What Is a Narrative? Definition, Usage, and Literary Examples Narrative Definition Narrative (NAIR-uh-tihv) is a spoken or written account of related events conveyed using certain literary techniques and devices. Narratives are seen throughout written works and other media, including prose , verse, movies and television shows, theater , music, video games, and podcasts. The word narrative derives from the Middle French narrative and originates with the Late Latin narrare , which means “to tell, relate, recount, explain.” It was first used in English in the 1560s to indicate “a tale, a story, a connected account of the particulars of an event or series of incidents.” The History of Narrative Storytelling For as long as human civilization has existed, people have been recounting narratives. The ways that narratives are expressed and transmitted to an audience has evolved through the centuries, but the essential impulse—to tell a story—has remained unchanged. Storytelling began with the oral tradition. Myths , legends, fables, ballads, and folktales were performed aloud to entertain and inform an audience. These narratives were memorized using mnemonic devices such as oral-formulaic composition, which utilizes repetition of the same phrases that fit into specific metrical conditions. The canonical spiritual works of world religions—such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, and Catholicism—have roots in the oral tradition, as do epic poems like Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey , the Norse Eddas and Sagas, the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh , and the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf . As written languages developed, they were used to transcribe narratives from the oral tradition. Some of the earliest written narratives are the Sumerian stories in the Epic of Gilgamesh , which dates back to 2250–2000 BCE. With the advent of handwritten manuscripts and wood block-printed texts, written narratives continued in almost every culture in the Eastern and Western worlds. In the 15th century, Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press allowed the precise and rapid creation of metal moveable type in large quantities, thus making printed texts more readily available and affordable. Although both oral and written narratives have always focused on themes like love, adventure, heroes, life lessons, and supernatural and divine forces, modern narratives have evolved to include genres such as Westerns, science fiction , espionage, and mysteries /police procedurals. The popularity of different narratives depends on cultural context and often waxes and wanes based on interests and concerns of the era. The Elements of Narrative To build a narrative, writers rely on several other literary elements, including but not limited to characterization, conflict, frame stories, linear vs. nonlinear narration, pacing, point of view, and tone. Characterization This literary technique introduces and develops a story’s character(s). There are two types of characterization: direct/explicit and indirect/implicit. Direct characterization is when the narrator tells the audience specific details about a character; this information can also be provided by another character in the story. Indirect characterization is when the audience must deduce aspects of a character for themselves by observing the character’s thought process, physical description, behavior, or dialogue. The opposition of forces or people, which creates dramatic action, is a narrative’s conflict. There are two categories of conflict: internal and external. Internal conflict exists only as man vs. self—when a character experiences opposing emotions or desires simultaneously. External conflict, on the other hand, can exist in five different forms: man vs. man, man vs. mature, man vs. society, man vs. technology, and man vs. the supernatural. When employing any of these, the narrative’s conflict constitutes a protagonist’s struggle against forces outside themselves. This is a literary form where one all-encompassing story contains one or more related stories. This technique unifies the stories’ narratives by providing smooth transitions and an overall theme. Frame stories can be found in Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey , Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales , Ovid’s Metamorphoses , and Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron . Linear vs. Nonlinear Narration The order in which events are told is another way to build narrative. If an author chooses to recount events in a chronological order, then their narrative is linear. If the narrative is told out of sequence, it’s nonlinear. The advantage of linear narration is that it’s easier for the reader to understand, and it builds tension as the narrative progresses through the natural rise and fall of the central conflict. Nonlinear narration, on the other hand, adds aesthetic interest to a written work and builds emotional resonance for readers. The rate at which a story develops, or its pace, is controlled through elements like the length of scenes, depth of description, and intensity and frequency of action. Genre often affects pacing as certain types of writing require a faster pace (like action-adventures, horror, espionage, and crime thrillers) while others need a slow, extended pace (such as historical dramas or sweeping family sagas). The narrator or speaker provides a story’s point of view; as such, the reader only experiences events as the narrator sees and describes them. There are three main types of point of view: first person, where everything is narrated from one single character using the pronouns I, me , and mine; second person, which is written as if the reader is a character and uses the pronouns you and your; and third person, which is told from an authorial point of view outside the story and uses the pronouns she / her, he / his, and they / them/ theirs. This indicates the general character or attitude of a piece. There are as many types of tone as there are attitudes and emotions. A piece of writing can be cheerful or depressing; romantic or sincere; elegiac or optimistic. Even an objectively written news article maintains a tone—in that case, the tone is neutral. Narrative Poetry Narrative is not restricted to fiction, nonfiction, and theater. Although some poems focus on an image, an emotion, an idea, or a mood, other poems tell a story. When a poem focuses on recounting a series of events, it is called a narrative poem . The epic poems The Iliad , The Odyssey, The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Aeneid , The Kalevala, and Beowulf are all narrative poems, as are other longer poetic works, such as The Canterbury Tales, Metamorphosis, and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. There are shorter narrative poems as well, such as Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “ The Lady of Shalott ,” Edgar Allan Poe’s “ The Raven ,” and Alfred Noyes “ The Highwayman .” Why Writers Employ Narrative Writers use narrative because it keeps audience members engaged. A strong narrative can heighten characterization and augment the emotional or aesthetic elements of a work. It is human nature to want to know “what happens next,” so readers are inclined to follow the full narrative arc once it begins. A compelling narrative will keep the audience consistently engaged and interested. Narrative’s Relationship to Story and Plot Although people often use the words narrative , story , and plot interchangeably, they are not the same thing.

