When do narratives appeal or disappeal?

Herman and Vervaeck state that "narrative texts can induce narrative interest thanks to the network in which they circulate and in which the reader takes part."[1] It is this very interest which makes narratives appealing. Pinpointing the narrative appeal on a specific aspect is impractical. Instead, it is possible to group the core stemming interests into categories.

In The Structure of Foreign News, Galtung and Ruge come to a satisfactory set of ideas that influence news value.[2] These factors include: "frequency, threshold, absolute intensity, intensity increase, unambiguity, meaningfulness, cultural proximity, relevance, consonance, predictability, demand, unexpectedness, unpredictability, scarcity, continuity, composition" and references to elite nations and people. News are a form of narrative. Therefore, the categories that Galtung and Ruge describe also apply to narratives and their appeal to the reader.

In The Disnarrated, Gerald Prince defines disnarrated as being the "unrealized possibility."[3] He goes on further to state that disnarrated "frequently consists of hopes, desires, imaginings and ponderings, unreasonable expectations and incorrect beliefs." Being a subcategory of narratives, the disnarrated takes its place in fictional works or worlds. By helping the overall narrative, the disnarrated is able to obtain the appeal of the audience and therefore makes the overall narrative appealing.

Gerald Prince also states that narratives become unnarratable when they are "below the so-called threshold of narratability."[4] He also states that "one narrator's unnarratable can very well be another's narratable [..]."[5] If someone decides to write a narrative on something that goes "below the accepted minimum level of functional relevance," they cross the threshold that Prince talks about. Once the threshold is crossed and the narrative lacks the functional relevance, it becomes disappealing. Using the same example that Prince uses of tying shoelaces, if the author does not bring any new exquisite or extraordinary ideas to the process, the narrative would cross the "threshold of narratability." Therefore, even though the author tried to narrate a task, it would not be appealing.

The effectiveness and in essence, the appeal of a narrative scales with the readers interest. This interest is gauged by many categories that accumulate to express an overall effectiveness of the appeal of a narrative to a person. On one extreme there are narratives that would perfectly fit into the above mentioned categories and spark the reader's interest. Meanwhile, there are other narratives which do not contain valuable input for any of the categories. Such narratives would be considered disappealing.

[1]Herman, L., Vervaeck, B. "Narrative Interest as Cultural Negotiation." NARRATIVE. Volume 17 (2009), Page 112.
[2]Galtung, Johan/Ruge, Mari Holmboe. "The Structure of Foreign News." The Presentation of the Congo, Cuba and Cyprus Crises in Four Norwegian Newspapers. Volume 2 (1965), Pages 70-71
[3]Prince, Gerald. "The Disnarrated." STYLE. Volume 21 (1988), Page 3.
[4]Prince, Gerald. "The Disnarrated." STYLE. Volume 21 (1988), Page 1.
[5]Prince, Gerald. "The Disnarrated." STYLE. Volume 21 (1988), Page 2.

The Dis/Appeal of Narratives

A narrative is a personal account of an event that can be very influential. The impact that a narrative has depends on the presence of its appeal and the absence of its disappeal.

In any narrative, certain representations are excluded. These are also known as the unnarratable, events that narratologist Gerald Prince defines as "cannot be narrated or is not worth narrating either because it transgresses a law or because it defies the powers of a particular narrator or because it falls below the so-called threshold of narratability" [1].

The disappeal of a narrative comes directly from the presence of the unnarratable, especially if it is used in the wrong context. For example, redundancies, minute details, and descriptions of common procedures will undermine the appeal of a narrative. Disappeal comes from transgressions of these social laws, which creates disapproval among the narratees.

Likewise, the disnarrated is content that is not essential or relative to the narrative at all. These fillers also mitigate the appeal of narratives unless they are used as rhetorical or hypothetical devices that help clarify the narrative. As Gerald Prince puts it, the "narrative, which is etymologically linked to knowledge, lives in certainty and dies from ignorance and indecision" [2].

Finally, the appeal of a narrative comes from its continuity, content, and the amount of interest that it inspires in its narratees. Opposite to the unnarratable, the narrativity is what gives appeal to the narrative and makes it tellable. According to narratologists Luc Herman and Bart Vervaeck, "a good, tellable story enables the reader to [assess the views and experiences of the characters]" [3]. Of course this implies that the effectiveness/appeal of a narrative ultimately depends on the opinions of its narratees.



[1] Prince, G. (1988). Style. The Disnarrated. Vol. 22, No. 1. pp 1.

[2] Prince, G. (1988). Style. The Disnarrated. Vol. 22, No. 1. pp 4.

[3] Herman, L., Vervaeck, B. (2009). Narrative. Narrative Interest as Cultural Negotiation. Vol. 17, No. 1. pp 116.