{"id":155,"date":"2017-06-14T11:16:37","date_gmt":"2017-06-14T10:16:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/licor.hivolda.no\/?page_id=155"},"modified":"2017-06-15T14:20:26","modified_gmt":"2017-06-15T13:20:26","slug":"telling-a-story-the-human-element","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/licor.hivolda.no\/?page_id=155","title":{"rendered":"Telling a story: the human element"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the quiz,\u00a0What is narrative?<\/em>, we asked you the following question:<\/p>\n

Using our definition of narrative as\u00a0the representation of an event or sequence of events that takes place in time<\/em>, try to identify which of the following three passages is a narrative (there is only one correct answer):<\/span><\/p>\n

1. In the photograph, the station was a haven of beauty and tranquillity. Against a\u00a0backdrop of misty mountains, candy floss clouds and an azure sky, the waves of the fjord were green, blue and white, in stark contrast to the rusty old steam engine in its\u00a0siding.<\/span><\/p>\n

2.\u00a012.00\u00a0Ostersund<\/span><\/p>\n

20.00\u00a0Stockholm<\/span><\/p>\n

04.00\u00a0Oslo<\/span><\/p>\n

06.00\u00a0Volda<\/span><\/p>\n

3. By the time the train pulled into Volda Central Station, Montmorency was exhausted. The journey had been a long one and as he dragged himself up onto his feet, stretched and shook himself, he felt as if he had been trodden on and kicked all night.\u00a0Had it just been a dream, he asked himself, as the recollection of the sinister-looking man with the flashing red eyes playing cards in the restaurant car shot through him like a lightning bolt from the heavens. All had gone well until that fateful stop somewhere between Stockholm\u00a0and Oslo\u00a0\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

The answer, as we saw, was that the first of these passages is a description, the second a schedule, the third a narrative.<\/p>\n

We noted, though, that\u00a0there are narratologists (experts in the study of narrative) who would claim that passage 2 has as much right to be considered a narrative as passage 3. This is because it too\u00a0represents an event (a train journey) and it too conveys a sense of the passage of time (in as far as we can work out when the train is due to\u00a0arrive at each\u00a0stop and how long it takes to get from one stop to another). For most people, though, it feels wrong to\u00a0call a\u00a0schedule like this a narrative. Something seems to be missing from passage 2 that is present in passage 3 and that makes that second passage a narrative in a way that its predecessor is not.\u00a0This \u2018something\u2019 is important: unlike passage 3, passage 2\u00a0does not tell a story<\/em>;\u00a0it merely conveys information.<\/p>\n

Yet what is this ‘something’ that distinguishes narrative from the mere conveying of information? \u00a0Scholars disagree about precisely what it is that gives us this sense of storytelling and that thus determines whether something is a narrative or not. Here, though, are two suggestions we feel are worth thinking about:<\/p>\n