Download - Narrative Theory

Transcript

NARRATIVENARRATIVE

BORDWELL AND THOMPSON [1997]STORY

PLOT

what we see

inferred events

non-diegeticmaterial

(how we are shown what happens)

(what happens)

TIM O’SULLIVAN ET AL. [1998]This theory argues that all media texts tell the audience some kind of story. Through careful mediation, texts offer a way of telling stories about ourselves, not necessarily as individuals but the stories of us as a culture or set of cultures.Narrative theory shows us that what we experience when we ‘read’ or consume a media text is an understanding of a particular set of constructions or conventions and that it’s important for us to be aware of how these constructions are put together.

KATE DOMAILLE [2001]Every story ever told can be categorised into eight narrative types according to Domaille’s 2001 theory. Each type has a source – an original story upon which the others are based. The types are:

AchillesThe fatal flaw that leads to the destruction of the previously flawless (or seemingly flawless) individual e.g. Superman, Fatal Attraction.

CandideThe indomitable hero who cannot be put down e.g. Indiana Jones, James Bond, Rocky.

CinderellaThe dream come true e.g. Pretty Woman

CirceThe chase, the spider and the fly, the innocent victim and the attacker e.g. Smokey and the Bandit, Duel, The Terminator.

FaustSelling your soul to the devil may bring riches but eventually your soul belongs to him e.g. Bedazzled, Wall Street.

OrpheusThe loss of something personal, the gift that is taken away, the tragedy of loss or the journey which follows the loss e.g. The Sixth Sense, Love Story, Born on the Fourth of July.

Romeo and JulietThe love story e.g. Titanic.

Tristan and Iseult The love triangle: man loves woman but unfortunately one or both of them are already spoken for or a third party intervenes e.g. Casablanca.

SVEN CARLSSON [1999]Music videos generally fall into two groups – performance and conceptual. Performance refers to the artist or actors singing, dancing etc. Conceptual means something else with artistic ambition.

Performance clips• Can be vocal, instrumental, dance etc.• Locations may include rehearsal rooms, concerts, studios etc.• Shows vocalists• Clichés – walking down the street in the rap genre for example

Narrative Clips• Most appropriately understood as a short film• Contains a visual story that’s easy to follow• Can be a pure narrative, meaning no performance is present at all

Art Clips• No perceptive narrative• No lip-synced or live performance• Artistic

PAM COOK [1985]

TODOROV [1977]

Standard Hollywood narrative structure should have:• Linearity of cause and effect within an overall trajectory of

enigma resolution• A high degree of narrative closure• A fictional world that contains verisimilitude governed by a

spatial and temporal coherence

Equilibrium of Diegesis

Re-equilibrium

boy

girl

DISRUPTION(enigma)

QUEST RESOLUTION

Cause and effect

L i n e a r i t y

CLAUDE LEVI-STRAUSS [1958]Levi-Strauss was a structuralist whose ideas about narrative amount to the fact that he believed all stories operated to certain clear Binary Opposites such as good vs evil, rich vs poor etc. The importance of these ideas is that essentially a complicated world can be reduced to simplicity with an either/or structure: things are either right or wrong, there is no inbetween.

This theory can be applied to stereotypical mise-en-scene:

PROTAGONIST ANTAGONIST

COLOUR white, bright colours black, dark colours

LOCATION countryside, natural urban area

PROPS nature, plants etc. guns, cars etc.

MICHAEL SHORE [1984]This theory sees music videos as audio visual poetry. Shore argued that music videos are/can be any of the following concepts:

• Recycled styles (borrowing from past times)• Surface without substance (the look is more important than the meaning)• Simulated experiences• Information overload (caused by the surface without substance idea)• Image and style scavengers• Ambivalence• Decadence• Immediate gratification• Vanity and the moment• Image assaults and outré folks• The death of content• Anaesthetisation of violence• Thorough chic• Adolescent male fantasies• Speed, power, girls and wealth• Album art come to turgid life• Classical storytelling’s motif

Weezer’s Buddy Holly video (above) is an example of recycled styles as they borrow heaving from

Happy Days, as is the Oasis video for The Importance of Being Idle (below).

ANDREW GOODWIN [1992]

Goodwin argues that meaning can be created from the individual audio-viewer’s personal music taste to sophisticated intertextuality that uses multi-discursive phenomena of Western culture (not as a group but as an individual). Essentially this means we create meaning based on our own understanding of our culture – whether it’s Western or otherwise. Many are dominated by advertising references and film pastiche (copy), and reinforce the postmodern ‘re-use’ tradition.


Top Related