Narratiivid

Narratiivid is the Estonian term for narratives or narrative forms. It refers to structured accounts of events that are told in sequence and through which meaning is produced. The word is used across literature, film studies, journalism and social sciences to describe how stories are told, who tells them, and through which perspective.

A narratiiv typically comprises elements such as plot, characters, setting, time and voice. They can be linear or non-linear, autobiographical or fictional, and may employ devices like flashbacks or multiple viewpoints. Narratiivid can be told from first person, third person, or an observing narrator, which influences how information is presented and interpreted.

In literature and media, narratiivid organize experience and convey themes, values and emotions. In journalism and documentary work, they shape audience understanding and memory by selecting which events to highlight and how to frame them. In the social sciences, narrative approaches study how people make sense of events through personal or collective stories, including life narratives, oral histories and the storytelling found in communities.

Critically, narratiivid are constructed products, reflecting deliberate choices by narrators and contextual factors such as culture, power relations and genre conventions. This raises questions about reliability, bias and voice—whose stories are told, who controls the narrative, and whose perspectives are marginalized or excluded.

Related concepts include narratology, the academic study of narrative structure, and terms such as narratiivne lähenemine (narrative approach) and narratiivne uuring (narrative inquiry), which are used in research to analyze and interpret narrative data.