Notes
What is Narrative?
- 'Not only are stories universally told, stored, and analysed, but also they regularly occupy a place of honour in society.' (pg. 1)
- 'However different the media that serve as a given story's vehicles - however distinct the oral, written, illustrated, or film versions of a particular narrative - we readily recognise a story's ability to be translated into different forms and yet somehow to remain the 'same' story.' (pg. 1)
- 'An essential strategy of human expression and thus a basic aspect of human life, narrative commands our attention. If we would understand the ways in which humans interact, we must take up the challenge of narrative. What is it? How does it make meaning?' (pg. 1)
- 'The importance of narrative has long been recognised. From Aristotle to the present, virtually every major critic and theorist has had something to say about the art of narrative.' (pg. 1)
- Following - 'One of the most characteristic aspects of narrative involves the reader's sense of following a character from action to action and scene to scene. A bird's eye view of a city, or detailed description of a battle, no matter how many individual actors and activities are visible, will provide at most the material for the narrative. Not until the narrator begins to follow a particular character will the text be recognisable as narrative.' (pg. 16)
Framing
- 'From Aristotle to Branigan, theorists insist that narratives always have a beginning, middle and end..' (pg. 17)
- 'Texts lacking this structure are thus commonly not accepted as narratives. The contradiction here is quite clear. If it is necessary to observe the entirety of a text in order to acknowledge it as narrative, then what is it that channel surfers are recognising? How can narrative be at the same time something that is identifiable piecemeal and something requiring the experience of complete texts?' (pg. 17)
Imaging the World
- 'Applicable wherever humans tell stories or implicitly refer to previously told tales, the theory presented in this volume offers powerful potential for describing human activities.. theory might be used to image and explain such varied phenomena as individual texts, literary and film history, social organisation, religion, and political life.' (pg. 338)
- Cause-and-effect model 'When energy and matter, action and character, are reduced to the same entity, can the end of narrative be far behind?' (pg. 340)
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