Core Narrative Elements

Narrative

(requires) representation of event(s)

What narrative does for us

Organize, understand, experience time as a sequence of meaningful events

Protagonist

hero

Antagonist

chief opponent

Agon

Conflict/contest (spine of the story often showing opposing sides)

Masterplots

Narratives used often, reinforcing social values, identity, national myths.

Theme

Abstract concept suggested by elements like motifs

Motif

Material indicators of high level concepts

Voice

Who's heard narrating

Point of View (POV)

Perspective from which a story is told

Focalization

The consciousness through which we see the story’s events

Narrative framer

How a character asserts their perspective

Rhetoric

Using language to persuade targeted audience

Free Indirect Style

Presenting character’s thoughts in their voice without quotations

direct style

Presenting a character’s exact words/thoughts in quotation

Homodiegetic Narrator

A narrator who is a character in the storyworld

Extradiegetic Narrator

A narrator outside the storyworld who comments on the characters and events.

Chronotope

Complex ways in which narrative time becomes more layered as it progresses

Narrative world

world where the story happens

Forking-path narrative

When two or more incompatible worlds cohabit in the same diegetic level

Metalepsis

when different storyworlds collide in unexpected ways

Suspense

Ongoing tension/uncertainty created by delayed closure

Expectations

action/event the narrative causes us to expect

Questions

Raised throughout the story, conclusion may or may not answer them

Endings

Narrative’s conclusion, Satisfying or open-ended

Closure

conflict resolution at narrative’s end, satisfying expectations & uncertainties

Real Author

The actual historical person who wrote the text.

Implied/inferred Author

Version (values/attitudes) of the author suggested by the text

Narrator

device wielded by the author

Agent

Character/Carries out the action

Act

Event caused by a character

Agency

the ability of an entity to cause events/act intentionally

Scene

Where and when the action occurs

Purpose

Why the action occurs

Constituent events

key plot events needed to move it forward

Supplementary events

optional events unnecessary to the story

Analepsis

Flashback. Introducing narrative material that happens earlier in the story.

Prolepsis

Flashforward. Introducing narrative material that comes later in the story

Epistolary mode

fiction works written as letters or other documents