1. Components of a narrative

2. Oral narrative of personal experience have six basic parts
(based on Labov and Waletzy 1967)

3. Abstract A short introductory summary
An overview statement that captures the interest

4. Orientation
Background information to orient the audience

5. Complicating action
«something happens», the situation changes

6. Evaluation Comments on the narrative
The narrator’s attitude or reaction to the events

7. Resolution
Closing material on what finally happens in the narrative or how events play out

8. Coda
A final summary or comment

9. Another time I was in a car smash with a --
a friend of mine had just got a new Baby Austin with a sunshine roof
which fortunately was open
and there were five of us in this
and he was going out by Butlins
and suddenly he turned round and says
“See I told you we could do fifty-five”
and he skidded
and we went over on our side
and we slid for seventy-five feet --
the police measured it --
on our side
and then the car caught fire
and we climbed out of the sunshine roof
I got a bit of a fright that time too

10. Written narratives have different types of narrators > narrator not merely a conduit
- From whose perspective is the text presented?
- How are speech and thought presented?
- What relationship does perspective construct between the text and readers?

11. Types of narrator
A first person narrator (either a major or minor character)
uses the pronoun "I" to tell the story
the reader knows his/her thoughts
generally unreliable

12. Types of narrator A second person narrator
- AMX : It’s Your World. Take Control
- Apple : Think different
AT & T : Reach out and touch someone
“You are not the kind of guy who would be at a place like this at this time in the morning. But here you are, and you cannot say that the terrain is entirely unfamiliar, although the details are fuzzy.”
(J. McInernery, “Bright lights Big City”)

13. Types of narrator A third person narrator
A detached third person narrator sticks to telling the story, and never inserts his own opinions
A limited narrator has a restricted view of events, and doesn't "know" the whole story
An omniscient narrator has access to all the actions and thoughts within fiction