Narratives

Open narrative: An Open Narrative structure is usually found in television series, in particular, ongoing soap operas such as EastEnders/Neighbours. In these narratives, the story has no apparent beginning, middle or end, in terms of the actual events. A familiar device in open narratives, especially soap operas, is a cliffhanger ending to each episode, from which the next episode can follow on. As a result, these stories can last a long time, and the programme itself can continue for years. 


 Closed narrative: A Closed Narrative structure is most commonly found in movies. As mentioned before, movies generally exist as one unique story, and contain a beginning, middle and an ending. A story is unravelled before an audience, and then ultimately brought to a conclusion. A closed narrative in a movie does not necessarily mean no sequels can be made. There can be prequels, set before the chronology of the first movie, or a sequel that can create an all-new story, with the same characters.