lives today, it's not certain that they will last forever. I went back to my blog post, and noticed regardless of how long something has been relevant, even if it is thousands of year, it doesn't mean it will always be that way and so my saying that a particular narrative has "no expiration date", is incorrect. I just wanted to clarify, and edit my thoughts on the relevance of a narrative. Something could have been relevant for as long humanity remembers, but who's to say humanity is permanent? The fact is that things are always changing. Though Barthes makes a great point in saying that, "everything, in one way or another, is significant" [1], it doesn't mean everything is permanent.
Barthes, Roland. "Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narrative". New Literary History, Vol. 6, No. 2, On Narrative and Narratives (1975), p. 244. Print. [1]