What does antinarrative mean?
An antinarrative is a work of literature, film, or other art that deliberately rejects the conventions of traditional storytelling. Where a conventional narrative offers a coherent plot, developed characters, and a sense of resolution, an antinarrative fragments, disrupts, or abandons these elements altogether — presenting events out of order, denying closure, or dissolving character into voice and image. The word functions mainly as a term of literary and film criticism, describing both individual works and the broader experimental impulse behind them; it is especially associated with modernist and postmodernist writing and with avant-garde cinema. Used appreciatively, it signals formal daring and intellectual ambition; used critically, it can suggest willful obscurity at the expense of meaning. Related terms such as anti-story and nonlinear narrative occupy neighboring territory, but an antinarrative specifically positions itself against narrative expectation rather than merely rearranging it.
A work of art, literature, or film that deliberately subverts or abandons the conventions of conventional narrative, such as linear plot, coherent characterization, and resolution.
"The novel reads as pure antinarrative, scattering episodes with no regard for sequence or resolution."
Most often encountered in academic criticism of modernist, postmodernist, and avant-garde works.
The technique or aesthetic principle of resisting traditional narrative form within a creative work.
"Her films are unified by an antinarrative sensibility that privileges image over plot."
The standard plural follows regular English noun pluralization.
"Both novels are antinarratives that refuse tidy resolution."
Some of the most celebrated modernist and postmodern works aren't stories at all — they're deliberate acts of sabotage against the very idea of a story.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of antinarrative
The word combines the prefix 'anti-', from Greek 'anti' meaning 'against' or 'opposite', with 'narrative', derived from the Latin verb 'narrare' ('to tell, relate') via the past participle stem 'narrat-'. It emerged in twentieth-century critical discourse alongside modernist and postmodernist experiments that challenged conventional storytelling, though a precise date of first attestation is uncertain. Its Latin root also underlies related English words such as narration, narrator, and narrate.
How antinarrative is actually used
Antinarrative is primarily a term of literary and film criticism rather than everyday vocabulary. It carries an intellectual, academic register and is typically applied approvingly in discussions of modernist, postmodernist, or avant-garde works, though it can also describe a perceived flaw when readers find a text needlessly obscure.
Easily confused with antinarrative
A counter-narrative offers an alternative account of the same events, whereas an antinarrative refuses storytelling conventions altogether.