Story refers to a series of events related in their chronological order. Plot indicates a series of events that are arranged deliberately to reveal emotional, thematic, or dramatic significance. This means the plot also conveys the causes, effects, and meanings of events. According to E. M. Forster’s Aspects of the Novel , the sentence “The king died and then the queen died” is a story, whereas the sentence “The king died and then the queen died of grief” is a plot. Narrative, on the other hand, includes the sequence of events (the story), the causes, effects, and meaning of these events (plot), and the techniques and decisions employed by the author that determine how these events are recounted to the audience. One way to remember these distinctions is to think of what each provides. The story is what happens, the plot includes the whys and significance of what happens, and the narrative is how what happens is recounted. Examples of Narrative in Literature 1. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Coleridge’s long narrative poem opens with the Ancient Mariner stopping the Wedding-Guest, who is with two companions, in the street: Although the Wedding-Guest wishes to continue on his way, he is unable to resist the compelling story of the Mariner’s ill-fated journey and inexplicable sin of killing an albatross. Coleridge utilizes the narrative technique of a frame story to contain the Mariner’s tale within the larger experience of the Wedding Guest who listens—and learns—from the Mariner. 2. Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange Burgess’s novel is told by a first-person narrator. Alex, a hardened young criminal, relates the nefarious doings of himself and his “droogs” with great delight, peppering his memories with a distinctive slang: Alex’s use of invented slang and run-on sentences lends greater depth to Burgess’s characterization and forces the readers to experience the narrative’s sequence of events alongside Alex, rather than having any objective distance from them. 3. Louise Erdrich, Love Medicine Erdrich’s award-winning novel, which chronicles the lives of several indigenous families across six decades, opens with third person point of view: While this chapter is written in the third person, most chapters are told from other characters’ first person point of view. Erdrich’s episodic, nonlinear approach heightens characterization and allows her to create a vast panoply of voices, bringing fully to life a number of Chippewa living on an Ojibwa reservation. 4. Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye Morrison’s debut novel also shifts points of view with its narrative structure. It begins with lines drawn from the Dick and Jane early reading primers, moves to first-person narration, then continues with a third person narrator as the narrative jumps back in time to the Great Migration. In the novel’s final section, the point of view reverts to Claudia MacTeer’s first-person narration as she explains how complicit the community was in the unfortunate events that befell Pecola Breedlove: Morrison’s nonlinear narrative,with its shifting points of view, creates a fragmented effect, which reflects both the dissolution of Pecola’s sanity as the book progresses and the way her community failed to sustain her. 5. Katherine Boo, Behind the Beautiful Forevers Boo’s award-winning nonfiction examination of poverty in Mumbai begins with a Prologue. She sets the scene by introducing some of the people whose lives she will follow: Boo uses third person narration and a neutral tone . These choices allow her to maintain a sense of journalistic objectivity, which is necessary for this type of nonfiction work. Her nuanced characterization and detailed description throughout the book add to readers’ ability to trust her knowledge and breadth of research. Further Resources on Narrative Project Gutenberg has an extensive list of narrative techniques. Ohio State University’s “ Project Narrative ” is a wonderful source for information about narrative theory. Amit Majmudar published a great round up of “ old-school narrative poems ” on the Kenyon Review website. Omniscient (ahm-NIH-shihnt) is a literary tool where the author writes a narrative in third person, and the story’s narrator has complete awareness, understanding, and insight into the thoughts, feelings, and motivations of some or all of the characters in the story. Pseudonyms (SOO-duh-nims) are fictitious names used by groups or individuals. People choose to use pseudonyms for a variety reasons, ranging from privacy to marketing. There are also several types of pseudonyms. Authors publish under pen names, for example, while actors and musicians perform under stage names. Ambiguity (am-big-YOU-ih-tee) refers to the quality of being open to multiple interpretations. In literature, ambiguity may occur with a character, word or phrase, plot point, image, trope, or situation that can be understood in two or more possible ways. It allows room for doubt and complexity, as well as moments of double entendre and humor.