A2 Section A Narrative and Media Theories

7/31/2019 A2 Section A Narrative and Media Theories

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G235: Critical Perspectives in

MediaTheoretical Evaluation ofProduction - Question 1(b)

Narrative


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Aims/Objectives

To identify what narrative is To introduce the key narrative

theorists.

To have a basic understanding of how to

evaluate your coursework against keynarrative theory.


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NarrativeIn media terms, narrative is the /organisation given to a series of facts. Thehuman mind needs narrative to make sense of things. We connect events andmake interpretations based on those connections. In everything we seek abeginning, a middle and an end. We understand and construct meaning using ourexperience of reality and of previous texts. Each text becomes part of theprevious and the next through its relationship with the audience.

Successful stories require actions which change the lives of the characters in thestory. They also contain some sort of resolution, where that change is registered,and which creates a new equilibrium for the characters involved.

When unpacking a narrative in order to find its meaning there are a series ofcodes and conventions that need to be considered. When we look at a narrative

we examine the conventions of:1.Genre2.Character3.Form4.Time


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We use knowledge of these conventions to help us interpret the text. Inparticular, time is something we understand as a convention- narrativeswithin films do not take place in real time but they tend to telescope out andwhat i mean by that is the slow motion shot which replays a winning goal or

event or they they telescope in in which for example Forrest Gump manageto condense a whole lifetime of a character into a 2 hour film. Therefore weconsider the time of the thing told and how long it takes to tell the story

Christian Metz.

A narrative consists of a Fabula ( the chronological order in which events occurred)

and a Syuzhet (the order in which they are related or experienced)FabulaThe fabula of a text is the raw order in which events occurred, while sujet is definedas the way in which these events are depicted and reshaped in their emplotment.Since Aristotle (350 BCE, 1450b25) narrative plots are supposed to have abeginning, middle, and end. For example: the film Citizen Kane starts with the

death of the main character, and then tells his life through flashbacks interspersedwith a journalist's present-time investigation of Kane's life. This is often achieved infilm and novels via flashbacks or flash-forwards.

Its only because we are used to reading narratives from a very early age and areable to compare texts with others that we understand these conventions. A narrative

in its most basic sense is a series of events, but in order to construct meaning fromthe narrative those events must be linked somehow.


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Bathes CodesRoland Barthez describes text as:a galaxy of signifiers, not a structure of signifieds; it has no beginning; it is reversible;we gain access to it by several entrances, none of which can be authoritativelydeclared to be the main one; the codes it mobilizes extend as far as the eye can read,they are indeterminable.. the systems of meaning can take over this absolutely pluraltext, but their number is never closed, based as it is on the infinity of language

What he is basically saying is that a text is like a tangled ball of threads which needsunravelling so we can separate out the colours. Once we start to unravel a text, weencounter an absolute plurality (large number) of potential meanings. We can start bylooking at a narrative in one way, from one viewpoint, bringing to bear one set ofprevious experience, and create one meaning for that text. You can continue byunravelling the narrative from a different angle by pulling a different thread if you likeand create a entirely different meaning, and so on. An infinite number of times. If youwanted to.


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Narrative Tim OSullivan (1998) argues that all

media texts tell us some kind of story.Media texts offera way of telling storiesabout ourselves not usually our ownpersonal stories, but the story of us as aculture or set of cultures. Narrative theory sets out to show that whatwe experience when we read a story is to

understand a particular set of constructions,or conventions, and that it is important tobe aware of how these constructions are put

together.


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3 important words

Narrative: The structure of a story.Diegesis: The fictional space and time implied bythe narrative the world in which the story takes

place.Verisimilitude: Literally the quality ofappearing to be real or true. For a story toengage us it must appear to be real to us as

we watch it (the diegetic effect). The storymust therefore have verisimilitudefollowing the rules of continuity, temporaland spacial coherence.


