On the subject of narrative
I’m not sure exactly when I switched my language from “books� to “narratives�. I wonder if most people in society just don’t lump them together.
But narratives, I think, are fundamentally different. The dictionary widget on my computer defines narrative as: “the spoken or written account of connected events; a story�.
The Oxford English Dictionary on the U of M Library’s website defines narrative as a noun but also as an adjective that has an interesting art connotation...
NOUN: "An account of a series of events, facts, etc., given in order and with the establishing of connections between them; a narration, a story, an account"
ADJECTIVE: "Art. Representing a story through the medium of painting or similar art forms."
There are also some interesting definitions from various fields...
SOCIOLOGY: "A basic way human beings have of apprehending the world and giving it a coherence"
PHILOSOPHY: "The concept of narrative has of course great interest and importance for literary theorists, but it has also been of interest to philosophers. It has, for example, been used by Alasdair MacIntyre to express the way in which a human life is a structured, unified whole, and not simply a series of discrete events. Human actions are made intelligible though being part of a narrative."
At this point, I think any squabbles over the definition of narrative (and there seem to be plenty in the literary world) is just bickering over semantics and context.
What I think is more primary here is the profundity of narrative—what I see as its overwhelming importance in our lives. (“Our� can be read as “humanity, the human race�). I believe that narratives tell us so much about the world—its histories, its cultures and peoples. It connects us to that which we have little or no experience, whether that be places, people, things, or emotions.
Morals, ethics, lessons, information, education, and entertainment are all passed through narrative form. I think it helps us define ourselves by exposing us to that which we know, and that which we don’t. We process it, think about it and consider it in relation to ourselves while reading. And through this learning, this engaging experimentation through imagination, we come to be who we are as individuals and societies.
That being said, I keep a loose definition of narrative. I don’t even believe there needs to be words involved. A sequence of pictures, of images, or of well-defined space can tell us a story—or allow us to develop our own. Much like the adjective definition of narrative given above.