Narrative Content Sample Clauses

Narrative Content. Xxxxx Xxxxxxxxx suggests that “the idea that our lives are in some sense story- like runs deep in our everyday thought” (Xxxxxxxxx, 2011, p. 394). Perhaps because of this, the narrative content may be the most intuitive dimension of the three components of the narrative self. This aspect of the narrative self is composed of, for example, the birth, upbringing, place of origin, school, job or succession of jobs, etc., of a particular individual. What one does, where, when and how, roughly speaking, amounts to the narrative content. To continue the Lord of the Rings versus Star Wars metaphor, if the narrative universes for Frodo and Luke Skywalker are Middle Earth and the galaxy, the narrative content is the storyline or plot that Frodo and Luke live through and within. The narrative content, naturally, takes the shape of a narrative with all the characteristics of narrative proper discussed above: a point of view; the generation of meaning by virtue of the relationship between the plot and the broader context of the story; and a diachronic format with past, present and future. The plot of the Fellowship of the Rings is roughly the following. Frodo, as a hobbit, is one of the members of the fellowship brought together on a journey to destroy The Ring. He is the keeper of The Ring and assumes all the privileges and problems associated with that role. This, more or less, is the content, although it is not by any means comprehensive. With respect to diachronicity, his story takes place in time, as he has a past, present and future.21 Furthermore, one could not make sense of his narrative self outside of the broader context of the place and time he inhabits (at that time in Middle Earth, one bellicose faction of inhabitants are fomenting war and desperately searching for The Ring). This context is inextricably bound to his narrative self, as his narrative would be undeniably different if he lived in a different place and time. And finally, his story comes from a certain point of view – his own. He does not experience the story from the perspective of the wizard Gandalf, the dwarf Gimle or the elf Legolas – only from his own perspective. In these three ways, Frodo’s story takes the form of a narrative that I call the narrative content. It is on equal footing with the narrative universe, as one could not exist without the other. The narrative universe and the narrative content together form two thirds of the Frodo’s narrative self. The last dimension takes into co...