A successful narrative is one an audience can understand, interpret, and relate to. These three key elements can be found in any successful narrative. Contrarily, an unsuccessful narrative lacks one or more of these elements. A type of an unsuccessful narrative is the “disnarrated”, as coined by Prince.[1]
The successful narrative can be understood by its audience. This means reading/hearing a story, and comprehending the basic facts of the story. It is the narrator’s responsibility to present the facts to the audience in a clear and simple matter, at risk of losing the audience. This is why successful narratives are often simple in nature, whereas the disnarrated often are ambiguous, or too complex for many.
The successful narrative also must be interpreted by the audience. Abbot defines interpretation as “expressing in one’s own way the meanings …communicated by a text.” [2] Whereas understanding is accepting information, interpreting is the next step- decoding information. This is the process where the viewer weighs the facts he/she has just been presented with, and asks, “What does this mean?” Successful narratives can both be easily interpreted, and the interpreted nature is deemed important.
The third (and arguably most important) element of the successful narrative is its ability to which the audience can relate. There must be something in the narrative with which the audience can identify- this could be proximity of the narrative, magnitude of an event, or some other aspect the viewer can connect to his/her own life. This brings Abbot’s definition of intertextuality to a new level; A viewer will only care about a story in which he can see himself. [3] If a viewer cannot connect with a story, or see a story’s impact in a personal way, the narrative will fail.
[1] Prince, Gerald: Narratable. In: Dictionary of Narratology, p.56f.
[2]Abbott, H. Porter: The Cambridge Companion to Narrative (Cambridge Introductions to Literature). Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002, p.236.
[3]Abbott, H. Porter: The Cambridge Companion to Narrative (Cambridge Introductions to Literature). Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002, p.236.
After reading your opinion of what are the 3 elements to a successive narrative, I would have to agree with all of them. Although incorporating the ability of making the audience relate to the narrative is important, I believe that it is not necessary the most vital element. As long as the audience can interpret the narrative, either in a positive or negative way, then the narrative itself should be regarded naturally as appealing.
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