Natural Vs. Literary Narrative

How many times were we reading a literary piece and relate the scene, character, or events to our lives? It is fascinating how people’s existence and actions find a way into textualized stories, novels, poems, and plays. But even more fascinating is the way the formal literary forms shape our lives by influencing our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. But are “literary” narratives considered as superior forms than the used language or are they connected to “natural” narratives? We always studied literature by accentuating the differences that make it powerful, yet in this essay, based on the textbook “Writing through Literature”, we will argue that “natural” and “literary” narratives are connected. Many linguistic studies can be used to unveil the continuity between both forms. First, Pratt and Labov’s analysis reveals similarities of the basic structure of narrative texts; second Goffman’ analysis exposes resemblances and differences of dramatic texts from narratives; finally, art representation divulges remarkable effects of literature on social life.

First, let’s consider the similarities between the basic structure of narrative texts. In Natural Narrative, Mary Louise Pratt, a literary critic, discovers that literature forms have the same structural characteristics as natural narratives exchanged among ordinary people. Mary stresses that “every story is literary to some degree” (page 12). She based her discovery on William Labov’s research about narrative stories of people from diverse backgrounds. Labov notices that regardless of the ethnic differences, all natural anecdotes are based on people’s experiences and are composed of the same sections known as six elements: “abstract, orientation, complicating action, evaluation, resolution, and coda”. To understand what are these elements, let’s examine the fight story told by a black adolescent male from Harlem (page 6). We note that Labov’s analysis of this story is similar to literary critics. The story has an orientation and an abstract in the first paragraph that give readers both setting and summary of the anecdote; the complicating action and resolution are the climax, which is the confrontation between the characters of the story; while coda represent the end of the fight; and finally, evaluation is a general truth or what's known as “the moral of the story”. Labov assumes that for each story to be effective, narrators must introduce their counts appropriately, provide the audience with an important background, offer the narrator’s point of view of events, and, of course, end the story. Similarly, in his quote “every high school student knows that novels and plays have an introduction, a gradual rising action, a climax followed by a swift denouement and resolution with the option of an epilogue at the end” (page 13), Labov argues that literary anecdotes have the same structural organization.

Up to now, Pratt and Labov’s analysis demonstrates that novels and natural narratives are both describing people’s experiences and both have the similar organizational structure. However, literary anecdotes diverge from the basic plan by different use of Labov’s “six elements”. For instance, in the literary anecdote Ordnance by Walter Benjamin (page 13), the author does not provide abstract and resolution, instead he used the element "evaluation" to create suspense, he says, “For had she touched me with the match of her eyes, I should have gone up like a magazine” (page 13). This metaphor shifts the audience's attention from the events to the writer's emotional state at that time of the story. Equally, in the anecdote Departures by Storm Jameson the narrator, which is the mother, becomes the representative of several persons, as the frightened little girl and the rough mother. Thus, she might represent the innocent childhood fears and maternal responsibilities of other children and mothers. Indeed, by using figurative languages like metaphors or similes, authors change anecdotes from their "natural" to “literary” form. A literary anecdote might be considered as an ordinary story happening to anyone, yet, what makes its superiority is the illustration of the events instead of simply telling the story, that, for example, makes connections to other things outside the story or states narrators’ sentiments at that time. Also, the emotional effects generated by the change of the structure by reorganizing the “six elements” or by the omission of one or more elements.

Another significant element that supports the connection between “natural” and “literary” narratives is based on the study of dramatic texts through the styles in which they resemble and differ from narratives. In his study of “literary aspects of ordinary human interaction”, Goffman suggests that character contests reveal the social rules by which people establish their identity, preserve their images, and respect others through interacting. This ritual is the most important social aspect of a normal functioning of society. Though, intense form of character contests “run in” or situation of confrontation may occur periodically in our lives as Goffman says “our characters are illusions encouraged by society. Our behavior in moments of crisis or confrontation depends upon our feeling that we do will reveal what we are” (page 42). It is during these moments of pressure that real characters appear. Each involved person tries to affirm her character at the expense of the other’s character. These “run in” confrontation may lead to different outcomes: one-character win and the other loose; both characters win, or both characters loose. Goffman explains that when two individuals face a conflicting situation in real life is comparable to a scene between characters from play or novel; thus, literal characters in plays and novels are part of society. In that context, in The Kiss by Kate Chopin, there is a run-in character contests going on, the principal character “Nathalie” loses because she couldn’t have what she wanted- a wealthy husband and a lover at the same time. Alternatively, the lover “Harvey” wins the contest even though he loses his lover. Not only does he deprive her of what she wants, but he shows “he's not going to play second fiddle and just be her joy boy” Dr. Dan (comments on journal # 3). So how all this is related to the relationship between “natural” and “literary” narratives? Goffman