A narrative may best be described as a personal, creative process of human thought that consists of three parts: 1) an observation or construction of events and participants; 2) An evaluation of transformed events and mental organization of the transformed; and 3) A re-presentation of events. The process must result in a re-presentation or dispersion of the evaluated/ evolved transformations to be identified as a narrative.
To explain this personal definition of “narrative” stated above, it is necessary to look at the works of Abbott, Herman and Barthes to observe the elements presented among their work, to identify those elements as having been incorporated, though somewhat refined, to create the above definition. All three authors allude to the idea of the narrative existing within the human being, and not being a factor of cultural relativity. Abbott makes this idea explicit as he writes, “it is hard to believe that the appetite for narrative is something we learn rather than something that is built into our genes.” Abbott goes on to discuss how the narrative provides humans with a constant means of interpretation and a way to establish meaning and understand time. [i] Abbott stresses, however, the importance of one or more events for a narrative to exist. Without some change or interruption, Abbott contends that words are merely organized as a description and do not possess narrative quality.[ii] Herman identifies the event as essential to the narrative as well. Herman identifies four necessary dimensions for a narrative. The event aspect is represented in his “temporal dimension”. He refers to events as “transformations” that “must be caused by non-habitual physical events.”[iii] If the world described does not encounter these events or “transformations” Herman asserts that a narrative is not complete.
The definition above takes into consideration the innateness of the narrative, in that humans are, and always have been, constantly observers of events and participants, and that they also have the ability to construct their own events with its own participants and re-present them. In this way, any observation or thought has the potential to become a narrative if the other parts of the creative process follow. Pertaining to the necessary “event” or “transformation” as established by Abbott and Herman, respectively, the first part of the definition identifies the human being as either witnessing or creating a scenario and interruption. The second part is a process of organizing and evaluating the meaning of the transformed and the third component and last essential piece is process of creating a means or re-presenting the observed, created, evaluated and organized. (I used “re-presented” instead of “represented” to emphasize the need to show, or tell through a variety of mediums the process that occurred within the mind in its entirety, rather than representing it through more minimizing means such as symbols or abbreviations that could disturb or diminish the narrative.)
Because narrative cannot be confined to anyone genre or form, as supported by all three authors, a definition of narrative must be flexible enough to accommodate all of its forms and genres. Barthes identifies these forms as “vehicles” which are inclusive of forms such as spoken and written language and pictures, as well as genres such as myth, history, comedy and others.[iv] Because the individual processing the narrative through its three essential parts has the ability to re-present it in whichever form they choose, in an infinite number of ways, the narrative becomes a personal process of creativity.
[i] Abbott, H. (n.d.). The Cambridge introduction to narrative (Second ed., p. 3). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press
[ii] Abbott, H. (n.d.). The Cambridge introduction to narrative (Second ed., p. 13). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press
[iii] Herman, D. (2007). The Cambridge companion to narrative (pp. 28-29). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
[iv] Barthes, R. (1975). An introduction to the structural analysis of narrative. New Literary History, 6(2), 237.
No comments:
Post a Comment