NARRATIVE TEXT

A narrative is a story that is created in a constructive format (as a work of speech, literature, pictures, song, motion pictures, television, video games, theatre, musical theatre, or dance) that describes a sequence of fictional or non-fictional events.

The word derives from the Latin verb narrare, "to recount", and is related to the adjective gnarus, "knowing" or "skilled". Ultimately its origin is found in the Proto-Indo-European root gnō-, "to know".

The word "story" may be used as a synonym of "narrative", but can also be used to refer to the sequence of events described in a narrative. A narrative can also be told by a character within a larger narrative. An important part of narration is the narrative mode, the set of methods used to communicate the narrative through a process called narration.

Along with exposition, argumentation and description, narration, broadly defined, is one of four rhetorical modes of discourse. More narrowly defined, it is the fiction-writing mode whereby the narrator communicates directly to the reader.

Stories are an important aspect of culture. Many works of art and most works of literature tell stories; indeed, most of the humanities involve stories. Owen Flanagan of Duke University, a leading consciousness researcher, writes that “Evidence strongly suggests that humans in all cultures come to cast their own identity in some sort of narrative form. We are inveterate storytellers” (Consciousness Reconsidered 198).

Narrative has also been used in Knowledge Management as a way to elicit and disseminate knowledge, encourage collaboration, generate new ideas, and "ignite change".

Stories are of ancient origin, existing in ancient Egyptian, ancient Greek, Chinese and Indian culture. Stories are also a ubiquitous component of human communication, used as parables and examples to illustrate points. Storytelling was probably one of the earliest forms of entertainment. Narrative may also refer to psychological processes in self-identity, memory and meaning-making.

Orientation : It is about the opening paragraph where the characters of the story are introduced.

Complication : Where the problems in the story develop.

Resolution : Where the problems in the story is solved.

Example :

Snow White

Once upon a time there lived a little girl named Snow White. She lived with her aunt and uncle because her parents were dead.

One day she heard her uncle and aunt talking about leaving Snow White in the castle because they both wanted to go to America and they didn’t have enough money to take Snow White.

Snow White didn’t want her uncle and aunt to do this so she decided it would be best if she ran away. The next morning she ran away from home when her aunt and uncle were having breakfast. She ran away into the woods.

Then she saw a little cottage. She knocked but no one answered so she went inside and fell asleep. Meanwhile, the seven dwarfs were coming home from work. They went inside. There they found Snow White sleeping. Then Snow White woke up. She saw the dwarfs. The dwarfs said, “What’s your name?” Snow White said, “My name is Snow White.”

Doc, one of the dwarfs said, “If you wish, you may live here with us.” Snow White said, “Oh could I? Thank you.” Then Snow White told the dwarfs the whole story and Snow White and the seven dwarfs lived happily ever after.

Monkey And Crocodile

                                                    

One day a monkey wanted to cross a river. He saw a crocodile in the river, so he asked the crocodile to take him across the other side. The crocodile told the monkey to jump on its back. Then the crocodile swam down the river.

Now, the crocodile was very hungry, so when it was in the middle of the river, it stopped and said to the monkey, ”Monkey, my father is very sick. He must eat the heart of the monkey. Then he will be strong again.”

The monkey thought for a while. Then he told the crocodile to swim back to the river bank.

“What’s for?” asked the crocodile.

“Because I didn’t bring my heart with me,” said the monkey. “I left it under the tree, near some coconuts.”

So, the crocodile turned around and swam back to the bank of the river. As soon as they reached the river bank, the monkey jumped off the crocodile’s back and climbed up to the top of a tree.

“Where is your heart?” asked the crocodile.

“You are foolish,” the monkey said to the crocodile. “Now I am free and you have nothing.”

The monkey told the crocodile not to try to fool him again. The crocodile swam away, hungry.