THE narration it is a textual type that is dedicated to report a story, fictional or not, presenting the characters as protagonists of the facts, narrated in specific times and spaces. This typology applies to different genres and prioritizes one or another element depending on the function of the genre. Its structure is commonly divided into introduction, changes, climax and outcome.
Read too: Fantastic tale - short narrative that features unlikely elements
Narrative elements
Narrative texts can present five elements that are characteristic of this textual type. Are they:
characters;
storyteller or narrative focus;
event;
time;
space;
mode;
cause;
Although they are characterized as elements of the narrative, the tools are not necessarily all presented in the same text. That means to say that some narrative texts may hide one or more elements, depending on the author's intention, the communication context or even the socio-communicative function of the genre.
The elements that are considered essential to narrative genres are the characters
, as they are the protagonists of the facts that occurred; the action or fact, since every narrative is based on a sequence of related events; and the narrator or narrative focus, which refers to the one who tells the story (whether or not he participates in the facts), and the perspective by which he counts (with the child's gaze, the older gaze, whether from a total or partial view of the events).In addition to these, the secondary elements they are relevant, at different levels, to narrative texts. Time can be divided into chronological time — orders the sequence of facts in linear order of hours, days, months and years — or in psychological time— it orders the facts from the thoughts or memory of a character and/or narrator.
Space is the element that marks the places where events take place. This category may designate a macro space (such as large cities, states, countries, etc.) or micro (such as the house, work, square, bedroom, etc.).
The mode category answers the question "how?". It proposes to detail the means that enable or characterize the events of the narrative. Finally, the element "cause" answers the question "why?".
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narrative genres
Romance
Tale
Chronicle
Fable
Parable
News
reports
Comic
Films
theater
narrative structure
the narrative type presents different structures, depending on the textual genre in which it is inserted. In other words, the narrative textual genre influences the linguistic and structural characteristics, as it can prioritize some aspects and ignore others. Furthermore, the organization of the structure can be intentionally modified, a case very common in fictional narratives.
Still, in general, the narrative structure presents the following topics.
initial situation: presents the initial circumstances or the past that contextualizes the story and marks the starting point of events.
Interference/change: indicates the part of the text that presents the differentiating element, responsible for changing the initial circumstance of the facts.
Climax: apex of history. It is the part that presents the maximum event, the most relevant fact.
Outcome/Result: final part of the narrative, the conclusion of the story. The outcome can have a closed ending (all the main questions are answered) or an open ending (the future of the characters is not known or some relevant questions remain unanswered). The ending can still be predictable, when it matches the expectations of the story, or unpredictable, when it breaks the expectation induced by the story.
See too: Narrative chronicle - genre that narrates light plots of everyday life
Step by step of how to make a narration
To make a good narration, it is necessary, first, observe the textual genre in which it will be applied. Each genre will have its specific requirements, which must be considered. Having made the above considerations, some tips can help in the narrative construction.
Choose a relevant fact.
Choose the most suitable narrator and perspective.
Delimit the timeline that will be narrated.
Select your characters (real or not) and analyze their priorities against the facts.
Analyze the relevant temporal and spatial characteristics to be shared.
Select the information.
Below are some examples of narrative texts:
Fable: the loBthe and the lamb
“In the time when the wolf and the lamb were at a truce, he desired those who offered the occasion to break them. One day they were both on the bank of a stream, going to drink, said the wolf, very angry against the lamb:
‘Why do you change the water I'm going to drink?
He replied meekly:
‘Sir so-and-so wolf, how can I disturb the fountain at your mercy, if it runs from above, and I'm down here?
The opponent acknowledged the clarity of the argument, however, varying the medium, he urged saying:
‘Because if you don't turbaste now, then turbaste last year.'
He satisfied the lamb, saying:
‘How could I commit a crime a year ago if I'm not more than six months old?
Then the wolf, annoyed the more the more convinced, said:
‘For if it wasn't you, so-and-so was your father's ram.
So do the wicked and wicked to whom there is no innocence that satisfies nor excuse that satisfies.”
The fable above presents the main elements of the narrative: characters, time, space, fact, mode and cause. The story begins with the scenario of the two characters dialoguing. The conversation between the wolf and the lamb goes on to its climax, when the wolf makes the final argument “that was your father's ram so-and-so” and takes the lamb. In addition, the ending presents a “moral lesson”, an element that stands out in the fable.
Tale: the portfolio - Machado de Assis
“SUDDENLY, Honório looked at the floor and saw a wallet. Bending down, picking it up and putting it away was the work of a few moments. Nobody saw him, except a man who was at the door of a store, and who, without knowing him, said to him, laughing:
- Look, if you don't notice her; he lost her at once.
"It's true," Honorio agreed, embarrassed.
In order to assess the opportunity of this portfolio, it is necessary to know that Honório has to pay a debt tomorrow, four hundred and something milreis, and the wallet had its full bulge. The debt does not seem great for a man of the rank of Honorius, who is a lawyer; but all sums are large or small, depending on the circumstances, and his could not be worse. Excessive family expenses, at first for serving relatives, and later for pleasing the woman, who was bored with solitude; dance here, dinner there, hats, fans, so much more, that there was no choice but to discount the future. He went into debt. He started with store and warehouse accounts; he passed on to loans, two hundred to one, three hundred to another, five hundred to another, and everything growing, and balls being given, and dinners being eaten, a perpetual vortex, a maelstrom.
- You're doing well now, aren't you? Gustavo C..., a lawyer and family member, used to tell him lately.
"I'm going now," Honório lied.
The truth is, it was bad. Few causes, of small amount, and remiss constituents; unfortunately, he had lately lost a process, in which he had founded high hopes. Not only did he receive little, but it even seems to have taken something away from his legal reputation; in any case, the newspapers were in trouble.”
The excerpt from the Machadian short story also exemplifies the narrative type. In this fragment, it is possible to identify the initial situation of the story, by returning to the past time of the central character Honório. Before continuing what happens after the encounter with the object, the narrator builds the character's context, revealing the information that will be relevant to the plot.
By Talliandre Matos
writing teacher
