Pick one episode from your body of content. Summarize the key plot elements in the narrative in no more than seven sentences. Use Propp's fairy tale "functions" (see ProppianNarrative) and recurring role designations (see above) wherever you can.
Repetitive telling: reiterate the story multiple time
Iterative telling: tell several stories with a single exemplar
Relevant Time Schemes
the time of the told
the time of the telling
the time of the broadcast
the time of the viewing (thanks to VCRs and Tivos)
Narrative Theory: Point of View
Beginning, Middle, and End are a matter of Perspective
one story's end is another's beginning
one person's middle is another person's beginning or end
the notion of punctuation, in Interpersonal communication, is an element of the exposition in presentation media
hence any story might be depicted very differently with a change in the point of view and punctuation of events
consider the difference between:
the current Broadway show "Wicked!" and its relationship to "The Wizard of Oz"
"The Passion of Christ" and "Jesus Christ, Superstar"
In literature we often describe point of view in terms of person
first person: a character tells the story
second person: a narrator tells the story as if you were a character
third person: a (generally omniscient) outside observer tells the story (the most common perspective
Television allows all these variants but differs from literature in a key fundamental:
literature recounts a story that has been witnessed by the narrator
television recreates a series of events such that the viewer is a witness
The camera is natively a third person
It only becomes first person when we explicitly make it the "eye's" of an unseen narrator
But second person is still possible within the television frame
Television routinely mixes up first, second, and third person
Consider "This is your life"
to audience, a series of third person narrators/commentators
to the cited individual, however, all these commentaries are second person
when the cited individual recounts their experience, it is first person for everyone
Narratology
What implications does the medium have for a narrative?
Do stories transcend language
Are they simply instantiated in media
Or does the medium frame the story
We'll argue both yes and no
That there are fundamental stories that remain baseline stories regardless of medium
But that the medium makes a difference to the way the story can be told
Spatio-temporal extensions
to what extent does the medium force linearity of presentation
to what extent does the medium allow perception/exploitation of space
who controls the time dimension? creator or consumer
Kinetic properties
Can a photograph tell a story as well as a movie?
Semiotic properties (senses addressed and codes used)
Range of channels
Priority of channels
Technological support and materiality of signs
Cultural role and methods of production/distribution
Narrative Theory is generally conducted using the following methodology
Identify a set of texts (or a representative text) as data (parole)
Examine the text(s) to identify plot detail
Analyze the plot detail
in search of the big picture plot details
what events and decisions does the big picture plot hang on
what details don't matter to the fundamental trajectory of the story (even if we care about them a lot)
these details will often include characterizations, relationships, location, and other scenic details
every story within a family of stories will be different in detail
many will be similar in narrative plot
in search of the focal characters
hero
villain
sidekick
love interest
enabler
dispatcher
narrator
false hero
<there may be others>
in search of time manipulations
in search of perspectives of beginning, middle, and end
Index Card Assignment due next time
View one episode from your body of content. What perspectives are are presented and how? Document one way in which time is manipulated.
Assignment due on Tuesday
First Annotated Bibliography. Find four references that talk about your body of content. Use APA format (see ManualOfStyle) to document the reference. The annotation is a sentence or two, just below each reference, that summarizes, in your own words, what the reference has to say about your body of content. (see MediaCriticismQuestions and http://library.brooklyn.cuny.edu)
Unless otherwise noted, the contents of this page
were written by participants on the Media Space Wiki, operated by Davis Foulger,
and should be cited accordingly. For example (APA): Foulger, D. and other
participants. (August 27, 2008). Media Criticism Fall2006 Session08. MediaSpaceWiki. Retrieved on from
http://evolutionarymedia.com/wiki.htm?MediaCriticismFall2006Session08.
MediaSpace Wiki
