Factual narrative and reality explanation in university students' texts

• Autor: Koval, Martín
• Formato: artículo
• Fecha de Publicación: 2026
• Institución: Academia Peruana de la Lengua
• Repositorio: Boletín de la Academia Peruana de la Lengua
• Lenguaje: español
• OAI Identifier: oai:ojs.revistas.apl.org.pe:article/1263
• Enlace del recurso: https://revistas.apl.org.pe/index.php/boletinapl/article/view/1263
• Nivel de acceso: acceso abierto
• Materia: factual narration; narrative explanation; causality; narrative thesis; configuration; narración factual; explicación narrativa; causalidad; tesis del relato; configuración; Narração factual; Explicação narrativa; Causalidade; Tese do relato; Linha argumentativa

The field of factual narratives is particularly attractive for exploring the cognitive functions of storytelling, given its claim to referential truth in our concrete real world. The aim of our work has been to contribute to the understanding of narrative explanation and its greater or lesser “explanatory power” in a series of autobiographical texts produced by students from Gran Buenos Aires (Argentina) at the beginning of their university studies. Based on a narrative-qualitative methodology, we identified three explanatory levels: genetic-causal, thesis-based, and “configurative.” Accordingly, we noted several shortcomings in the explanatory articulation of the facts, linked to indeterminacy, incoherence, and a conventionalism that makes the collected stories largely “predictable.” The results we have arrived at could serve as input for the design of teaching materials and for advancing toward a strengthening of competencies for the production and reception of factual narrative texts.