wk8 Narrative//Non-Narrative
In this lecture we discussed Narrative and Non-Narrative. I have never heard of non-narrative before so it was incredibly insightful.
Narrative is any kind of retelling of events and is ‘everything’.
When considering narrative, we must consider:
Causality – cause and effect – Perth to Broome, you must be in Perth to get to Broome. A logical progression from one event to the next.
Character Development: Any kind of story we know of, character development takes time – its rare for us to know exactly who a character is and what their motivations are straight away. They must be presented with a number of situations in which the character must deal with. Allows a character to form from a blank canvas with events.
Plot: Chronological sequence of events in narrative. A person carrying out the action, the action itself and the person it is being carried out with/for.
Resolution:
An end.
“The stuff of story is alive and intangible”
Joseph Campbell; ‘modern myth’ or the ‘heroes journey’ – a pattern of narrative identified in many stories throughout the world.
We were then required to complete an in Class activity where we discussed the Hunger Games and the emotional highs (i.e. Katniss and Peeta winning the games)/lows (Rue dying) and the characters mapped according to prominence (Katniss then Peeta).
Repeated representations set up a pattern of expectations – if we the audience see something enough, we recognise the signs and assume what will happen next.
Non-narrative: no main story-line (that is typical or is something that we can assume), no speaking, the characters are just objects.
We watched a non-narrative film that had no main-storyline but also had elements of narrative (i.e. headings).
This lecture was interesting as often I overlook the importance of narrative as often it comes naturally as we experience it in our every day lives.
