Toy Story and It-Narratives
I was recently doing, what else?, than an English assignment when I ran across a term I was entirely unfamiliar with. So today, I want to explore the term a little more and figure out what it means to me.
The word is “it-narrative.” Like any good little essay writer, I’m first going to scurry off to the OED to find an official definition. The OED defines “it-narrative” as:
“No dictionary entries found for ‘it-narrative’.
Did you mean:
narrative
incarnative
indurative
iterative
metanarrative”
Okay, I might have lied. The OED doesn’t have an entry on it-narratives. But don’t worry, I can still explain what they are with the help of Wikipedia, right?
“The novel of circulation, otherwise known as the it-narrative, or object narrative, is a genre of novel common at one time in British literature, and follows the fortunes of an object, for example a coin, that is passed around between different owners.”
So an “it-narrative” is a story that focuses not on people, but on things, and the things that those things experience. Wikipedia also helpfully gives us a list of well-known it-narratives, including, but not limited to:
The Secret History of an Old Shoe
The Adventures of a Black Coat
Dialogue between the Pulpit and a Reading-Desk
The History and Adventures of an Atom
The Adventures of a Rupee
and…
The Adventures of a Doll
sound familiar?
That’s where I started thinking about times I’ve previously seen the adventures of dolls. And if you’ve read the title of this post, you probably have the same example in mind. That’s right, it’s Toy Story. Turns out it might be secretly descended from 17th–18th century British novels. Just like readers of those “classic” works, people young and old today gather around to take in sights and sounds from the perspective of a child’s plaything.
What convinces me the most of this connection is a different description of an “it-narrative.” Often times, the narrative surrounding the object itself is used as a catalyst to explore social issues of the time—the changing world, economic uncertainty, human relationships, etc. And what seems to be the overall arc of the Toy Story films? That’s right, it’s toys who have to deal repeatedly with rapidly changing social conditions and human relationships.
As it turns out, the it-narrative is alive and well today. Just not in the place you might expect. Hey, maybe I should try to write one of these?
image credit: “A Dusty Old Book” by Marco Verch Professional Photographer is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
