What should be considered a narrative? an age old question

Defining the term narrative is no easy task; many scholars and philosophers have debated what constitutes a narrative. Some people believe the definition of a narrative should be very broad, and encompass many different forms of communication and information transfers. Other people believe in a more traditional definition of narratives; they must be stories which meet certain criteria. Which definitions are better is open to debate, but considering narratives have existed at least since civilizations took form, it is clearly an important tool of human interaction.

Matrin Kreiswirth offers a very general definition for the term narrative. According to Krieswirth, a narrative occurs whenever “Something happened; or better, someone telling something else that something happened. (294)” By this definition, basically all human interaction can be considered a narrative. Marie-Laurie Ryan has much more rigid guidelines for what is considered a narrative. According to her, a narrative must have spatial, temporal, mental, formal and pragmatic dimensions. Based on Ryan’s definition, a narrative must include a world that is undergoing a transformation, characters that care and respond to the transformation, and it must ultimately lead to closure and convey a meaningful message to the audience. Both of these definitions were coined by renowned scholars, but they are both very different. The question still remains, what should be considered a narrative?

There are aspects of each definition which, when combined, come out to a more complete definition of a narrative. Kreiswirth’s definitions main strength is its non-exclusivity. By having such a simple definition, many instances where information is transferred and a message is communicated that may not fit the traditional storytelling definition of a narrative are included. However its strength is also its weakness, because it is likely to include many interactions where no meaningful information is transferred. In this respect, Ryan’s definition has merit because it ensures that something is happening in the narrative, that actions and emotions will be present. According to Ryan, a narrative is not just words on paper or mindless communication—it requires a thoughtful human author, it cannot be developed by a computer programmed to write. A complete definition of a narrative would be any time a transformation happens and a character responds to this transformation with some sort of action. This definition includes forms of narratives other than just stories while also ensuring that they have some sort of meaning to the audience that is receiving them.

Kreiswirth, Martin: Merely Telling Sotries? Narrative and Knowledge in the Human Sciences. Poetics Today. 21:2 (Summer 2000), p. 294.

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