Narrative Flashcards
1
Q
Classical narration
A
Classical narration relies on a stable, formulaic ‘canonical’ story structure supported by a familiar set of screen conventions
Classical style of Hollywood studio filmmaking from around 1917 to 1960
Organised around a casual sequence in which actions of a central individual protagonist unfurl in space and time in response to conflicting actions of an antagonist force, which impedes on the protagonist’s goal
2
Q
Canonical story structure
A
Coherent consistent format
Three acts = introduction, complication, resolution
3
Q
Fragmented narratives
A
- Lack the unified, linear storyline of a conventional narrative
- Undermines the audience’s expectations
- Rather than focusing on a single protagonist or individual narrative question, they are often decentred and jumbled up into segments featuring an array of characters in different places or non-sequential timeframes
4
Q
Multi-strand narratives
A
- Feature several different narrative threads, either parallel to one another or interwoven in ways that often require more interpretive effort on the part of the audience
- The different stories might unfold in a fragmented and disordered way in terms of their casual sequences or locations in time and space
5
Q
Story and plot
A
- the term plot refers to the artistic organisation of actions and events and the order in which they are told or unfold on screen
- stories can be broken up into narrative units, like expository scenes, turning point, obstacles, and the plot can be understood as pieces of the puzzle
6
Q
Plot
A
- Plot refers to the elements of the narrative that appear onscreen, in the order and manner that the audience sees and hears them
- The time of the plot is exactly the same as the screening time
7
Q
Story
A
- A chronological sequence of cause and effect that the audience actively infers from the raw material of the plot
- The plot only provides part of the story, and the audience must fill in the gaps and (re)arrange the pieces to complete the narrative
- The time of the story far exceeds the viewing time
8
Q
- Anachrony
A
- A narrative structure in which the events are presented out of sequence rather than in a chronological order
9
Q
- Analepsis
A
- Refers to a flashback narrative structure
10
Q
- Prolepsis
A
- Refers to a flashforward narrative structure where an occurrence in the future is anticipated in advance or happens earlier than it would have in a chronological order
11
Q
Structuralism
A
- A type of analysis originating in linguistics
- Attempts to disclose the deep structural architecture and patterns like binary oppositions beneath the surface features of a text
12
Q
- Semiotics
A
- Semiology
- Method of studying social meanings of signs, signification and sign systems
- Originally based on linguistics
- Been applied to cultural artefacts and practices such as advertising, clothing, architecture, screen texts
- Every aspect of text’s style, form, content, and conventions can be understood as signifiers carrying meanings and connotations
- In screen analysis the signs analysed are cues and conventions that direct the audience’s interpretation of the text via connotations and symbolic meanings
13
Q
- Binary opposition
A
- Dualism
- When two terms are opposed to each other, so as to construct meaning from their difference
- So ‘bowl’ has no inherent meaning except in its difference from say ‘plate’ or ‘saucer’
14
Q
- Formalist
A
- Seek to reveal how stylistic techniques such as montage or visual composition interact with plot structures such as parallelism and retardation to express cultural associations, meanings, motivations and relationships through a dynamic formal system of signs and conventions
15
Q
- Cognitivist
A
- Seeks to explain narrative comprehension by analysing how screen texts use aesthetic techniques and formal conventions to cue audiences to construct hypotheses and interferences about the story which are tested and reassessed as the plot unfolds
