An inquiry into language as a sociopolitical narrative

Abstract

There are several ways to begin an inquiry into the use of language vis-a-vis its various uses in communication. Socio-political communication, of which narrative is an important form, is no exception. This paper shall look, therefore, into sociopolitical narratives and their role in communication by investigating their ability to establish not only socio-political but also cultural meaning. Narrative, "in its broadest sense, is the means by which a story is told, whether fictional or not and regardless of medium. Novels, plays, films, historical text, diaries and newspapers articles focus, in their different ways, on particular events and their temporal and causal relations." Fictional narrative cannot be "explained in terms of lack of reference or truth since fictions often concern real people and events." However, one can say, on the other hand, that a lot of nonfiction is false. In one version of fictional narrative, the reader or hearer is "intended to imagine the occurrence of the events described in the narrative, rather than to treat those descriptions as assertions judgeable by standards of evidence and truth."