Fabula vs Syuzhet: Narrative Structure Explained

There are two main types of in medias res openings. Linear in medias res follows a straightforward chronological narrative with no time jumps, flashbacks, or flash-forwards. Examples include the original Star Wars movie and Godfather Part One, which open with pivotal scenes but continue moving forward in time. Non-linear in medias res incorporates time jumps, flashbacks, or flash-forwards to reveal backstory. Breaking Bad exemplifies this by opening with a dramatic scene showing Walter White pointing a gun at sirens, then jumping back in time to explain how he got there.

Narrative structure is divided into two main types: linear narrative (chronological order with clear beginning, middle, and end) and non-linear narrative (which includes three techniques: flash-forward/anticipation where the narrator anticipates future actions, in media res where the story begins in the middle of the action, and flashback where the narrator transports the action to the past).

Stories can use different timeline structures: linear narratives that progress chronologically from beginning to end, or non-linear narratives that include flashbacks or flash-forwards to create dramatic effect.

Linear stories progress chronologically from present to future without jumping in time, while non-linear stories use flashbacks, flash-forwards, and multiple timelines. Non-linear narratives have gained popularity in recent years. When changing timelines in non-linear stories, it is essential to reorient readers and clearly establish where they are in terms of time—whether 30 years in the past or jumping between present day and future/past. Failing to do so causes reader confusion.

This segment covers narrative structure types. Retrospective structure begins in the present and jumps back to narrate past events before returning to the present. Linear structure follows events chronologically from beginning to end. Prospective structure begins in the past and moves forward toward the future. In media res begins in the middle of the action, flashes back to explain backstory, then continues forward. The key is to identify where the story starts and how it moves through time.

Story structure includes: exposition (introductory part containing initial motives that develop throughout the story), inciting incident (beginning of the action or events), climax (point of highest tension and development), resolution (ending that concludes events and situations), and development (continuation and progression of events). In 'The White Poodle,' the exposition introduces a traveling troupe of artists having an unsuccessful day. The inciting incident occurs when a spoiled boy wants to buy the poodle but the owner refuses, leading to the theft. The climax occurs when Sergey decides to rescue his friend the poodle by sneaking into the dacha at night.

Narrative structure is the fundamental framework organizing stories into six main components: exposition, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. Exposition introduces characters, situation, and setting at the story's beginning—in Romeo and Juliet through the prologue's 'star-crossed lovers,' and in The Great Gatsby through Nick Carraway's move to New York. Conflict represents the major issue driving the plot, emerging during rising action. In Romeo and Juliet, this is Romeo and Juliet discovering they belong to rival families; in The Great Gatsby, it's Nick explaining Gatsby's story retrospectively. Rising action develops the conflict through additional scenes and details, building toward the climax.

The structure of a story or narrative typically includes: exposition (introduction), inciting incident (beginning of conflict), rising action (development of conflict), climax (peak of conflict), falling action (resolution of conflict), and resolution (conclusion). This is also referred to as the composition or structure of a narrative.

Normal narrative structure consists of exposition (the beginning that sets the scene, like 'Once upon a time' or 'When I was young') and the inciting incident (the event that starts the action, such as a violation of a prohibition). The normal distribution of these narrative elements is approximately one-third exposition plus inciting incident, one-third resolution plus conclusion, and one-third middle section. Short exposition indicates the author is eager to tell the story and is enjoying the process. Long exposition indicates the author is reluctant to move forward, possibly because the main event is unpleasant or threatening. The author may be delaying the main event because they are afraid to reveal what happened, or because they are ambivalent about what they are about to tell.

A narrative follows a four-part structure: 1) Exposition establishes initial conditions and equilibrium; 2) Inciting incident disrupts this equilibrium, creating conflict; 3) Climax represents the highest point of conflict development where the main event occurs and determines the outcome; 4) Resolution clarifies who won the conflict and provides closure. This structure applies to all narrative works, from short stories to complex dramas.

Cinema possesses three unique temporal techniques unavailable to literature: acceleration, slow motion (ralentí), and movement inversion. These enabled surrealists to create dream-like effects. Both cinema and literature share six temporal forms: consecutive time, elipsis, parallel action, flashback, flash forward, and indeterminate time. Early 20th-century novelists like Hemingway, Faulkner, and Dos Passos learned narrative techniques from cinema, adopting rapid ellipses and montage-like effects. Great literary masterpieces often become inferior when adapted to film because their aesthetic excellence was achieved within their original medium's constraints. Conversely, popular novels can become excellent film scripts. The subjective camera enabled first-person narration but carries limitations—when positioned to show a character's face, it cannot simultaneously show what the character perceives, revealing fundamental differences in how each medium represents perspective.

This segment explores how narrative structure, perspective, and medium shape reader experience across literature and film. The book 'Lydie' by Diderot and Jordi Lafèvre uses inverse storytelling, beginning at the end to create emotional impact through unconventional structure. 'Les Trois Lumières' demonstrates first-person narration from a child's perspective, revealing adult behaviors through innocent observation. The novel 'La Femme de Gilles' by Madeleine Bourdouxhe (1937) exemplifies psychological fiction through Elisa's journey from denial to acceptance. The film 'Bleu de Caftan' by Mariam Touzani showcases cinematic techniques—extensive close-ups, artistic blurring, and natural lighting—that create emotional intimacy. Both literature and film demonstrate how different mediums explore human psychology: literature through internal monologue and character development, cinema through visual storytelling and atmospheric immersion.

Film as a medium informed the speaker's writing because film happens out of time and is nonlinear. The magic of film happens in the formulation of montage—piecing things together at the editing desk. The speaker wrote in pieces and orchestrated tension through proximity, putting scenes together like cracks along a wall. The speaker's mother has little interest in the book, and the speaker respects this. The book is painful, and sometimes people who live through trauma shouldn't be forced to relive it. The book is for anyone who wants to encounter it, not specifically for Vietnamese Americans.

This section explores how narrative techniques function across media. Foco narrativo in literature (exemplified by Machado de Assis) creates interpretive ambiguity through narrator perspective. In cinema, this translates to camera position, editing, and sound design. The section covers temporal figures: sumário (abbreviation of events), alongamento (expansion of events), cena (scene as unit of space and time), pausa (interruption for description), and anacronias (flashback and flashforward). Cinema differs from literature in that events are 'shown' rather than 'counted,' allowing manipulation of time through techniques like Hitchcock's extended shower scene in 'Psycho.'

Literature and film employ fundamentally different narrative strategies to convey the same historical truth. Kessel's novel functions almost like a documentary with multiple testimonies and linear progression, while Melville's film makes deliberate choices to focus on specific characters and create a ceremonial, elliptical narrative. Violence is handled differently: literature describes and explains it explicitly, while film suggests it and often shows it off-screen. Dialogue in the novel is passionate and enflamed, while the film relies on rare, calm, solemn exchanges and the language of glances. These structural differences reflect the unique capabilities of each medium, with cinema's visual language conveying emotional complexity that prose cannot replicate.