{"id":199,"date":"2017-06-14T11:53:01","date_gmt":"2017-06-14T10:53:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/licor.hivolda.no\/?page_id=199"},"modified":"2017-08-17T16:13:29","modified_gmt":"2017-08-17T15:13:29","slug":"elements-of-narrative","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/licor.hivolda.no\/?page_id=199","title":{"rendered":"Elements of narrative"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since narrative involves storytelling \u2013 with the emphasis very much on the\u00a0telling <\/em>\u2013 we need to begin our study of narrative (like, indeed, our study of any particular narrative, be it\u00a0Huckleberry Finn<\/em>,\u00a0Star Wars<\/em> or anything else) by recognising a fundamental distinction between story<\/strong><\/em> (what happens) on the one hand and narration<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0(the way in which those events are presented to us) on the other.<\/p>\n

In practice, narratives can never tell us the \u2018full\u2019 story or the story \u2018as it really was\u2019; all they can do is present us with a particular version (or in some cases versions) of that story. \u00a0This is why we need to pay so much attention to the narration, which is to say to\u00a0the manner in which a story is told. Only then can we understand why we respond to the book, film, cartoon strip or whatever other form of storytelling is involved that we do. Only then can we understand how we come to interpret and derive the meaning from the story that we do.<\/p>\n

In this part of the module, we will introduce ourselves to \u2013 and develop some basic strategies for analysing \u2013 the main elements of narrative. These are the principal elements that, taken together, determine\u00a0the way a narrative tells its story. Not all of these elements play an equally important role in every individual act of storytelling, but if you consider each one of them in relation to the particular narrative you are studying, you should be able to end up with a good\u00a0understanding of how that narrative works.<\/p>\n

The principal elements of narrative are the following:<\/p>\n