FAMST 96 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Narrative Inquiry, Vladimir Propp, Film Criticism
9 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Narrative = storytelling
•
Narrative is everywhere as a selection of elements put together in a sequential form
Cause and effect chain of events
○
•
Stories can be interpreted differently in that they are organized differently, or that significant moments
are highlighted, etc.
•
Audience = analysts of a story
•
What info is important to include or leave out?
Up to the narrator/storyteller
○
Omissions are just as important as what is retained
○
Offering dimension to the story
○
•
Marsha Kinder - film theorist/analyst
Omission and retention in storytelling
○
•
Narrative analysis vs. film criticism
Narrative analysis = theories of film
Russian formalists studying the redundancy of folktales (the beginning of this?) - 1920s
Vladimir Propp
§
1950s - looking into the structure of folktales
§
○
Cognitive theorists focus on the spectator/perceiver (Bordwell explains this as well)
Trying to see what the audience infers
§
How they create unity and closure of a text (film)
§
How the audience creates the story as they are watching and engaging with the text/film
§
○
Fabula - Russian formalist term for story
○
Syuzhet - Russian formalist term for narration (which is also plot)
○
Film criticism evaluates and analyzes specific films, and does NOT try to formulate a theory of
narrative
○
Narrative theory tries to create/sum up a form of thinking that can account for all films, even those
yet to be made
○
•
What is narrative itself?
"the undertaking event"
○
"the recounting of two or more events/situations, logically connected and occurring over time,
linked by a consistent subject"
Unity, sequential movement of events
§
○
"recounting of real or fictitious events, referring to strategies, codes, and conventions used to
organize a story"
○
"verbal narrative working towards creating spaces" … OR …. "begins with s series of spaces working
towards creating a sense of time"
○
"space, time, causality, agency, value = mental constructs"
○
•
According to Bordwell… (narrative theorists)
We don’t focus on studying narrative or creating narrative upon the first viewing of a film
○
We usually see how we create a narrative when we are reviewing the film
Review begins a new process of consciousness when working with the film
§
○
Job of theory to construct the concepts and the textual elements
BUT it is the work of the analysts to show how concepts work
This is our job as students in this class, as spectators viewing films□
§
○
•
Basic elements of narrative
Beginning, middle, end (stasis)
○
Narration - arrangement of the story (story explains the plot, but plot can exist prior to the creation
of the story)
Remember that narration/plot is what we see on the screen as it appears
§
○
Style
How does a particular style act upon information or other elements of a film?
§
Stylistic patterns
§
○
Cause and effect… chain of events
○
•
**Look at what Hitchcock did for narration** - how he deploys concepts of the narrative process•
Narrative gaps, information gaps
How are the gaps closed?
○
When are they closed?
○
Are we made aware of the gaps?
○
Contributing to inference and hypothesis making
○
•
Narrative unity created by symmetry•
Is the film's structure of narration confirming the strategy of a canonic story? (ask for clarity)•
Is temporal unity strengthened in The Return through its structure? Does it give it coherence? Does the
temporal structure prevent the audience from understanding certain things?
•
**Switching Films**
Opening sequence of North by North West
Vibrant credits page•
Reflection on building of the city below•
HOMEWORK: Bordwell Reading + Narrative Schema document
ALSO read for next Monday's discussion question
Lecture 2: Concepts of Narration
Wednesday, April 4, 2018
1:56 PM
Narrative = storytelling
•
Narrative is everywhere as a selection of elements put together in a sequential form
Cause and effect chain of events
○
•
Stories can be interpreted differently in that they are organized differently, or that significant moments
are highlighted, etc.
•
Audience = analysts of a story
•
What info is important to include or leave out?
Up to the narrator/storyteller
○
Omissions are just as important as what is retained
○
Offering dimension to the story
○
•
Marsha Kinder - film theorist/analyst
Omission and retention in storytelling
○
•
Narrative analysis vs. film criticism
Narrative analysis = theories of film
Russian formalists studying the redundancy of folktales (the beginning of this?) - 1920s
Vladimir Propp
§
1950s - looking into the structure of folktales
§
○
Cognitive theorists focus on the spectator/perceiver (Bordwell explains this as well)
Trying to see what the audience infers
§
How they create unity and closure of a text (film)
§
How the audience creates the story as they are watching and engaging with the text/film
§
○
Fabula - Russian formalist term for story
○
Syuzhet - Russian formalist term for narration (which is also plot)
○
Film criticism evaluates and analyzes specific films, and does NOT try to formulate a theory of
narrative
○
Narrative theory tries to create/sum up a form of thinking that can account for all films, even those
yet to be made
○
•
What is narrative itself?
"the undertaking event"
○
"the recounting of two or more events/situations, logically connected and occurring over time,
linked by a consistent subject"
Unity, sequential movement of events
§
○
"recounting of real or fictitious events, referring to strategies, codes, and conventions used to
organize a story"
○
"verbal narrative working towards creating spaces" … OR …. "begins with s series of spaces working
towards creating a sense of time"
○
"space, time, causality, agency, value = mental constructs"
○
•
According to Bordwell… (narrative theorists)
We don’t focus on studying narrative or creating narrative upon the first viewing of a film
○
We usually see how we create a narrative when we are reviewing the film
Review begins a new process of consciousness when working with the film
§
○
Job of theory to construct the concepts and the textual elements
BUT it is the work of the analysts to show how concepts work
This is our job as students in this class, as spectators viewing films□
§
○
•
Basic elements of narrative
Beginning, middle, end (stasis)
○
Narration - arrangement of the story (story explains the plot, but plot can exist prior to the creation
of the story)
Remember that narration/plot is what we see on the screen as it appears
§
○
Style
How does a particular style act upon information or other elements of a film?
§
Stylistic patterns
§
○
Cause and effect… chain of events
○
•
**Look at what Hitchcock did for narration** - how he deploys concepts of the narrative process•
Narrative gaps, information gaps
How are the gaps closed?
○
When are they closed?
○
Are we made aware of the gaps?
○
Contributing to inference and hypothesis making
○
•
Narrative unity created by symmetry•
Is the film's structure of narration confirming the strategy of a canonic story? (ask for clarity)•
Is temporal unity strengthened in The Return through its structure? Does it give it coherence? Does the
temporal structure prevent the audience from understanding certain things?
•
**Switching Films**
Opening sequence of North by North West
Vibrant credits page•
Reflection on building of the city below•
HOMEWORK: Bordwell Reading + Narrative Schema document
ALSO read for next Monday's discussion question
Lecture 2: Concepts of Narration
Wednesday, April 4, 2018
1:56 PM
Document Summary
Narrative is everywhere as a selection of elements put together in a sequential form. Stories can be interpreted differently in that they are organized differently, or that signifi are highlighted, etc. Omissions are just as important as what is retained. Russian formalists studying the redundancy of folktales (the beginning of this. 1950s - looking into the structure of folktales. Cognitive theorists focus on the spectator/perceiver (bordwell explains this as well) How they create unity and closure of a text (film) How the audience creates the story as they are watching and engaging with th. Syuzhet - russian formalist term for narration (which is also plot) Film criticism evaluates and analyzes specific films, and does not try to formulate a narrative. Narrative theory tries to create/sum up a form of thinking that can account for all f yet to be made. 1920s well) ith the text/film ate a theory of all films, even those ntio.
