What is a narrative?

The best definition is a simple one: an account of events as told by an intelligent source. The source does not necessarily have to be human; a computer can compile a list of events from history into a narrative.


Narratives are not just found in works of literature; they can also be found through everyday speech. For example, when you explain to a person what you did last night, the result is a narrative. It is also important to realize that lyrical verses (in music or in poetry) are different forms of narratives.[1]


Marie-Laure Ryan has perhaps the most elongated and detailed definition of a narrative.[2] Her definition may make sense in specific scenarios, but not in others. For example, she states that diaries and chronicles would not be considered narratives because they do not connect specific events and do not provide closure.[2] However, diaries must have connected events because they contain personal experiences which relate to a person's specific era which he/she lived in. Even if the diary entries are looked at as seperate events, each entry is considered a narrative. The same concept applies to chronicles and therefore makes this part of her definition false. Furthermore, I argue that a narrative does not need closure. Going back to the example of a compilation of a history of events, there is no end to history. As time keeps ticking, events happen. Therefore, in many new current narrative events, there may not be a specific closure of events.



A modern day example would be the events that are unravelling in Libya. If one was writing a narrative on the revolution happening in Libya, the writer would be ending his/her article with the latest report. However, the latest report may not provide sufficient closure due to new events occuring every few minutes. Thus, a narrative does not need to have closure; therefore, the simple definition still stands.







[1] Abbott, H. Porter. The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002, p.2.

[2] Ryan, Marie-Laure. Toward a Defintion of Narrative, in Herman, David (ed.): The Cambridge Companion to Narrative. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2007, p. 29.