Narrative and Life

 Narrative and Life

A narrative is a way of telling a story or sharing events, real or imagined, in a structured sequence. It connects events, actions, and characters to give meaning to experiences and help people understand them. Narratives are found in many forms, such as novels, movies, myths, everyday conversations, and even visual arts like paintings.

A.   The Universality of Narrative

Narratives are one of the most significant aspects of human life. It is not just a form of art but a natural way humans express themselves, communicate, and understand their experiences. The term "narrative" is often associated with stories in novels, movies, or myths. However, narrative is much more than that—it is an essential tool for organizing and interpreting the world. This universality makes narrative a fundamental part of human existence, transcending cultures, languages, and time periods.

  Narrative in Everyday Life

Narrative is not limited to professional storytellers, authors, or filmmakers. It is something we all engage in, often without even realizing it. For example, a child who says, “I fell down,” is telling a basic story. This simple statement has a subject (“I”), an action (“fell”), and a context. Even at a young age, humans begin to narrate their experiences, which helps them communicate and make sense of the world.

Every day, people use narratives to share what happened, explain their feelings, or plan for the future. Whether it is a casual conversation, a formal speech, or even a text message, narrative is woven into our interactions. This natural ability to create and understand stories is so common that it often goes unnoticed, yet it is one of the most vital ways we connect with others.

Theories About Narrative’s Importance

Many scholars have recognized the central role of narrative in human life. For example, Fredric Jameson described narrative as a "central function" of the human mind, while Jean-François Lyotard called it the “quintessential form of customary knowledge.” These thinkers argue that narrative is not just a way of telling stories but a fundamental way of thinking. It helps humans structure their thoughts and understand their place in the world.

Roland Barthes, another influential thinker, made a strong case for the universality of narrative in his 1966 essay. He observed that narratives exist in every culture, at every point in history, and in countless forms. According to Barthes, narrative is present in myths, legends, histories, poems, movies, paintings, news articles, and even everyday conversations. It crosses all boundaries, whether social, cultural, or geographical.

Narrative appears in specific genres like novels, epics, or tragedies, where stories are the main focus. However, even non-narrative forms like lyric poetry contain narrative elements. For instance, Ben Jonson's poem "Song: To Celia" uses narrative in small ways, such as describing actions like looking, kissing, and sending flowers. These subtle narratives give structure to what is otherwise an expression of feeling.

The ability to tell stories emerges in young children, typically around age three or four, when they combine nouns and verbs. This developmental milestone coincides with the formation of early memories, suggesting that narrative might play a role in shaping how we remember our lives. Some believe that the capacity for narrative is innate, much like grammar. Stories are so fundamental to human experience that they shape how we perceive ourselves and the world.

Narrative seems to be an essential part of being human, possibly even hardwired into our brains. Novelist Paul Auster argued that a child's need for stories is as basic as their need for food. Observing a child’s fascination with stories—whether read aloud or shown in movies—makes it clear that this desire for narrative isn’t learned but an innate part of human nature.

B.    Narrative and Time

Narrative plays a key role in how humans understand and organize time. Unlike abstract tools like clocks or calendars that measure time in fixed units, narratives give time meaning by linking it to events and experiences. For example, when a child says, “I fell down,” they turn a brief moment into a meaningful story, marking it as something significant.

If we extend our example just a bit, we can show how much we rely on the free exercise of narrative to shape time according to human priorities:

The child fell down. After a while she got up and ran, until at last, seeing her mother, she burst into tears: "I fell down," she cried. "There, there," said her mother. "That must have hurt."

This process of creating meaningful time is what Paul Ricoeur calls "human time." Narratives help humans shape time according to their experiences, making sense of it as a sequence of events. They are flexible and can expand or shrink time. A single event, like a child falling, can be described in great detail to stretch the narrative or summarized briefly to compress the timeline. This flexibility allows stories to focus on what matters most in any given context.

Narrative time is different from clock time. Clock time divides moments into equal intervals like seconds or minutes, while narrative time depends on how much detail and significance is given to specific events. For example, the same incident of a child falling could be told quickly or expanded to include emotions, reactions, and the child's journey of gaining confidence over months or years.

Although narrative time focuses on events, it often blends with regular time. Words like "a few hours later" or "the next day" connect the story to the familiar structure of clock time, creating a balance between the abstract and the experiential.

Humans have always used narratives to make sense of time. Even before mechanical clocks existed, people relied on the sun, moon, and seasons to measure time, while narratives added meaning to these cycles by connecting them to events and stories. In this way, narrative remains a vital tool for shaping and understanding time in human life.

 

 

 

C.    NARRATIVE PERCEPTION

· Narrative is a natural part of how we understand the world. Filmmaker Brian De Palma even said that people only truly understand things when they are put into a story. This means that storytelling helps us make sense of what we observe. Even when looking at a still image, we try to find a story in it.  Our minds automatically look for connections between elements in the picture to create a meaningful sequence of events.

· When we look at a picture of a shipwreck, we don’t just see a ship—we imagine a past event that led to the wreck. We think about how the ship might have been caught in a storm or hit a rock before sinking. This means we naturally think of events leading up to what we see, creating a sense of time and story. Our minds fill in the gaps, turning a static image into part of a larger, unfolding event. This ability to see implied movement and history in a still image shows how deeply narrative is embedded in our perception.

·  Our tendency to create stories from still images happens automatically. When we see something, we don’t just focus on its present state; we wonder about its past and future. We don’t just see an object; we want to know what happened before. This curiosity drives our engagement with art, photography, and even everyday scenes. Artists use this instinct by choosing moments from well-known stories in their paintings. They select key moments that make viewers think about what led up to them and what might come next, making the artwork more engaging.

Renaissance artists often painted scenes from mythology or religious texts. They chose dramatic moments that audiences would recognize and immediately connect with. For example, Rembrandt painted a scene from the Bible where King Belshazzar sees a divine message on the wall during a feast. This moment was chosen because it is filled with tension and significance. By capturing a crucial turning point, the painting invites viewers to imagine the larger story behind it. The characters’ expressions and body language help convey the drama of the event.

 Rembrandt’s painting captures the moment when the king is shocked by the message. His expression and body language show his fear and disbelief. Even though it is a single image, viewers naturally imagine what happened before and what will happen next. They might think about the joyous mood of the feast before the writing appeared and the consequences that will follow. This shows that narrative is essential to how humans understand images and the world around them. Whether in film, literature, or visual art, storytelling shapes our perception and helps us make sense of what we see.