NARRATIVE

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NARRATIVE

• Film and Media Studies

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What is Narrative?

• Latin NARRE- To make Known
• Via
• Causally related events
• Connected
• Sequenced
• Logically presented

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Definition 2

• Narrative is a way of organising spatial and
  temporal data into a cause and effect chain of
  events with a beginning, middle and end that
  embodies a judgement about the nature of the
  events as well as demonstrates how it is possible
  to know, and hence to narrate, the events.
  Brannigan E. Narrative Comprehension and Film

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Macro Features of Narrative

• Structure
• Aristotles beginning, middle and end.
• Todorovs equilibriumgtdisequilibriumgtre-equilibriu
  m
• Propps functions
• Voglers twelve steps
• 2. Temporal order,temporal duration, temporal
  frequency
• 3. Story and Plot
• Explicitly presented actions/events
• Implicitly inferred ationas/events
• Non diegetic material (captions/titles,drama
  enhancing music etc.)

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Micro Features

• 1. Constructional Devices
• Cinematography
• Mise- en- Scene
• Editing
• Sound

2. Genre Associations Genre Codes
(e.g. Iconography) Genre
Conventions 3. Narrative Codes
Levi Strauss Binary Oppositions
Barthes Narrative Codes
Character Psychology Semiotic
Analysis
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Todorov

• Initial Situation (Equilibrium)
• Disruption (Non equilibrium)
• Restoration (Re Equilibrium)

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Propp 1928

• Morphology of the Russian Folktale 1928
• Types of Characters, Specific Forms of Action,
  function in the Narrative.
• Thiry One Functions identified.

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Specific research on narrative

• Vladimir Propp
• Russian Formalist in the 1930s
• He wanted to see if there was a finite number of
  structures for narrative. He analysied Russian
  folk tales and found they could be classified
  into 5 categories.
• He also identified seven archetypal characters.

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Propps character archetypes

• The Villain
• The Donor/giver of knowledge
• The Helper
• The Princess (sought after person)
• The Dispatcher
• The Hero (or victim)
• The False Hero

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Propps character archetypes

• The Villain Darth Vader
• The Donor
• The Helper
• The Princess (sought after person)
• The Dispatcher
• The Hero (or victim)
• The False Hero

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Propps character archetypes

• The Villain Darth Vader
• The Donor Obi Won Kenobe
• The Helper
• The Princess
• The Dispatcher
• The Hero (or victim)
• The False Hero

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Propps character archetypes

• The Villain Darth Vader
• The Donor Obi Won Kenobe
• The Helper Han Solo
• The Princess
• The Dispatcher
• The Hero (or victim)
• The False Hero

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Propps character archetypes

• The Villain Darth Vader
• The Donor Obi Won Kenobe
• The Helper Han Solo
• The Princess Princess Leah
• The Dispatcher
• The Hero (or victim)
• The False Hero

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Propps character archetypes

• The Villain Darth Vader
• The Donor Obi Won Kenobe
• The Helper Han Solo
• The Princess Princess Leah
• The Dispatcher R2 - D2
• The Hero
• The False Hero

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Propps character archetypes

• The Villain Darth Vader
• The Donor Obi Won Kenobe
• The Helper Han Solo
• The Princess Princess Leah
• The Dispatcher R2 - D2
• The Hero Luke Skywalker
• The False Hero

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Propps character archetypes

• The Villain Darth Vader
• The Donor Obi Won Kenobe
• The Helper Han Solo
• The Princess Princess Leah
• The Dispatcher R2 - D2
• The Hero Luke Skywalker
• The False Hero Darth Vader (Lukes dad)

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Basic Plots

• Romance Boy meets girl / boy loses girl / boy
  finds girl(or Vice versa)
• Bordwell and Thompson (1991) define narrative as
  A chain of events in cause-effect relationship
  occurring in time and space.
• The Kuleshov Effect The linear connections we
  make between shots.

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Definitions from Bordwell and Thompson (1991)

• Plot What we see on screen. Includes
  extra-narrative things.
• Story all that we know about the narrative
  including seen and unseen.
• Diegesis The total world of the story.
• Parallelism Parallel development of multiple
  storylines.
• Cause and effect Cause and effect. Causes can
  come from a character.

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Chris Vogler 1992The Writers Journey

• Archetypes
• Hero
• Mentor
• Shapeshifter
• Trickster
• Herald
• Allies
• Shadow
• Threshold Guardians
• The Heros Journey
• Ordinary World
• Call to Adventure
• Refusal of the Call
• Mentor
• First Threshold
• Tests, Allies, Enemies
• Approach to the Inmost Cave
• Ordeal

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Levi Strauss

• Binary Opposites (Macro)
• Protagonist/Antagonist
• Action /Inaction
• Binary Opposites (Micro)
• Good looking / Ugly
• Witty / Humourless

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Barthes

• Audience Decodes
• Enigma Code (sets up a question to be answered
  later)
• Semic Code (How characters, actions ,events,
  settings etc. take on meaning within a culture.
• Symbolic Code - Binary Oppositions or
  Psychological symbols
• Action Code - understood by cross reference to
  other narratives in our culture
• Cultural Codes - understood through our
  interaction with the wider world.