Week 7 - Why is narrative important?

"Narrative starts with the very story of mankind. There is not, there has never been anywhere any people without narrative; all classes of human groups have their stories.. Like life itself, it is there, international, transhistorical, transcultural" (Barthes, 1975).

A narrative is basically story-telling. In a narrative there has to be the story itself and the discourse. The story is the content of what is being told which originally exists as an idea thus it needs discourse, which is the arrangement of how the idea is structured to tell the story. A narrative discourse is an account of events that applies verbs of speech, motion and action to describe a series of events that are dependent on one another thus the discourse is concerned with how the narrative is being presented.


Genre is a part of discourse. The narrative, that is the content, for both film and book can be the same but due to the fact that they are in two different mediums, it changes the way the story is being told for example in books there are no complete visual aids as opposed to films. Hence, readers will have to personally interpret certain actions and events. As a result, it changes the affectiveness of the story on the audience.

against

Some say the book is better, some say otherwise. Why?

Narratives are important because in any medium or genre, they are ways to constructing and representing lived experience (Huisman, 2005). In order for a visual image to be successfully shaped, narratives allow the producer to express their points of view (from their perspective) in a way to ensure the audience will understand and react according to their expectancy.

Mieke Bal wrote her book "Narratology: Introduction to the theory of narrative": narrative has 3 parts; fabula, plot and text. 

• The fabula refers to the what and why of the story. 
• The plot is developed based on selection of fabula to form a constant and comprehensible whole. 
• The text is no other than the representation of details through a series of language signs by a proxy.

Greek philosopher Aristotle decribed in his "Poetics" a set of guidelines to style an 'ideal narrative'. The plot must be a "whole" with a beginning, middle and end.


This short movie below demonstrates Aristotle's narrative theory as it comprises of a beginning, middle and end.

"Heavenly Appeals" by David Lisbe (Youtube)

Narrative in media is separated in 2 different types of theory; structuralist and post-structuralist. The Aristotlian narrative structure is structuralist. It follows the conventions of the chronological sequence of the events which includes the subject, the framework and discourse and temporality and focalization. (Huisman, 2005). It focuses on linguistic structures that make the story as it is. The post-structuralist however relates to the study of the actual story; what the information is and what is being presented. 

"Tick-Tock" by Ien Chi (Youtube)

"Tick-Tock" is an example of a post-structuralist narrative short film. It does not follow Aristotle's narrative structure but it has fabula, plot and text. Also, it emphasizes the information conveyed. It enables viewers to interpret their own conclusion and create their own ideas about the content presented.

As we can see from below, this holiday advert has narrative and follows the narrative structure.

Without narrative or these set of guidelines, advertisers would not be able to promote their product successful and the audience will not be able to understand or receive the message as what was intended by the advertisers.

This advertisement below is considered a post-structuralist or post-modern advertisement because it is modern in the sense of having no big title of the product presented along with price, company, location and etc. Thus it is not in the norm. Alternatively, it just shows the audience the benefit of buying this particular product. Narrative is important in advertisement because it helps advertisers to come up with ideas on how to create better adverts to persuade potential buyers.

Pilot advertisement

 As Barthes says "narrative start with the very story of mankind," it shows us how narratives has always been and will always be an important part of our lives. It allows us to understand and be understood.

References:

Huisman, R. (2005). Narrative concepts. In Fulton, H., Huisman, R., Murphet, J. and Dunn. (eds.), Narrative and Media (pp. 11-27). Cambridge: Cambridge Universty Press.

Lamarque, P. (1994). Narrative an invention: The limits of fictionality. In Nash. C. (ed.), Narrative in culture (pp. 131-132). New York and London: Routledge.