Understanding the Narrative Genre and Its Forms
Defining the Narrative Genre
The narrative genre is characterized by telling real or fictitious stories (an event or series of events) that constitute a narrative distinct from the author’s personal feelings. Although it may be imaginary, literary history often draws inspiration from real-world models. This relationship between imagination and experience, between fantasy and life, gives special value to reading for the spiritual formation of the individual. Literature is responsible for bringing the imaginary world to the reader’s awareness.
The Role of the Narrator
The narrator is a crucial element, existing within the fictional creation, governed by the values inherent to that world. This fictional entity establishes a relationship with a fictional reader, who is built into the story. The reader receives and participates in what the narrator tells. The distinctive element of the narrative genre is the presence of a narrator as the emitter. This narrator is responsible for telling the story, introducing the characters, and explaining the circumstances in which the events unfold.
Narrator Position and Perspective
The narrator may be inside the story or diegesis (homodiegetic) or outside it (heterodiegetic). They can also occupy an intermediate position. The vision or point of view of the narrator is called perspective.
Narrator Classification
Accordingly, the narrator is classified as:
- Inside the story: Protagonist, Witness, or Character narrator.
- Outside the story: Omniscient, Objective, or Limited Omniscient narrator.
Subgenres of Narrative
- Novel: A fictional narrative of greater extent than a short story or novella. It is usually divided into chapters and features numerous characters. It can tell several parallel stories in different places and times, but there must always be a relationship between them.
- Novella: A work of fictional prose, longer than a short story but shorter than a novel.
- Short Story: A brief fictional narrative, often originating from oral tradition.
Classification by Realism
Stories can also be divided according to the reality they depict:
- Traditionalist: Tells the daily life of a group of people within their social context. The situations presented could plausibly occur in reality.
- Realistic: Tells recognizable situations from real life. The characters, places, and situations may not be real but could exist in reality.
- Humorous: Characterized by humor, using resources like jokes, funny or ridiculous characters and situations, etc.
- Historical: Recounts situations that actually happened in the past. The characters and places have existed in reality.
- Biographical: Tells a person’s life story. When the author is the protagonist, it is called an autobiography.
- Fantastic: Tells of unbelievable facts, unreal characters, and strange, unfamiliar places. Often, these tales blend realistic elements with the fantastic.
- Science Fiction: Tells fantastic events related to scientific advancement. Usually involves robots, beings from other planets, and settings in distant places or the future.
- Wonderful (Fairy Tales): Tells stories where actors and actions are entirely outside of reality, such as tales of fairies, wizards, and witches.
- Fables: Stories that end with a teaching or lesson called a moral. Often, the characters are animals or objects performing human actions (a resource called personification).
- Legends: Old stories transmitted orally from parents to children. They occupy a middle ground between fantasy and reality, often explaining the origin of plants, animals, or places by mixing generational knowledge with religious beliefs and superstitions.