Narrative Text

Narrative Text is a text that purpose to amuse or to entertain the reader or the listener and deal with actual or vicanous experience in different ways to the reader or listener.

A narrative is a story that is created in a constructive format (as a work of writing, speech, poetry, prose, pictures, song, motion pictures, video games, theatre or dance) that describes a sequence of fictional or non-fictional events. It derives from the Latin verb narrare, which means "to recount" and is related to the adjective gnarus, meaning "knowing" or "skilled". (Ultimately derived from the Proto-Indo-European root gnō-, "to know")., but can also be used to refer to the sequence of events described in a narrative. A narrative can also be told by a character within a larger narrative. An important part of narration is the narrative mode, the set of methods used to communicate the narrative through a process called narration.

Along with exposition, argumentation and description, narration, broadly defined, is one of four rhetorical modes of discourse. More narrowly defined, it is the fiction-writing mode whereby the narrator communicates directly to the reader.

Stories are an important aspect of culture. Many works of art and most works of literature, tell stories; indeed, most of the humanities involve stories.

Narrative has also been used in Knowledge Management as a way to elicit and disseminate knowledge, encourage collaboration, generate new ideas, and "ignite change".

Stories are of ancient origin, existing in ancient Egyptian, ancient Greek, Chinese and Indian culture. Stories are also a ubiquitous component of human communication, used as parables and examples to illustrate points. Storytelling was probably one of the earliest forms of entertainment. Narrative may also refer to psychological processes in self-identity, memory and meaning-making.

source :wikipedia

Narative Text usually like folk tales, fable, legend, fairy tale, etc.

this things we can see on narrative text

entity

Author · Narrator · Audience

character

Main character · Focal character · Other character

mode

tense	Past tense · Present tense · Future tense

voice	Character · Epistolary · Limited · Objective · Omniscient · Subjective · Unreliable · criticism

pov	First-person · Second-person · Third-person · Multiple-person · Alternating person

Narratology · Other narrative modes · See Also (literary theory · structure)

The General Structure of narrative text are

Ω Orientation

Sets the scene and introduces the participans

Ω Complication

The problem happened in the story

Ω Resolution

The crisis is resolved, for better or worse

Ω Re-orientation

The ending of the story

Ω Evaluation

A stepping back to evaluate the story or the moral message of the story

The narrative text uses of temporal conjuction

Example ; once upon a time, before, after, etc.

The narrative text uses the simple past tense

Example narrative text are :

Fable : mousedeer, crocodile, etc
Legend : Sangkuriang, Malinkundang, etc
Fairy tale : Cinderella, Snow White, Pinocchio, etc

EXAMPLE OF NARRATIVE TEXT

"CINDERELLA STORY" the Clearest Example of Narrative Text

Once upon a time, there was a young girl named Cinderella. She lived with her step mother and two step sisters.
The step mother and sisters were conceited and bad tempered. They treated Cinderella very badly. Her step mother made Cinderella do the hardest works in the house; such as scrubbing the floor, cleaning the pot and pan and preparing the food for the family. The two step sisters, on the other hand, did not work about the house. Their mother gave them many handsome dresses to wear.
One day, the two step sister received an invitation to the ball that the king’s son was going to give at the palace. They were excited about this and spent so much time choosing the dresses they would wear. At last, the day of the ball came, and away went the sisters to it. Cinderella could not help crying after they had left.
“Why are crying, Cinderella?” a voice asked. She looked up and saw her fairy godmother standing beside her, “because I want so much to go to the ball” said Cinderella. “Well” said the godmother,”you’ve been such a cheerful, hardworking, uncomplaining girl that I am going to see that you do go to the ball”.
Magically, the fairy godmother changed a pumpkin into a fine coach and mice into a coachman and two footmen. Her godmother tapped Cinderella’s raged dress with her wand, and it became a beautiful ball gown. Then she gave her a pair of pretty glass slippers. “Now, Cinderella”, she said; “You must leave before midnight”. Then away she drove in her beautiful coach.
Cinderella was having a wonderfully good time. She danced again and again with the king’s son. Suddenly the clock began to strike twelve, she ran toward the door as quickly as she could. In her hurry, one of her glass slipper was left behind.
A few days later, the king’ son proclaimed that he would marry the girl whose feet fitted the glass slipper. Her step sisters tried on the slipper but it was too small for them, no matter how hard they squeezed their toes into it. In the end, the king’s page let Cinderella try on the slipper. She stuck out her foot and the page slipped the slipper on. It fitted perfectly.
Finally, she was driven to the palace. The king’s son was overjoyed to see her again. They were married and live happily ever after.

Notes on Generic Structure of Narrative Text

Orientation: it means to introduce the participants or the characters of the story with the time and place set. Orientation actually exists in every text type though it has different term. In this story, the first paragraph is clearly seen to introduce the participants of the Cinderella Story. They were Cinderella her self as the main character of the story, her step mother which treated Cinderella badly, and her steps sister which supported her mother to make Cinderella was treated very badly. Cinderella was introduced as a hero in this story. She struggled against the bad treatment from her step mother and sisters.

Complication: it is such the crisis of the story. If there is not the crisis, the story is not a narrative text. In a long story, the complication appears in several situations. It means that some time there is more then one complication. In this Cinderella story, we can see clearly that there are Major Complication and Minor Complication.
The second paragraph is the major complication of this Cinderella story. Cinderella got bad treatment from her stepmother. It is the bad crisis which drives into several minor complications which Cinderella has to overcome.

Resolution: it is the final series of the events which happen in the story. The resolution can be good or bad. The point is that it has been accomplished by the characters. Like complication, there are Major Resolution and Minor Resolution.
In the last paragraph, it is said that finally Cinderella lived happily. It is the happy resolution of the bad treatment.