G235: Critical Perspectives in Media

Theoretical Evaluation of Production

1b) Narrative

Aims/Objectives

• To reinforce the key narrative theorists.

• To have a basic understanding of how to evaluate your coursework against key narrative theory.

Narrative

• Tim O’Sullivan et al. (1998) argues that all media texts tell us some kind of story.

• Through careful mediation, media texts offer a way of telling stories about ourselves – not usually our own personal stories, but the story of us as a culture or set of cultures.

• Narrative theory sets out to show that what we experience when we ‘read’ a story is to understand a particular set of constructions, or conventions, and that it is important to be aware of how these constructions are put together.

• Narrative: The structure of a story.

• Diegesis: The fictional space and time implied by the narrative – the world in which the story takes place.

• Verisimilitude: Literally – the quality of appearing to be real or true. For a story to engage us it must appear to be real to us as we watch it (the diegetic effect). The story must therefore have verisimilitude –following the rules of continuity, temporal and spacial coherence.

• Bordwell and Thompson (1997) offer two distinctions between story and plot which relate to the diegetic world of the narrative that the audience are positioned to accept and that which the audience actually see. They based this on Russian film theory:

• Fabula (story) is all the events in the narrative that we see and infer. The fabulais defined as the chronological series of events that are represented or implied.

• Syuzhet (plot) everything visible and audibly present before us. Syuzhet is considered to be the order, manner and techniques of their presentation in the narrative .

• According to Pam Cook (1985), the 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 especially governed by spatial and temporal coherence.

The Structure Of The Classic Narrative System

• Tzvetan Todorov (1977) is a Bulgarian structural linguist. He was interested in the way language is ordered to infer particular meanings and has been very influential in the field of narrative theory.

• Stage 1: A point of stable equilibrium, where everything is satisfied, calm and normal.

• Stage 2: This stability is disrupted by some kind of force, which creates a state of disequilibrium.

• Stage 3: Recognition that a disruption has taken place.

• Stage 4: It is only possible to re-create equilibrium through action directed against the disruption.

• Stage 5: Restoration of a new state of equilibrium. The consequences of the reaction is to change the world of the narrative and/or the characters so that the final state of equilibrium in not the same as the initial state.

• In short as O’Sullivan et al (1998) suggest, narratives have a common structure, starting with the establishment of plot or theme.

• This is then followed by the development of the problem, an enigma (Roland Barthes, 1977), an increase in tension.

• Finally comes the resolution of the plot.

• Such narratives can be unambiguous and linear.

• Barthes (1977) suggested that narrative works with five different codes and the enigma code works to keep up setting problems or puzzles for the audience. His action code (a look, significant word, movement) is based on our cultural and stereotypical understanding of actions that act as a shorthand to advancing the narrative.

• Adrian Tilley (1991) used the buckling of the gun belt in the Western genre as a means of signifying the preferred reading of an imminent shoot out, and this works in the

same way as the starting of a car engine etc.

• According to Kate Domaille (2001) every story ever told can be fitted into one of eight narrative types. Each of these narrative types has a source, an original story upon which the others are based. These stories are as follows:

• Achilles: The fatal flaw that leads to the destruction of the previously flawless, or almost flawless, person, e.g. Superman, Fatal Attraction.

• Candide: The indomitable hero who cannot be put down, e.g. Indiana Jones, James Bond, Rocky etc.

• Cinderella: The dream comes true, e.g. Pretty Woman.

• Circe: The Chase, the spider and the fly, the innocent and the victim e.g. Smokey And The Bandit, Duel, The Terminator.

• Faust: Selling your soul to the devil may bring riches but eventually your soul belongs to him, e.g. Bedazzled, Wall Street.

• Orpheus: The loss of something personal, the gift that is taken away, the tragedy of losss or the journey which follows the loss, e.g. The Sixth Sense, Love Story, Born On the Fourth Of July.

• Romeo And Juliet: The love story, e.g. Titanic.

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

• The Russian theorist Vladimir Propp (1928) studied the narrative structure of Russian Folk Tales. Propp concluded that regardless of the individual differences in terms of plot, characters and settings, such narratives would share common structural features.

• He also concluded that all the characters could be resolved into only 7 broad character types in the 100 tales he analyzed:

• The villain — struggles against the hero.

• The donor — prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object.

• The (magical) helper — helps the hero in the quest.

• The princess and her father — gives the task to the hero, identifies the false hero, marries the hero, often sought for during the narrative. Propp noted that functionally, the princess and the father can not be clearly distinguished.

• The dispatcher — character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off.

• The hero or victim/seeker hero — reacts to the donor, weds the princess.

• [False hero] — takes credit for the hero’s actions or tries to marry the princess.

• Joseph Campbell’s (1949) influential work, The Hero With A Thousand Faces, developed the idea of the ‘Universal Hero Monomyth’.

• Campbell’s work suggests that there is an underlying structure of iconography, themes, concepts and narrative structure that is common to the religions, myths and legends of almost every culture in the world.

• When brought together and broken down into their constitute parts these myths can be used to formulate a universal monomyth that is essentially the condensed, basic hero narrative that forms the basis for every myth and legend in the world and is, therefore, common to all cultures.

• Both George Lucas and Stephen Spielberg were heavily influenced by Campbell’s theories and Star Wars conforms to Campbell’s model of the Monomyth almost exactly.

