The narrative period is a concept from the narrative theory. The narrative time is the period of time required to read or narrate an epic work. In general, as a narrative time, the time may be to read, hear or even see an artistic work. The counterpart is the time told. It means the time range over which the action extends.
The narrative period is therefore the time for the narrator to use his narrative. For the recipient (reader, listener), it is the time it takes to read or hear the text. Thus the narrative period describes a relationship between discours and histoire. This is called narrative.
Regarding the narrative, there are three possibilities. Either the time span that a text conveys with the time a reader needs to read is the same. This circumstance is referred to as timely narrative. If the extent of the discours prevails in the work, and the coping of the text takes more time than the time given in it, we speak of the time-stretching narrative.
The third possibility is the timely narrative. Here, more is told in the discours, that is on the level of the text volume, than is necessary for the reading of the text. A well-known example is Buddenbrooks, a novel by Thomas Mann. Several generations are accompanied in the text. The length of reading is, of course, much shorter. This also applies to many historical novels.
The above picture shows the three possible forms of narrative. In most of the stories there is a narrative narrative that summarizes events for the reader. Time-telling telling is usually only approximate. Typically, the figures of the figures are in the form of dialogues and monologues. Time-telling telling is usually realized by means of digressions (digressions) of an authorial narrator or by means of extremely detailed narrative.
Günther Müller: Narrative time and narrated time
These terms go back to the literary historian Günther Müller, who suggested it in 1947. But also Thomas Mann, who gave us an example with the Buddenbrooks, dealt with the narrative period in Zauberberg (1924). So the narrator in the novel says about the narrative:
“The narrative,” he concluded, “has two periods: its own, the musical-real, which determines its course, its appearance; but secondly that of its content, which is perspective, and to such an extent that the imaginary time of the narrative coincides almost entirely with its musical, but can also be removed from it all the time. ”
In the above excerpt, two times are presented in a narrative: the musical-real and the contents. These terms mean the same thing as the narrative and the narrated time. These terms were proposed some twenty years later by Günther Müller and have been widely used in German-speaking and international narrative research.
The narrated time is settled on the level of the histoire and is thus the period of time that describes the whole story. For this purpose, there are mostly fictional dates which can help in determining the exact date (date, daytime, time).
Let us remember the history of creation from the Bible. This tells of how God creates our world in six days and rests on the seventh. Perhaps a reader needs about five minutes to read the lines. Thus, the narrated time is seven days, with the narrative time being only five minutes. The ratio of five minutes to seven days is called narrative or narrative speed.
NOTE: However, readers need different length to read a text. Thus, a time specification with respect to the narrative time may vary. Therefore, it is useful to specify the number of rows so that a general grid can be accessed and a general statement can be made. In the example it would be about 120 lines, which includes the history of creation.
What do tell-tales and tell time?
What has been described so far is not yet really effective. We have seen that the beginning of the Bible is narrative, because the narrated time is greater than the narrative time. This observation does not yet allow us to say anything about the character of the narrative.
It becomes exciting only when the relationship between narrative time and narrated time is compared with other texts or other passages of the same book. In this way it is possible to ascertain the basic principles for the construction of a work and to testify about its rhythm.
For example, numerous works initially reflect the past. Sometimes a whole life is represented on a few pages, which makes the story very strong. After such an introduction, however, the rest of the work may only contain a single month. Thus was told at first fast and then slower.
Note: As a result, the relationship between narrated time and narrative time determines the rhythm of a work, whereby, of course, it is the change of the ratio that makes up the rhythm.
Overview: The most important facts about the narrative time
In a work there are two different “times”. Once the narrative time and the narrated time. The narrative time is the length of time a reader needs to read and is usually specified using the amount of text. The narrated time is the time actually told in the work.
From the relation of these two planes, the speed of a narrative arises: the narrative. It can be either time-consuming, timely or time-stretching.
Through the narrative, sections of a work or even different works can be compared. The narrative drama determines decisively the rhythm and distinguishes itself by rhythm change.
