Storytelling for Media. Joachim Friedmann

Binary Narrative Oppositions – Opposites Make Sense

      4.1 The Meaning of the Narrative

      Are there pointless stories? One may have this impression with so-called “fake news,” or with a surrealistic play. However, narrative science has established that stories should always communicate in a meaningful way. The literary scholar WERNER WOLF, for example, sees the narrative as an essential element which offers meaning for human existence, and even sees stories as the most important contribution to the human quest for meaning. In everyday language, this is reflected in Wilhelm Busch’s dictum of “the moral of the story” or in every literature teacher’s question about the author’s intention. At first glance, this finding may seem trivial. Shouldn’t all communication be meaningful? Even a lexical entry, an instruction manual or a mathematical formula such as a² + b² = c², which represents a basis for calculating the proportions of right-angled triangles, are meaningful communications – but they don’t appear to be narrative. The question arises as to the specific manner in which way narratives produce meaning.

      It is, again, Juri Lotman who distinguishes the production of meaning in narrative and scientific texts when he writes:

      “Scientific truth exists in one semantic field. Artistic truth exists simultaneously in several fields within their mutual correlation.” (249)

      In scientific or instructive texts, such as instruction manuals, unambiguity is key. A mathematical formula should not allow room for interpretation but should communicate a clear calculation method. Artistic or narrative texts, on the other hand, permit an ambiguity from which a reader must first make sense.