ENGL292 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Narrative History

• School: University of Waterloo
• Department: English
• Course: ENGL292
• Professor: Nadine Gingrich

Document Summary

Narrative is a culturally given way of presenting discourse. Narrative puts together stories and events of characters over time. Even if narrative is only a structure, narrative is not devoid of meaning. Narrative far from being a discourse that can be filled with different content, has it"s own form. Narrative narrows the scope to the meaningful part out of a mass amount of events. To narrativise is to impose a plot upon them. Coherence and closure are not always part of narratives. They are informed by a moral framework so that there is some kind of reason for telling the story. Way we tell the stories we tell, make it unique, reveal who we identify with, who we distance ourselves from, confidence in the similarities between ourselves and the audience. Stories we tell as a group, as an institutions. What is what is good what is possible. How does the narrative shape or control the audience"s responses.