What is narrative?

• Narrativity is independent of the question of fictionality.
• Narrativity is not coextensive with literature nor the novel.
• The narrativity of a text is located on the level of the signified. Narrativity should therefore be defined in semantic terms. The definition should be medium-free.
• A narrative is a sign with a signifier (discourse) and a signified (story, mental image, semantic representation). The signifier can have many different semiotic manifestations. It can consist for instance of a verbal act of story-telling (diegetic narration), or of gestures and dialogue performed by actors (mimetic, or dramatic narration).

- Marie-Laurie Ryan, Beyond Myth and Metaphor: The Case of Narrative in Digital Media

In the above passage Ryan describes her perception of narrative, initially identifying it as being independent of fictionality. Essentially Ryan is stating that narrative is not only limited to fictional events; as a narrative is anything that tells a story, the story may be fiction or non-fiction.

Secondly Ryan identifies that a narrative is not coextensive with literature or the novel. Although narrative is often thought of as being synonymous with the novel, once again as a narrative is anything that tells a story, a narrative is not only limited to forms of literature or the novel; a narrative may also be a spoken story or a succession of graphical events that tell a story.

In continuation with the idea that a narrative is not limited to literary forms, Ryan argues that the definition of narrative should be medium free. Ryan identifies that narrativity occurs on the level of the signified – the mental picture created through reading a description for example – and therefore narrative should be defined in terms of meaning rather than medium. Essentially Ryan proposes that narrativity is located independent of the medium it is presented through; that a narrative exists in its own form and therefore the definition of a narrative need not include reference to any specific medium.

Lastly Ryan claims that the signifying component of a narrative – the discourse, or the way the story is presented – may take many different forms. The example she uses is that the story may be told by direct presentation typically by actors ‘showing’ the story – mimesis, or by the mediated presentation which is often 'telling' the story – diegesis.