Discussion of narrative : What is it?

By Emre Akhlaghi

A narrative is some kind retelling , often in words (though it is possible to mimew a story), of something that happende (a story). The narrative is not the story itself but rather the telling of the story - which is why it is so often used in phrases such as “written narrative,” “oral narrative” etc. While a story just is a sequence of events, a narrative recounts those events, perhaps leaving some occurences out becuase they are from some perspective insignificant, and perhaps emphasizing others.In a series of events, a car crash takes a spilit second. A narrative account, however, might be almost entirely about the crash itself and the few seconds leading up to it. Narratives thus shape history (the series of events, the story of what happened). Units.miamioh.edu Definition

What is narrative?

First person narrative First person narrative is when the story is told from first person perspective. It's used to understand and relate to the protagonists feelings and thoughts. Limited to one character's opinion.

First person narrative example :Goodfellas (1990)

Protagonist Henry Hill “As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster”

Second person narrativeThe second-person narrative is a narrative mode in which the protagonist or another main character is referred to by second person pronouns and other kinds of addressing froms , for example the English second-person pronoun “you.” (Google definiton)

Second person narrative example:Fight Club (1999)

“You wake up at O’Hare. You wake up at LaDuardia. You wake up at Logan

Third person narrativeA third person narrative is a story told by a narrator who is not a character/person in the story. Characters will be referred to as ‘she/he’ or ‘they’.

Third person narrative example :Bright Lights , Big City (1988)

“You are not the kind of guy who would be at a place like this at this time in the morning. But here you are , and you cannot say that the terrain is entirely unfamiliar, although the details are fuzzy”.

The End