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Glite Dictionary
🌀 Story without plot 🌀 Not traditional story
antinarrative

antinarrative

9.9
A book or film that purposely does not follow the usual order of a story
  • noun
  • /ˌæn.tɪˈnær.ə.tɪv/
  • Literature
translation icon : antinarrativa
  • The film's antinarrative approach left viewers puzzled, as it did not follow a typical storyline.

Examples

  • Progress, economic growth, and the transformation of wild nature into commodities continue without end in the dominant antinarrative of our time.

    Academic text (1998)

  • The unexamined narrative is no more worthy than the antinarrative.

    Academic text (2005)

  • Many contemporary authors embrace an antinarrative style, challenging readers to engage with the text in new ways.

  • By incorporating an antinarrative structure, the writer aimed to provoke thought about the nature of storytelling itself.

Synonyms

nonnarrative
vsantinarrative
  • Literature
8.3

A work that does not tell a story, like some films or poems

intentionally rejects or subverts traditional storytelling structure and conventions

Surface Forms

antinarrative singular
antinarratives plural

Morphology

antinarrative = antinarrative (transparent) = anti + narrative

This noun use is a straightforward conversion from the adjective antinarrative, preserving the same compositional meaning.

Etymology

Antinarrative comes from anti- 'against' and narrative 'a story', so an antinarrative as a noun is a work or style that refuses normal storytelling and instead avoids a clear plot or usual characters.