Talk:Narration

Hemingway quote from Sun Also Rises
Found here.--Tomwsulcer (talk) 23:09, 13 December 2015 (UTC)

Merge suggestion
The subjects of Storytelling and Narration have basically the same definition in the lede. In addition the article Narrative heavily overlaps with the two.

In addition, I've just noticed a 100% unreferenced page, Narrative structure.

It seems that the three pages evolved independently, the many authors unaware of all these pages.

The troika must be merged and then split according to cleanly defined subjects. I am not an expert, but possible subject are:
 * General definition of "narration" and its structure
 * Structure of narration
 * Structure of narrative
 * In oral tradition
 * In literary studies
 * Narration as a literary device, "narration within narration"
 * Uses of narration other than just storytelling

By the way somebody added to the confusion by renaming the article from "narrative mode" to "Narration". The former title clearly indicated the specific domain: literary studies, and on the second thought the "narration" page is pretty much focussed on the literary perspective. Staszek Lem (talk) 20:43, 1 June 2016 (UTC)


 * Agree. I think this needs a few hands to do well - both subject experts and editorial 'technicians' - to define the proper boundaries and categories, how these will connect with other wikiprojects, etc. If you have a method to form up a team, please propose. Otherwise suggest volunteers identify themselves below. Adhib (talk) 07:40, 2 June 2016 (UTC)

Adhib (talk) 07:40, 2 June 2016 (UTC) Professional editorial skills, some subject knowledge from a philosophy perspective. Disclosure: my interest is to improve WP's taxonomy of narrative types.

The way I see it, the articles all have sound reasons to be distinct (though elements of certain ones could definitely be merged into others). Here's my take:
 * Narrative is the primary article: the work of art, imagination, or entertainment that is synonymous with story in and of itself
 * Narration (which I moved from the former name Narrative mode, but which I'm not opposed to moving back if we decide that that's clearer) is the specific delivery-method for any given story
 * Narrative structure is the structural framework or "architecture" of any given story (though oddly, other than the lede, most of that article is dedicated to information that should be merged to Narration)
 * Narratology (which could be merged with Narrative structure) is the study or analysis of the above bullet
 * Storytelling is the general (universal?) social/cultural activity of sharing stories Wolfdog (talk) 21:10, 2 June 2016 (UTC)
 * I added the wording I mentioned to the lead of the page Storytelling, to highlight its differences from the other pages. Do other people have opinions about merging or not? Wolfdog (talk) 03:38, 9 August 2016 (UTC)
 * My sense is to go with here who has a good take on the differing elements. While I agree there is overlap among the various terms, simply merging them all into one article may be too much -- for example, I see storytelling and narration as separate terms with different (although related) meanings.--Tomwsulcer (talk) 10:48, 9 August 2016 (UTC)
 * Agree with Wolfdog and Tomwsulcer. Stroytelling is what you do with a narrative. They are separate. Mannanan51 (talk) 02:31, 6 September 2016 (UTC)
 * The narrative mode / narration article should certainly remain distinct, since, as a mode, it's used in media other than the written word--principally, cinema and theatre. In both cases, the mimetic mode is qualified and varied with the narration / diegesis (show/tell).  • DP •  {huh?} 05:20, 6 September 2016 (UTC)
 * It seems like the consensus is to NOT perform any major mergers. I'd be happy to take down the hatnotes soon, assuming there are no other disagreements. The only major change desired is DP's, which is an area I know very little about (i.e. "narrative mode" as DP claims is used in cinema/theatre). DP, feel free to add content about this on its own section under "Narration" or start some new page (e.g. "Narrative mode (film)" or something like that). Wolfdog (talk) 01:07, 23 September 2016 (UTC)

Merger proposal
I propose that the article at Second-person narrative be merged in its entirety into this article, given that the article contains minimal content and that the overwhelmingly more common third-person narrative does not have its own article. The third-person narrative article was merged because it was not being improved; active discussion on this page suggests that the second person narrative is likely to get more attention here. Triptothecottage (talk) 05:12, 23 October 2016 (UTC)
 * I think you should be BOLD and go for the merger! Wolfdog (talk) 23:55, 6 December 2016 (UTC)

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Agayheart, Kwilliams14, Elsiesgirl1915. Peer reviewers: Lrunge1, Khall4, Kbrooks20, Bappelman3, Chloelanestalcup, Puppylover78.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 04:51, 17 January 2022 (UTC)