Narrative Conventions
When unpacking a narrative in order to find its meaning, there are a series of codes and conventions that need to be considered. When we look at a narrative we examine the conventions of
- Genre
- Character
- Form
- Time
and use knowledge of these conventions to help us interpret the text. In particular, Time is something that we understand as a convention - narratives do not take place in real time but may telescope out (the slow motion shot which replays a winning goal) or in (an 80 year life can be condensed into a two hour biopic). Therefore we consider "the time of the thing told and the time of the telling." (Christian Metz Notes Towards A Phenomenology of Narrative).
It is only because we are used to reading narratives from a very early age, and are able to compare texts with others that we understand these conventions. A narrative in its most basic sense is a series of events, but in order to construct meaning from the narrative those events must be linked somehow.
In Media Studies, it is important to tell the difference between narrative and story
Story = a sequence of events, known correctly as the plot
Narrative = the way those events are put together to be presented to an audience
when analysing a narrative we analyse the construction of the story ie the way it has been put together, not the story itself. You also need to consider what the story is about in its most basic terms, ie the theme
Narrative conventions:
Genre
Character
Form
Time
A narrative in its most basic sense is a series of events, but in order to construct meaning from the narrative those events must be linked somehow.
Theorists
Roland Barthes
"a galaxy of signifiers, not a structure of signifieds; it has no beginning; it is reversible; we gain access to it by several entrances, none of which can be authoritatively declared to be the main one; the codes it mobilizes extend as far as the eye can read, they are indeterminable...the systems of meaning can take over this absolutely plural text, but their number is never closed, based as it is on the infinity of language..."
We can start by looking at a narrative in one way, from one viewpoint, bringing to bear one set of previous experience, and create one meaning for that text, he decided that texts were either 'open' or 'closed'.
Narrative Codes:
Action/proiarectic code & enigma code (ie Answers & questions)
Symbols & Signs
Points of Cultural Reference
Simple description/reproduction
There are other theorists that focus on the structure of narrative:
Tvzetan Todorov - suggests narrative is simply equilibrium, disequilibrium, new equilibrium
Vladimir Propp - characters and actions (31 functions of character types)
Claude Levi-Strauss - constant creation of conflict/opposition propels narrative. Narrative can only end on a resolution of conflict. Opposition can be visual (light/darkness, movement/stillness) or conceptual (love/hate, control/panic), and to do with soundtrack. Binary oppositions.
Deconstructing Narratives:
the narrator will always :
reveal the events which make up the story
mediate those events for the audience
evaluate those events for the audience
The narrator also tends to POSITION the audience into a particular relationship with the characters on the screen
Comprehending time
Narrative is often comprehended for time, many devices of these include:
flashbacks
dream sequences
repetition
different characters' POV
flash forwards
real time interludes
pre-figuring of events that have not yet taken place
Locating the Narrative
The location of the narrative represents the genre and form, whether its pyshical or geographical, or mythic.
