chapter five
Narrative,
narratology ,power
Narratives are an immensely important part of our daily lives. They take
the form of stories, and they are to be found in newspaper articles, histor-
ical reports, advertisements, soap operas, gossip and conversation. They
are also an important aspect of creative writing: the stuff of novels and
short fiction. In this chapter I’ll be drawing on narratology, a particular
theory of narrative, and I’ll be looking at such matters as narration, focal-
isation (point of view), the manipulation of time and the concept of
character.
Many books about writing help you to reproduce particular types of
narrative form. My approach here will be slightly different, and will
involve analysing the dynamics of narrative and applying them to creative
practice. This chapter, therefore, will help you not only to understand
narrative structure, but also to stretch and experiment with it. Much
storytelling is rooted in realism and hinges on stabilising realist
conventions. If you want to experiment, you sometimes have to twist,
subvert or invert those conventions, and turn realism on its head.
Narrative is a genre, but it is also an important aspect of our social
consciousness and interactions. The way in which fictional technique
can influence the ideological and psychological aspects of the text—
particularly with respect to power relationships, cultural identity and
memory—is an important aspect of this chapter and is discussed further
in Chapter 7.