We explain what the narrative text is and what its general characteristics are. Also, what is its structure and some examples.
What is a narrative text?
A narrative text is that text that tells a story that takes place in a specific period of time and place. Narration refers to the way the story is told, in the form of a sequence or as a series of actions carried out by the characters, and which allows the reader to imagine the situation.
Stories, characters and places can be real, imaginary or based on true events. The narrator of the story may or may not be the author himself. and he is the one who tells the story to the reader using any of the three grammatical persons (the first person, the second or the third).
Narration is used both in everyday communication to transmit informationas in literature for the creation of fictional stories. Each author has his or her own style for narrating, and they also maintain a general structure that identifies narrative texts with an introduction, a development and an outcome.
See also: Argumentative text
Characteristics of narrative text
A narrative text has as its purpose tell a story, inform or entertain the reader. It is characterized by the figure of a narrator who can appear through a character within the story and will be in the first or second person, or in the case of an omnipresent narrator, the story will be in the third person.
The author is the one who gives a style to the narrative textwhich can be direct (when it reproduces literally and in quotes, what each character says), indirect (when the narrator presents or describes what the characters say) or free (when the direct and indirect styles merge).
A narrative text is characterized by having various elements, such as:
- The narrator. He is the one who tells the story and can be present as one of the characters, be omniscient (who knows everything and relates the sequences) or be a witness (he does not know the whole story, but narrates what he observes).
- Characters. They are the ones who act in the events that occur in the story. They can be main characters (the protagonists on which the story is based), or secondary characters (those who intervene in specific events in the story).
- Space. It is one or more specific places where the story takes place. The reader is able to imagine each space and feel particular emotions through the description detailed by the author.
- Time. It is the moment or time in which events occur and can be linear (chronological) or with twists and turns (playing with events from the past, present and future throughout the entire story).
- The action. It is the plot of the story that may be explicit from the beginning or that is deduced as the story progresses.
Structure of the narrative text
The structure of a narrative text is composed of three parts:
- The introduction. It is the presentation of the story that allows the reader to be placed in a given context (in time and place), and in which the protagonists of the story are introduced.
- The development or knot. It is the most extensive part of the story where the details of the story, the characters and the events that connect them are known.
- Outcome. It is the closing of the story in which the questions that arose during the development of the story are revealed. It can be a tragic, happy or open ending to doubt with the possibility of continuing the story in later works.
Examples of narrative texts
Narrative texts are very diverse and each one has particular characteristics, but they are identified as narrative texts because they have the structure of the narrative in common. Some examples are: