project

NARRATIVES

1. Minimal definition of a narrative: a form that retells past experience by matching the sequence of clauses to the purported sequence of events.

a. temporal sequence is the defining characteristic

b. example of a minimal narrative:

"Well this person had a little too much to drink

and he attacked me, and the friend came in,

and she stopped it."

c. an unrecognizable narrative:

"A friend of mine came in just in time to stop this person

who had a little too much to drink

from attacking me."

2. The skeleton (also known as backbone, or foreground) of a narrative is usually made up of past tense main clauses. These clauses give the main events of the story. They are called narrative clauses.

a. example of an adolescent narrative:

a. This boy punched me

b. And I punched him

c. and the teacher came in

d. and stopped the fight

b. not a narrative:

a. Well, like we used to jump off the trestle.

b. and the trestle's about 6-7 stories high.

c. You know, we used to go swimmin' there

d. We used to jump offa there, you know.

e. An' ya feel like you are gonna die and shit, y'know

f. An' ya feel like...you are gonna die and shit

g. Couple of time I almost ...I thought I was gonna drown, you know.

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c. You can't reverse clauses in a true narrative because it falsifies the situtation

d. "used to" or "would" (in a habitual or repeated sense) are indications that you don't have a narrative.

3. Abstract: Often speakers begin with a few clauses which summarize the entire story:

"I once had to have my number changed because someone was bothering me. They were very good, they did it very quickly."

a. An abstract answers the question: "What is this story about?"

b. An abstract can serve three functions:

1. story summary

2. request for telling rights (hold the floor)

3. advertisement for what is to follow?

c. In the example below, you have two abstracts in one telling:

"Where you ever in danger of death?"

1. My brother put a knife in my head

"How'd that happen?"

2. Like kids, you get into a fight

3. and I twisted his arm up behind him

4. This was just a few days after my father died.

4. Orientation: who, when, where, what? An orientation serves to identify the characters, the time, the place, and the surrounding activity of the story.

a. Examples: "It was last weekend on the Promenade. They had a Promenade art show."

another example:

a. Yeah, you know, I was sittin on the corner an'shit, smokin' my cigarette, you know

b. I was high

c. He walked over to me

d. "Can I have a cigarette"

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d. He was a little taller than me but not that much.

b. orientations are characterized by the use of the BE—verb and by past progressive forms (was/were + V—ing). They show the kinds of things that are/were going on before the first event of the narrative occurred.

5. Coda: Signal that the story is over. "That was it."

a. Some codas give the effects of the event:

"And it worked out very well."

b. The coda may also bring the speaker back to the present:

"So we've been here for five years now."

6. Evaluation: So what? Why is this interesting?

a. There are a number of devices to indicate why a story is worth telling.

1. External evaluation: the narrator steps outside the story to tell the audience what the point is:

"I think that's pretty good" (to have only one bad experience in 16 years)

2. Internal evaluation:

a. reports the evaluation as an emotion which occurred at the time:

"and I was scared to death"

b. quotes another character giving an evaluation:

"You look like hell, she said"

c. narrates some action that occurred as reponse to the main events:

"And we all finally made it home to my house and we all stayed up half of the night just talking about it."

3. Many of these devices appear as full sentences, and, as such, interrupt the flow of events. But they can also be integrated into narrative. clauses.

"And we went home to my house" vs.

"And we all finally made it home to my house."

repetition in: "And he looked and he looked and he

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"looked for her"

7. Functions of Evaluation:

to establish reportability: why does the story matter?

to refer to values and noms aboout the way things should be.

a. Reportability contrasts the ordinary with the extraordinary:

Compare "I say John today and he said 'Hello"

with "I got hit on the head with a beer bottle and they took me to the hospital and I had to have 14 stitches."

reportability depends on hearer-speaker relationship and closeness

<------ --------->

if teller known, if teller unknown, 1st person can be trivial 3rd person must be newsworthy

b. Values and norms about the way things are and should be and the kind of person that the speaker is (self-aggrandizement)

1. this comes out in the events people choose to tell about and in the points that they make with them.

"Am I shown as a courageous, clever, and resourceful person?"

"What kind of light does the story shed on the teller?"

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THE STRUCTURE OF NARRATIVES

Labov has described the structure of narratives in detail. Most narratives contain abstract, orientation, narrative, coda and evaluation. Identify all five of these parts the following narrative. Also, briefly define what is meant by each of these parts.

Narrative from Linde

I've had one bad experience in sixteen years, and I think that's pretty good. I was walking down the street before we moved in here and some guy came up to me with a knife, and you know, said he wanted money, and I clunked him on the head with my purse and bit him on the hand and he finally went away. (Laughs) And that's the only time / have ever had any bad experiences.

1. abstract

2. orientation

3. narrative clauses

4. coda

5. evaluation

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