The narrative text is one in which a story is told, be it real or fictional. Its basic elements are space, time and character. Another important feature of the narrative is the presence of a voice that tells the story: the narrator.
O romance, O tale, a chronic and the fable are examples of narrative genres. All of them feature characters that act in a certain space and at a certain time.
Narrative text structure
Traditionally, the narrative follows a linear structure with a beginning, middle and end. Let's see what parts of the narrative text are:
Presentation
The initial presentation or situation is usually a moment in the text when the reader is introduced to the main character (protagonist), which acts within a certain time and a certain space.
Development
Development begins with the introduction of an element that changes the initial situation. This element is named conflict.
This is usually the bulk of a narrative text, as it is in development where the author of the text will explore all the consequences that the conflict will have in the lives of the characters involved in the story.
The most dramatic moment of conflict, when tension reaches its highest level, is called climax.
Outcome
After the climax, the story moves to its end. The outcome or outcome is the part of the text in which the reader knows the consequences of the narrated situations. The outcome is, in most cases, the part of the text where the conflict is resolved.
Other structures
In literature, there are many examples of narrative texts that do not follow the structure described above.
Some already start with the conflict, with no initial situation. Others are not linear: they start with the end or some part of development and then go back to the beginning. There are texts in which, at all times, scenes from the past are brought to the present (this feature is known as analepsis or flashback).
Anyway: when it comes to the structure of the narrative, there are many possibilities for creation.
Types of narrative text and examples
Romance
O romance is an extensive account of a series of conflict situations involving more than one character. It is characterized by an attempt to create an imaginary universe in which social, political or psychological issues are explored. Are examples of romance Dom Casmurro, by Machado de Assis, Gabriela clove and cinnamon, by Jorge Amado, and Star Hour, by Clarice Lispector.
Example of romance:
One night, coming from the city to Engenho Novo, on the train at Central, I met a boy from the neighborhood, whom I know by sight and with a hat. He greeted me, sat down beside me, spoke of the Moon and the ministers, and ended up reciting verses to me. The trip was short, and the verses may not have been entirely bad. It so happened, however, that, as I was tired, I closed my eyes three or four times; it was enough for him to stop reading and tuck the verses into his pocket.
"Go on," I said, waking up.
"I'm done," he muttered.
- They're very pretty. I saw him make a gesture to take them out of his pocket again, but it was no more than the gesture; he was sulking. The next day he started calling me bad names, and ended up naming me Dom Casmurro.Excerpt from Chapter One of the Novel Dom Casmurro, by Machado de Assis
Tale
O tale it is a short, concise narrative, usually organized around some episode in the character's life. Unlike the novel, the short story is limited to exploring a single conflict. Examples of short stories are “O peru de Natal”, by Mário de Andrade, “The man who knew Javanese”, by Lima Barreto, and “Before the green ball”, by Lygia Fagundes Telles.
Story example:
It was always the custom in the family to have Christmas dinner. Meager supper, you can imagine: supper like my father, chestnuts, figs, raisins, after the Missa do Galo. Stuffed with almonds and walnuts (when we discussed the three brothers about the nutcrackers...), stuffed with chestnuts and monotony, we would hug each other and go to bed. It was remembering this that I broke one of my "crazy things":
'Well, at Christmas I want to eat turkey.
There was one of those surprises that no one can imagine. Soon my spinster and saintly aunt, who lived with us, warned that we could not invite anyone because of the mourning.
— But who spoke of inviting anyone! this mania... When have we ever eaten turkey in our lives! Here at home, turkey is a feast, all these kindreds of the devil come...
— My son, don't talk like that...
— Well, I speak, that's it!Excerpt from the short story “O peru de Natal” by Mário de Andrade
See others Tale Examples.
Chronicle
THE chronic it is a short text, usually published in newspapers, magazines and blogs. It is almost always narrated in the first person and addresses, in colloquial language, some everyday theme. Examples of chronicle are “A last chronicle”, by Fernando Sabino, “O solitaire”, by Rachel de Queiroz, and “O Conde eo passainho”, by Rubem Braga.
Example of chronicle:
On the way home, I enter a bar in Gávea to have a coffee at the counter. I'm actually putting off writing. The prospect scares me. I would like to be inspired, to successfully crown another year in this quest for the picturesque or the whimsy in each one's daily life. I only intended to collect from daily life something of its dispersed human content, the result of coexistence, which makes it more worthy to be lived. It aimed at the circumstantial, the episodic. In this pursuit of the accidental, whether in a corner spot, or in the words of a child or in a domestic accident, I become a mere spectator and lose track of what is essential. With nothing else to say, I bow my head and drink my coffee, while the poet's verse repeats itself in my memory: “that's how I would like my last poem”. I'm not a poet and I'm out of touch. I then take a last look outside myself, where the subjects that deserve a chronicle live.
Excerpt from “The Last Chronicle”, by Fernando Sabino
Fable
THE fable it is a type of text, in prose or in verse, which is distinguished from other narrative genres by the presence of animals or even inanimate beings as characters. Another feature of the fable is the moral content that the story conveys. Examples of fables are “The Eagle and the Coruja”, by Monteiro Lobato, “The Fox and the Grapes” and “The Hare and the Turtle”, by Aesop.
Example of fable:
Owl and Eagle, after a lot of fighting, decided to make up.
"Enough of war," said the owl. - The world is so big, and foolishness greater than the world is to go around eating each other's puppies.
"Perfectly," replied the Eagle. 'I don't want anything else either.
— In that case, let's agree on this: from now on you'll never eat my puppies.
- Very well. But how can I distinguish your puppies?
— Easy thing. Whenever you find beautiful youngsters, well made in their bodies, cheerful, full of a special grace that doesn't exist in any other chick of any other bird, you know, they're mine.
- It's done! – concluded the Eagle.
A few days later, while hunting, the Eagle found a nest with three monsters inside, which chirped with their beaks wide open.
— Horrible animals! - she said. – It can be seen right away that they are not the children of the owl.
And she ate them.
But they were the children of the owl. Upon returning to the lair, the sad mother wept bitterly over the disaster and went to settle accounts with the queen of birds.
- What? said this one, astonished. – Were your children those little monsters? Well look, they didn't look anything like the portrait you made of them...
For a portrait of a son, no one believes in a father painter. There goes the saying: those who love the ugly, they seem beautiful.Fable “The Eagle and the Owl”, by Monteiro Lobato
Narrator Types
The narrator is the one who tells the story. It cannot be confused with the author, who is the one who wrote the text. The narrator, therefore, is a fictitious entity. Many scholars have already studied the subject, so there are several classifications of narrator. Let's see the narrator types more known:
Narrator character
This type of narrator participates directly in the action as a character. The narrator can be the main character of the story (autodiegetic) or secondary character (homodiegetic). As part of the story, the narrator usually uses the 1st person.
In “The Last Chronicle”, by Fernando Sabino, we can note, right in the first sentence, that whoever narrates the story is a character: “On the way home, I enter a bar in Gávea to have a coffee next to the counter."
observer narrator
Not participating in the story, this type of narrator reports events in 3rd person as an observer. It is also called a heterodiegetic narrator. An example of this type of narrator is found in the fable “A Águia ea Coruja”, by Monteiro Lobato.
give the name of omniscient narrator to the narrator who knows everything that goes on, including inside the characters' heads. The omniscient narrator can be intrusive (one who makes comments and value judgments) or neutral (who does not comment and narrates events in a more objective way).
See too:
- meaning of narrative
- Narrative Text Characteristics
- omniscient narrator
- Plot meaning
- Meaning of Textual Genres