Narrative Text Theoretical Description

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2. Narrative Text

This part presents a discussion of the narrative text. It provides some information about the definition, its purpose, grammatical features and basic structure of the narrative text. a. Definition and Purpose of Narrative There are several genres in writing, for example is the narrative text. Kammer and Diebold 1949 state that narrative is a form of talking or writing that has for its purpose the relating of a series of events. Knapp and Watkins 2005 add that: Narrative does not have for example, a singular generic purpose as do some of the other genres. We cannot say that narrative is simply about entertaining a reading audience, although it generally always does so. Narrative also has a powerful social role beyond that of being a medium for entertainment. Narrative is also a powerful medium for changing social opinions and attitudes p. 220. Based on explanation above, the narrative text is an important genre to be taught since it brings a powerful social role to change social opinions and attitudes. b. Grammatical Features According to Knapp and Watkins 2005, when sequencing events in time and space, narrating typically uses; action verbs, temporal connectives, and the simple past tense. c. Basic Structure of Narrative Knapp and Watkins 2005 argues that basically, in the most basic form of all types in genre, it is a requirement to orient or introduce the readerlistener to the people, time and place in the story p. 222. In the narrative text, there are 15 three major parts; orientation, complication and resolution. The sequences of the structure in narrative are more complicated than in recount text since the recount text only consists of two parts; orientation and sequence of events. While in the other hand, narrative has a resolution stage which includes reflection on the problem and possible solutions p. 224.

3. Picture Series