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The Structure Of The Classic Narrative

According to Pam Cook(1985), the standard Hollywood

narrative structure should have:

1.Linearity of cause and effect within anoverall trajectory of enigma resolution.

basically it means that stories should have a beginning, a middle and an end (linearity), in

which something happens (cause and effect), causing a series of problems (enigmas)which to be solved (resolution).

2. A high degree of narrative closure.3. A fictional world that contains

verisimilitude especially governedby spatial and temporal coherence.Continuity editing is the predominant style of editing in narrative cinema andtelevision. The purpose of continuity editing is to smooth over the inherentdiscontinuity of the editing process and to establish a logical coherence between

shots. In most films, logical coherence is achieved by cutting to continuity, whichemphasizes smooth transition of time and space.


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Tzvetan Todorov(1977)

Bulgarian structural linguist.

He was interested in the way language is

ordered to infer particular meanings and hasbeen veryinfluential in the field of narrativetheory.


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1.Stage 1: A point of stable equilibrium, where

everything is satisfied, calm and normal.2.Stage 2: This stability is disrupted by some kind of

force, which creates a state of disequilibrium.3.Stage 3: Recognition that a disruption has taken

place.4.Stage 4: It is only possible to re-create equilibrium

through action directed against the disruption.5.Stage 5: Restoration of a new state of equilibrium.

The consequences of the reaction is to change theworld of the narrative and/or the characters so thatthe final state of equilibrium in not the same as the

initial state.

Tzvetan Todorov


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Roland Barthes (1977)

Establishmentof plotor theme. This is thenfollowed by the development

of the problem, an enigma,an increase in tension.Finally comes the resolution

of the plot.

Such narratives can be unambiguous andlinear.


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According to Kate Domaille (2001) every storyever told can be fitted into one of eightnarrative types. Each of these narrative types

has a source, an original story upon which theothers are based. These stories are as follows:


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1. Cinderella:The dream comestrue, e.g. PrettyWoman.


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2. Achilles: The fatal flawthat leads to the destruction

of the previously flawless,or almost flawless, person,e.g. Superman, Fatal Attraction.


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3. Candide:indomitable herowho cannot be putdown, e.g. IndianaJones, James Bond,

Rocky etc.


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4. Circe: The Chase,the spider and the fly,

the innocent and thevictim e.g. TheTerminator.


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5. Faust: Selling yoursoul to the devil may bring

riches but eventually yoursoul belongs to him, e.g.Devils Advocate,and

Wall Street.


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6. Orpheus:The loss of something personal, the giftthat is taken away, the tragedy of loss orthe journey which follows the loss, e.g.The Sixth Sense, Born On the Fourth Of July.


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7. Romeo And Juliet:The love story, e.g.

Titanic.


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8.Tristan and Iseult: The love triangle. Manloves womanunfortunately one or both of

them are already spoken for, or a third partyintervenes, e.g. Casablanca and Eclipse.


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The Russian theorist Vladimir Propp (1928)studied the narrative structure of Russian

Folk Tales.

Propp concluded that regardless of theindividual differences in terms of plot,characters and settings, such narrativeswould share common structural features.


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He also concluded that all the characters could beresolved into only seven character typesin the 100 taleshe analyzed:1. The villain struggles against the hero.2. The donor prepares the hero or gives the hero some

magical object.3. The (magical) helper helps the hero in the quest.4. The princess and her father gives the task to the

hero,identifies the false hero, marries the hero, often soughtfor during the narrative. Propp noted that functionally, theprincess and the father can not be clearly distinguished.

5. The dispatcher character who makes the lack known and

sends the hero off.6. The hero or victim/seeker hero reacts to the donor, wedsthe princess.

7. [False hero]takes credit for the heros actions or tries tomarry the princess.


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When brought together and broken down intotheir constitute parts these myths can be used

to formulate a universal monomyththat isessentially the condensed, basic hero narrativethat forms the basis for every myth and legendin the world and is, therefore, common to allcultures.

Both George Lucas and Stephen Spielberg

were heavily influenced by Campbellstheories and Star Wars conforms toCampbells model of the Monomyth almost

exactly.

