mass communication and media literacy 05

Mass Communication & Media Literacy 05 : 

Mass Communication & Media Literacy 05

Narrative : 

Narrative Boy meets girl Girls meets boy ... Girl loses boy Boy meets girl ... Loses girl ... Re-finds girl and finds love etc.

Narrative : 

Narrative Narrative refers to the organisation of textual elements into a pattern in terms of space, time and perspective. It is the narrative that encourages us to read specific parts of the text as ‘events’ which are ordered through time (temporal succession) and which we conceive as the cause of the other events (causation). "Story is the irreducible substance of a story (A meets B, something happens, order returns), while narrative is the way the story is related (Once upon a time there was a princess...)" (Key Concepts in Communication - Fiske et al (1983))

Origins and Interest : 

Origins and Interest Literary theory Psychology Anthropology Film studies Roman Jacobson Vladimir Propp Gerard Genette Tzvetan Todorov http://www.tictocs.ac.uk

Narrative as Structure: Propp : 

Narrative as Structure: Propp Functions of characters Villain, the donor, the dispatcher, the hero, the false hero, the princess, the King A single character can fulfil more than one function (characters are more like character masks) Narrative units descriptive of particular action (31 units) The villain appears and (either villain tries to find the children/jewels etc; or intended victim encounters the villain); The villain gains information about the victim; The villain attempts to deceive the victim to take possession of victim or victim's belongings (trickery; villain disguised, tries to win confidence of victim); The victim is fooled by the villain, unwittingly helps the enemy; Villain causes harm/injury to family/tribe member (by abduction, theft of magical agent, spoiling crops, plunders in other forms, causes a disappearance, expels someone, casts spell on someone, substitutes child etc, commits murder, imprisons/detains someone, threatens forced marriage, provides nightly torments); Alternatively, a member of family lacks something or desires something (magical potion etc); Misfortune or lack is made known, (hero is dispatched, hears call for help etc/ alternative is that victimised hero is sent away, freed from imprisonment); Proppian Fairytale Generator

Eco uses Propp : 

Eco uses Propp M moves and gives task to Bond The villain moves and appears to Bond Woman moves and shows herself to Bond Bond consumes woman: possesses her or begins her seduction The villain captures Bond Bond conquers the villain ‘In Casino Royale there are already all the elements for the building of a machine that functions basically on a set of precise units governed by rigorous combinational rules.’ Umberto Eco (1969) The Bond Affair

Todorov : 

Todorov Cinematic Narrative Exploring the narrative structure of classic realist films In media res Deigesis Non-deigetic

Plot and Story : 

Plot and Story Fabula (story) The fabula is a pattern that film spectators create through assumptions and inferences: we do not see or hear the fabula on the screen or hear it in the soundtrack. Syuzhet (plot) The syuzhet is the actual arrangement and presentation of the fabula in the film. The syuzhet is a system because it arranges elements – the story events – according to specific principles. We construct the story in our heads from information narrated to us through the plot

Narrative : 

Narrative Narrative logic The syuzhet of a film is often far more complex than the fabula that we construct as spectators. Time The organisation of time by the syuzhet can be used to assist or block our fabula construction. Shouldn’t films have a beginning, middle and end? Yes, but not in that order. Pulp Fiction, Memento, Lost, The Matrix Groundhog Day Space In order to construct our fabula we need a sense of the space in which events ocurr.

Using the tools : 

Using the tools Rhetorical + Semiotic + syuzhet/fabula help us understand how films are constructed and how we make meaning from them. How does the syuzhet present story information? And why does it do so in the way it does?

Using the tools : 

Using the tools What point-of-view (POV) are we presented with? Who is telling the story or looking explicitly or implicitly? What kind of position are we, as consumers of the text, being asked to take or being placed in?

Saving Private Ryan : 

Saving Private Ryan Narrative device

Saving Private Ryan : 

Saving Private Ryan Narrative device

The Italian Job : 

The Italian Job Why is this possibly the worst ending ever?

Photography as Narrative : 

Photography as Narrative