Narrative

A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences,^[1]^[2] whether non-fictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travelogue, etc.) or fictional (fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller, novel, etc.).^[3]^[4]^[5] Narratives can be presented through a sequence of written or spoken words, through still or moving images, or through any combination of these. The word derives from the Latin verb narrare ("to tell"), which is derived from the adjective gnarus ("knowing or skilled").^[6]^[7] Historically preceding the noun, the adjective "narrative" means "characterized by or relating to a story or storytelling".

Narrative is expressed in all mediums of human creativity, art, and entertainment, including speech, literature, theatre, dance, music and song, comics, journalism, animation, video (including film and television), video games, radio, structured and unstructured recreation, and potentially even purely visual arts like painting, sculpture, drawing, and photography, as long as a sequence of events is presented.

The social and cultural activity of humans sharing narratives is called storytelling, the vast majority of which has taken the form of oral storytelling.^[8] Since the rise of literate societies however, many narratives have been additionally recorded, created, or otherwise passed down in written form. The formal and literary process of constructing a narrative—narration—is one of the four traditional rhetorical modes of discourse, along with argumentation, description, and exposition. This is a somewhat distinct usage from narration in the narrower sense of a commentary used to convey a story. Many additional narrative techniques are used to build and enhance any given story.

^ Random House (1979)
^ Spencer, Alexander (2018-06-25). "Narratives and the romantic genre in IR dominant and marginalized stories of Arab Rebellion in Libya". International Politics. 56 (1). Springer Science and Business Media LLC: 123–140. doi:10.1057/s41311-018-0171-z. ISSN 1384-5748. S2CID 149826920. Narratives here are considered to be part of human mental activity and give meaning to experiences.
^ Carey & Snodgrass (1999)
^ Harmon (2012)
^ Webster (1984)
^ Traupman (1966)
^ Webster (1969)
^ Mello, Robin (2001-02-02). "The Power of Storytelling: How Oral Narrative Influences Children's Relationships in Classrooms". International Journal of Education & the Arts. 2 (1). Archived from the original on 2008-06-30. Retrieved 2023-01-25.

[1] Random House (1979)

[Spencer_pp._123–140-2] Spencer, Alexander (2018-06-25). "Narratives and the romantic genre in IR dominant and marginalized stories of Arab Rebellion in Libya". International Politics. 56 (1). Springer Science and Business Media LLC: 123–140. doi:10.1057/s41311-018-0171-z. ISSN 1384-5748. S2CID 149826920. Narratives here are considered to be part of human mental activity and give meaning to experiences.

[3] Carey & Snodgrass (1999)

[4] Harmon (2012)

[5] Webster (1984)

[6] Traupman (1966)

[7] Webster (1969)

[8] Mello, Robin (2001-02-02). "The Power of Storytelling: How Oral Narrative Influences Children's Relationships in Classrooms". International Journal of Education & the Arts. 2 (1). Archived from the original on 2008-06-30. Retrieved 2023-01-25.

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