Before proceeding with the description of such a phenomenon as narrativeness in modern humanities, as well as identifying its characteristics and structures, it is necessary, first of all, to define the term “narrative” itself.
Narrative - what is it?
There are several versions about the origin of the term, more precisely, several sources from which it could appear.
According to one of them, the name “narrative” originates from the words narrare and gnarus, which in Latin means “knowing something” and “expert”. In English, there is also a similar word in meaning and sounding narrative - "story", which no less fully reflects the essence of the narrative concept. Today, narrative sources can be found in almost all scientific
fields: psychology, sociology, philology, philosophy, and even psychiatry. But for the study of such concepts as narrativeness, narration, narrative techniques, and others, there is a separate independent direction - narratology. So, it’s worth figuring out the narrative itself - what is it and what are its functions?
Both etymological sources proposed above carry a single meaning - a message of knowledge, a story. That is, to put it simply, a narrative is a kind of narrative about something. However, do not confuse this concept with a simple story. Narrative narration has individual characteristics and features, which led to the emergence of an independent term.
Narrative and story
How does a narrative differ from a simple story? A story is a way of communication, a method of receiving and transmitting factual (quality) information. Narrative, on the other hand, is the so-called “explanatory story,” if we use the terminology of the American philosopher and art critic Arthur Danto (Danto A. Analytical Philosophy of History. M: Idea Press, 2002. P. 194).
That is, a narrative is, rather, not an objective, but a subjective narrative. Narrative arises when subjective emotions and assessments of narrator narrator are added to an ordinary story. There is a need not only to convey information to the listener, but to impress, interest, make listen, cause a certain reaction. In other words, the difference between a narrative and an ordinary story or narrative that
states facts is in attracting individual narrative assessments and emotions of each narrator. Or in the indication of causal relationships and the presence of logical chains between the events described, if we are talking about objective historical or scientific texts.
Narrative: an example
In order to finally establish the essence of narrative narrative, it is necessary to consider it in practice - in the text. So, narrative - what is it? In this case, a comparison of the following passages may be an example demonstrating the difference between narrative and narrative: “Yesterday I wet my feet. Today I didn’t go to work ”and“ Yesterday I wet my feet, so today I got sick and did not go to work. ” In content, these statements are almost identical. However, only one element changes the essence of the narrative - an attempt to connect both events. The first version of the statement is free from subjective ideas and cause-effect relationships, while in the second they are present and are of key importance. The original version did not indicate why the storyteller did not go to the service, it might have been a day off, or he really felt bad, but for a different reason. However, the second option reflects the subjective attitude to the message of a certain narrator, who, through his own considerations and turning to personal experience, analyzed the information and established causal relationships, voicing them in his own retelling of the message. The psychological, “human” factor can completely change the meaning of the story if the context does not provide enough information.
Narratives in scientific texts
Nevertheless, not only contextual information, but also the personal experience of the perceiver (narrator) affects the subjective assimilation of information, the introduction of assessments and emotions. Based on this, the objectivity of the story is reduced, and one could assume that narrative is not inherent in all texts, but, for example, it is absent in messages of a scientific content. However, this is not quite true. To a greater or lesser degree, narrative traits can be found in any messages, since the text contains not only the author and narrator, who in essence can be different actors, but also the reader or listener, who perceive and interpret the information received in different ways. First of all, of course, this applies to literary texts. However, in scientific reports there are narratives. They are present more likely in historical, cultural and social contexts and are not an objective reflection of reality, but more act as an indicator of their multidimensionality. However, they can also affect the formation of causal relationships between historically reliable events or other facts.
Given such a variety of narratives and their abundant presence in texts of various contents, science could no longer ignore the phenomenon of narrativeness and closely engaged in its study. Today, various scientific communities are interested in such a way of knowing the world as narration. It has development prospects in it, since the narrative allows you to systematize, organize, disseminate information, as well as individual humanities to study human nature.
Discourse and narrative
From all of the above it follows that the structure of the narrative is ambiguous, its forms are unstable, there are no any of their patterns in principle, and depending on the context of the situation, they are filled with individual content. Therefore, the context or discourse in which this or that narrative is embodied is an important part of its existence.
If we consider the meaning of the word in a broad sense, discourse is speech in principle, linguistic activity and its process. However, in this formulation, the term “discourse” is used to refer to a specific context necessary when creating any text, such as one or another position of the existence of a narrative.
According to the concept of postmodernists, narrative is a discursive reality, which is revealed in it. French literature theorist and postmodernist Jean-Francois Lyotard called narration one of the possible types of discourse. He sets forth his ideas in detail in the monograph “The State of Art Nouveau” (Lyotard Jean-Francois. The State of Postmodern. St. Petersburg: Aletheia, 1998. - 160 pp.). Psychologists and philosophers Jens Brockmeyer and Rum Harre described narrative as a “subspecies of discourse”, their concept can also be found in research work (Brockmeyer Jens, Harre Rum. Narrative: problems and promises of one alternative paradigm // Philosophy Issues. - 2000. - № 3 - S. 29-42.). Thus, it is obvious that in relation to linguistics and literary criticism the concepts of “narrative” and “discourse” are inseparable from each other and exist in parallel.