• Ordinary World – the ordered world that the hero will choose (or be forced) to abandon.

• Call To Adventure – a problem or challenge arises.

• Refusal Of The Call – fear or reluctance may strike the hero.

• Meeting With The Mentor – the mentor is a key character.

• Crossing The First Threshold – the hero commits to the adventure.

• Test, Allies, Enemies – the hero must learn the rules that will govern his quest.

• Approach To The Innermost Cave – the most dangerous confrontation yet, perhaps the location of the treasure, or the object of the quest.

• Ordeal – the hero must face his fear or mortal enemy who will seem more powerful. Mental or physical torture may occur.

• Reward (Seizing The Sword) – the hero can celebrate the victory.

• The Road Back – vengeful forces controlled by the villain are unleashed.

• Resurrection – perhaps a final confrontation with death.

• Return With The Elixir – return to the ordinary world with some wisdom, knowledge or something else gained from the adventure.

• These structures are not unique to film (notes about narrative in advertising and articles is on the blog).

• In fact the structures presented are an integral part of the majority of both western and eastern cultures - details how narrative works in society to inform the audience of events, people, places through mediated ideologies within them.

• Jonathan Culler (2001) describes narratology as comprising many strands 'implicitly united in the recognition that narrative theory requires a distinction between "story," a sequence of actions or events conceived as independent of their manifestation in discourse, and "discourse," the discursive presentation or narration of events.

• E.g. Structure is different to theme –narrative presents the form in which the theme is mediated/discussed.

• Claude Lèvi-Strauss’ (1958) ideas about narrative amount to the fact that he believed all stories operated to certain clear Binary Opposites e.g. good vs. evil, black vs. white, rich vs. poor etc.

• The importance of these ideas is that essentially a complicated world is reduced to a simple either/or structure. Things are either right or wrong, good or bad. There is no in between.

• This structure has ideological implications, if, for example, you want to show that the hero was not wholly correct in what they did, and the villains weren’t always bad.

• Levi-Strauss also looked deeper into the way that narrative were arranged in terms of themes within that were ultimately always systematic oppositions .

• The order of events can be called the syntagmatic structure of a narrative, but Levi-Strauss was more concerned with the deeper of paradigmatic arrangement of themes.

• There is a choice of elements (paradigms) and they are arranged/dealt with in a particular way (syntagm).

Music Video – audio visual poetry?

• Michael Shore(1984) argues that music videos are:

recycled styles … surface without substance …simulated experience … information overload … image and style scavengers … ambivalence … decadence … immediate gratification …vanity and the moment … image assaults and outré folks … the death of content …anesthetization of violence thorough chic …adolescent male fantasies … speed, power, girls and wealth … album art come to turgid life … classical storytelling’s motifs

• Andrew Goodwin (1992) argues that in music video, “narrative relations are highly complex” and meaning can be created from the individual audio-viewer’s musical personal musical taste to sophisticated intertextuality that uses multidiscursivephenomena of Western culture.

• Many are dominated by advertising references, film pastiche and reinforce the postmodern ‘re-use’ tradition.

• Sven Carlsson (1999) suggests that music videos in general, videos fall into two rough groups: performance clips and conceptual clips.

• When a music video mostly shows an artist (or artists) singing or dancing, it is a performance clip.

• When the clip shows something else during its duration, often with artistic ambitions, it is a conceptual clip.

• Performance ClipIf a music video clip contains mostly filmed performance then it is a performance clip. A performance clip is a video that shows the vocalist(s) in one or more settings. Common places to perform are the recording studio and the rehearsal room. But the performance can take place anywhere, from the bath tube to outer space. Walking down the street is another performance cliché, which is common in rap videos.

• The performance can be of three types: song performance, dance performance and instrumental performance. Almost every music video includes song performance. Some videos combines song and dance performances.

• Narrative ClipIf a music video clip is most appropriately understood as a short silent movie to a musical background, it is a narrative clip. A narrative clip contains a visual story that is easy to follow. A pure narrative clip contains no lip-synchronized singing.

• Art ClipIf a music video clip contains no perceptible visual narrative and contains no lip-synchronized singing then it is a pure art clip. The main difference between a music video art clip and a contemporary artistic video is the music. While the music video uses popular music the artistic video uses more modern, experimental music, such as electro-acoustic music.

Standard music video

• Carlsson (1999) developed a mythical method of analysis of music video -centred on a "modern mythic embodiment" . Viewed from this perspective the music video artist is seen as embodying one, or a combination of "modern mythic characters or forces" of which there are three general. The music video artist is representing different aspects of the free floating disparate universe of music video.

• In one type of performance, the performer is not a performer anymore, he or she is a materialization of the commercial exhibitionist.

• Another type of performance in the music video universe is that of the televised bard. He or she is a modern bard singing banal lyrics using television as a medium. The televised bard is a singing storyteller who uses actual on-screen images instead of inner, personal images. The greatest televised bards create audio-visual poetry.

• The third type of performer is the electronic shaman. Sometimes the shaman is invisible and it is only her or his voice and rhythm that anchor the visuals. He or she often shifts between multiple shapes. At one moment the electronic shaman animates dead objects or have a two-dimensional alter egos (as in cartoon comics), seconds later he or she is shifting through time and so on.

Essay…

• “Media texts rely on cultural experiences in order for audiences to easily make sense of narratives”. Explain how you used conventional and / or experimental narrative approaches in one of your production pieces.