1 O di W ld th d d ld th t th h ill h (


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1. Ordinary World the ordered world that the hero will choose (orbe forced) to abandon.

2. Call To Adventure a problem or challenge arises.3. Refusal Of The Call fear or reluctance may strike the hero.

4. Meeting With The Mentor the mentor is a key character.5. Crossing The First Threshold the hero commits to the

adventure.6. Test, Allies, Enemies the hero must learn the rules that will

govern his quest.

7. Approach To The Innermost Cave the most dangerousconfrontation yet, perhaps the location of the treasure, or the objectof the quest.

8. Ordeal the hero must face his fear or mortal enemy who willseem more powerful. Mental or physical torture may occur.

9. Reward (Seizing The Sword) the hero can celebrate the victory.10.The Road Back vengeful forces controlled by the villain are

unleashed.11.Resurrection perhaps a final confrontation with death.12.Return With The Elixir return to the ordinary world with some

wisdom, knowledge or something else gained from the adventure.


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These structures are not unique to film but alsoadvertising and news stories.

In fact the structures presented are an integralpart of the majority of both western andeastern cultures- details how narrative worksin society to inform the audience of events,people, places through mediated ideologieswithin them.

Narratives have a commonstructure!


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Jonathan Culler (2001) describesnarratologyas comprising many strands

implicitly united in the recognition thatnarrative theory requires a distinctionbetween story, a sequence of actions orevents conceived as independent of their

manifestation in discourse, anddiscourse, the discursive presentation ornarration of events.

Structure is different to theme narrativepresents the form in which the theme is

mediated/discussed.


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Claude Lvi-Strauss(1958) his ideas aboutnarrative amount to the fact that he believed all

stories operated to certain clear BinaryOpposites e.g. good vs. evil, black vs. white,rich vs. poor etc.

The importance of these ideas is that essentially acomplicated world is reduced to a simple either/orstructure. Things are either right or wrong, good orbad. There is no in between.

This structure has ideological implications, if, forexample, you want to show that the hero was notwholly correct in what they did, and the villainswerent always bad. (Postmodernism?)


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Levi-Strauss also looked deeper into theway that narrative were arranged in terms

of themes within that were ultimatelyalways systematic oppositions.

The order of events can be called thesyntagmatic structure of a narrative, butLevi-Strauss was more concerned with thedeeper of paradigmatic arrangement of

themes.There is a choice of elements (paradigms)and they are arranged/dealt with in a

particular way (syntagms).


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Media texts rely on cultural experiences inorder for audiences to easily make sense of

narratives. Explain how you used conventionaland / or experimental narrative approaches inone of your production pieces.

Homework

NB: Either your trailer or your magazine from AS


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Format for writing essay

para 1 Intro: which of your projects are you going to write about? brieflydescribe it

para 2: what are some of the key features of the concept you are being

asked to apply? maybe outline two of the theories/ideas of particular

writers briefly

para 3; start to apply the concept, making close reference to your

production to show how the concept is evident in it

para 4: try to show ways in which ideas work in relation to your

production and also ways in which those ideas might not apply/could be

challenged

para 5; conclusion

Again remember you only have 30 minutes and that you really need to

analyse the finished production, rather than tell the marker how you

made it


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Theorists for narrative.

Tzetvan Todorov Argues that narratives always have a structure ofEquilibrium/ Disequilibrium/ New equilibrium

Story versus plotClaude Levi-Strauss Argues that human cultural understanding is basedupon a system of binary oppposites (good/ bad; black/ white; male/ female).Narratologists have taken this theory and applied it to narrative, arguing thatbinary opposition forms a fundamental way of understanding narrative.Roland Barthes: Enigma code; Action code. Also, Open and Closed texts.Vladimir Propp argued that narratives always have certain character types

who perform certain actions. Characters are agents of action.Pam Cookargues that the Hollywood narrative structure includes: linearity ofcause and effect within an overall trajectory of enigma resolution and a highdegree of narrative closure

A2 Section A Narrative and Media Theories

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