Narrative in Philology
Much attention was paid to narrative and narrative techniques by the philological sciences: linguistics, literary criticism. In linguistics, this term, as mentioned above, is studied together with the term "discourse". In literary criticism, he refers rather to postmodern concepts. Scientists J. Brockmeyer and R. Harre in their treatise “Narrative: Problems and Promises of an Alternative Paradigm” suggested understanding it as a way to streamline knowledge and give meaning to experience. In their opinion, a narrative is an instruction for compiling stories. That is, a set of certain linguistic, psychological and cultural constructions, knowing which, you can make an interesting story in which the mood and message of the narrator will be clearly guessed.
Narrative in literature is important for literary texts. Since a complex chain of interpretations realizes itself here, starting from the point of view of the author and ending with the perception of the reader / listener. When creating a text, the author puts certain information into it, which, having traveled a long text path and reached the reader, can completely change or be interpreted differently. In order to correctly decipher the author’s intentions, it is necessary to take into account the presence of other characters, the author himself and the narrator, who themselves are separate narrators and narrators, that is, telling and perceiving. The perception is complicated if the text is dramatic in nature, since drama is one of the kinds of literature. Then the interpretation is distorted even more, having gone through the presentation by the actor, who also brings his emotional and psychological characteristics to the story.
However, it is precisely this ambiguity, the ability to fill the message with different meanings, leave the ground for reflection for the reader, and is an important part of fiction.
Narrative method in psychology and psychiatry
The term “narrative psychology” belongs to the American cognitive psychologist and educator Jerome Bruner. He and the forensic psychologist Theodor Sarbin can rightfully be considered the fundamental contributors to this humanitarian industry.
According to the theory of J. Bruner, life is a series of narratives and subjective perceptions of certain stories, the purpose of narrative is to subjectivize the world. T. Sarbin is of the opinion that in narratives facts and fiction are combined that determine the experience of a particular person.
The essence of the narrative method in psychology is the recognition of a person and his underlying problems and fears by analyzing his stories about them and their own lives. Narratives are inseparable from society and the cultural context, since it is in them that they are formed. Narrative in psychology for a person has two practical meanings: firstly, it opens up opportunities for self-identification and self-knowledge by creating, comprehending and speaking different stories, and secondly, it is a way of self-presentation, thanks to such a story about oneself.
In psychotherapy, a narrative approach is also used. It was developed by Australian psychologist Michael White and New Zealand psychotherapist David Epston. Its essence is to create certain circumstances around the patient (client), the basis for creating their own history, involving certain people and committing certain actions. And if narrative psychology is considered rather a theoretical branch, then in psychotherapy the narrative approach already demonstrates its practical application.
Thus, it is obvious that the narrative concept is successfully used in almost any field that studies human nature.
Narrative in politics
There is an understanding of narrative narrative in political activity. However, the term “political narrative” carries a negative connotation rather than a positive one. In diplomacy, narrative is understood as a deliberate deception, the concealment of true intentions. A narrative narrative involves knowingly concealing certain facts and true intentions, possibly replacing the thesis and using euphemisms to give the text harmony and avoid specifics. As mentioned above, the difference between a narrative and an ordinary story is the desire to make you listen, make an impression, which is typical for the speech of modern politicians.
Visualization of narrative
As for the visualization of narratives, this is a rather complicated question. According to some scholars, such as the theorist and practitioner of narrative psychology, J. Bruner, visual narrative is not a reality dressed in a textual form, but a structured and ordered speech inside a narrator. He called this process a certain way of constructing and establishing reality. Indeed, not a “literal” linguistic shell forms a narrative, but a consistently stated and logically correct text. Thus, a narrative can be visualized by voicing it: by speaking verbally or by writing in the form of a structured text message.
Narrative in historiography
Actually, historical narrative is what laid the foundation for the formation and study of narratives in other areas of humanitarian knowledge. The term “narrative” itself was borrowed from historiography, where the concept of “narrative history” existed. Its meaning was to consider historical events not in their logical sequence, but through the prism of context and interpretation. Interpretation is key to the very essence of narrative and narration.
Historical narrative - what is it? This is a narrative from the original source, not a critical exposition, but an objective one. In the first place, it is precisely historical texts that can be attributed to narrative sources: treatises, chronicles, and some folklore and liturgical texts. Narrative sources are those texts and messages in which narrative narratives are present. However, according to J. Brockmeyer and R. Harre, still not all texts are narratives and correspond to the “concept of storytelling”.
Regarding historical narrativeness, there are several misconceptions caused by the fact that some “stories”, for example autobiographical texts, are based only on facts, while others have either been retold or modified. Thus, their veracity is reduced, but reality does not change, only the attitude of each individual narrator to it changes. The context remains the same, but each narrator in his own way associates it with the described events, extracting important, in his opinion, situations, weaving them into the outline of the narrative.
As regards specifically autobiographical texts, there is another problem: the author’s desire to draw attention to his person and activity, which means the possibility of providing knowingly false information or distorting the truth in his own favor.
Summing up, we can say that narrative techniques, one way or another, have found application in most humanities, which study the nature of the human person and his environment. Narratives are inseparable from subjective human evaluations, just as a person is inseparable from society, in which his individual life experience is formed, which means his own opinion and subjective view of the world.
Summarizing the above information, the following definition of narrative can be formulated: a narrative is a structured logical narrative that reflects an individual perception of reality, as well as a way of organizing subjective experience, an attempt to self-identify and self-present a person.