THE 6 MOST IMPORTANT ELEMENTS OF THE NARRATIVE GENRE - LITERATURE - 2025

The main elements of the narrative genre are the narrator, the characters, the plot or plot, the setting, the style and the theme.

The combination of all these gives rise to the whole, which is the final finished work that reaches the reader. The absence of one or more of these elements degrades the genre and can turn it into something different.

Narrative is a literary genre written in prose. Traditionally the novel, the short novel and the short story are the three most characteristic narrative subgenres.

It is the most used genre and also the most consumed in literature. Literature is sometimes directly associated with narrative, although it is only one of its many genres.

The 6 main elements of the narrative genre

1- The narrator

In the narrative, the narrator is the voice that recounts the events. You can do it in the first person, becoming the protagonist, or in the third person.

Within the third person there is the figure of the external narrator, when he limits himself to telling the events as they happen; or omniscient, when he also knows the thoughts of the characters.

It is an elemental figure without which a work could not be considered as a narrative. Mere dialogue is considered theater.

2- The characters

They are the subjects who carry out the action that the narrator tells. They are mostly human beings, but in the case of children's stories they can be animals or plants to which human qualities such as speech are attributed.

In some novels the number of characters is limited, only a small number appears around which the action takes place.

In other cases, especially in longer, denser and more complex novels, there may be main and secondary characters; the latter are involved in the action, but to a lesser extent than the main ones.

3- The plot or argument

It is the set of events that occur from beginning to end in the narrative work. They constitute the story that the narrator tells and its development is subject to the author's criteria.

There are different techniques when dealing with the facts and ordering them throughout the work. Likewise, there are strategies to maintain the reader's tension and not lose their attention.

The plot is, in many cases, the reason why the reader chooses a work to read.

4- The setting

The setting refers to the geographical, social, political and space-time context in which the characters live and the plot unfolds.

It may have connotations voluntarily entered by the author or be merely casual.

That is, it can be part of the set that the author wants to convey, or it can be an accessory element due to the simple fact that every action has to take place in a specific space and time.

The latter case is rare, since the setting offers narrative support, provides context and adds nuances.

5- The style

It is the hallmark of the author. It is made up of their way of writing, their use of language and literary resources and figures, dialogues, syntax, among other elements.

6- The theme

It is the set of generic categories in which a narrative work can be classified when it is analyzed.

That is, it has to do with the plot and the argument, with what happens in the action and the space-time context in which it occurs. There are historical, war, romantic, science fiction, horror narrative works, among others.

References

1. Elements of Story of Fiction, at homeofbob.com.
2. "Basic Elements of Narrative", David Herman. (2009).
3. Discover the basic elements of setting in a story, on Writer's Digest, at writersdigest.com
4. "The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative", H. Porter Abbott. (2002).
5. "The Cambridge Companion To Narrative", David Herman. (2007).