Interactive standard
“Narrativity is a matter of degree. Postmodern novels are less narrative than simple forms such as fables or fairy tales; popular literature is usually more narrative than avant-garde fiction.
“Narrative representation is constructed by the reader on the basis of the text. Not all texts lend themselves to a narrative interpretation.”
— Excerpted from Marie-Laure Ryan’s “Beyond Myth and Metaphor: The Case of Narrative in Digital Media”
In her article “Beyond Myth and Metaphor: The Case of Narrative in Digital Media”, Marie-Laure Ryan tries to deconstruct what she calls “narrative mythes”. In order to complete that aim, she beggins in defining ‘narrative’. Part of this definition is dedicated to the link between the narrative and the reader.
During the XXIst century appeared the notion of ‘new narratives’ and ‘interactivity’. These terms lead to the idea that the ‘normal’, or ‘old’ narratives are not interactive. The norm is a passive audience. But Maire-Laure Ryan reject that idea when saying that the reader onstruct the narrative representation. The reader is the one representing the narration, and he is the condition for the narration to exist. There is no narration without a reader. The text is the support of the narration. But the narration only appears in the reader’s mind. Thus, narration is, by definition, interactive. The reader cannot be passive. Thus the idea of interactivity is a neologism, as Douglas Adams explains in How to stop worrying and learn to stop the internet. It has always existed and narrative cannot exist without interactivity. It is not a modern way a narrating.
Thus, the degree of narrativity of a text depends on how much the author includes the reader on his work. Postmodern literature do not need readers as much as fairy tales do. Popular literature is meant to be read by as many people as possible. On the other hand, avant-garde fiction will not have a lot of readers. It is not meant to. Indeed, some authors will create their own world. Some readers might be able to discover the author’s world, but their liberty of narrative interpretation will not be the same as it could be in a world created for them.
