Understandings of Narrative

The narrative is the structure of a story.

The diegesis is the fictional space and time implied by the narrative - the world in which the story takes place.

Verisimilitude is the realism content of the narrative.

Narrative has different structures:


Multi-strand narrative- the telling of the story from more than one person's point of view or two stories of two characters which intertwine

Restricted Narrative- the story from only one character in the story/narrative. The audience has limited access to narrative events as they only see them as the one character does and not another characters point of view.

Non-Restricted- is the opposite of restricted and the audience may be able to watch the film from more than one view point. E.g. following a couple's life but seeing the female's day to day work and the males when they aren't together.

Linear Narrative- the story is told chronologically, with a beginning, middle and end.

Non-Linear- this is the opposite of linear narrative. The story does not always have a clear beginning, middle and end. And the story could change from reality to flashback for example.

Fragmented Narrative- only parts of the story are shown to the audience causes the feeling of pleasure and suspense.