Biology: biologist. Narratology: narratologist. Simple, right?

Except — if most of our knowledge of narrative comes from studying fiction, what use is narratology to someone who isn’t trying be a great fiction writer? Applied biology makes sense for industries like agriculture or environmental conservation because they intersect with life, but narratology studies literary texts — so what industries besides publishing would narratology be useful to?

As narratology has evolved, what we think of as “narrative” has expanded from a form of literature to something bigger. We identify narrative in things that aren’t produced as narrative texts — like the interactions between a doctor and their patient or the story a therapy patient tells about themself — and so our definition of narrative has expanded to include these instances.

These days, the way we think about narrative is more about how we “make sense” of the world — and less about literary fiction — making narratology relevant to any practice that is impacted by the way people make sense of the world.