Monday, 23 November 2009

Narrative Theory

OCR will expect candidates to be able to utilise narrative theory with regards to case studies / production.

Narrative Sheet on Gateway

Narrative : Order of the story + Style that it is represented

Story : Description

Part of the human condition is that we don’t dream nor remember original events (real or not) in linear order.

The human mind needs narrative to make sense of things

Story is the irreducible substance of a story (A meets B, something happens, orders returns), while narrative is the way the story is related (once upon a time there was a princess…)

Media texts are better organised than everyday life.

“The time of the
thing told and the time of the telling”.

What he is basically saying is
that a text is like a tangled ball of threads which needs unravelling

One set experience will create one meaning of the media text while a different set brings another meaning. What this means is that due to my like experiences I will take one certain meaning from a movie where as Sally from down the road with her own life experiences make take a completely different meaning.

Audiences bring different psychology and sociological baggage to a media text which affect what meaning they receive. Plus the meaning can change depending on the context of the viewing, how the person is feeling where they are etc.

2 comments:

vmb said...

....What he is basically saying is
that a text is like a tangled ball of threads which needs unravelling...
Matthew this is Barthes' theory, you need to acknowledge this.
Well done for posting this onto your blog.

vmb said...

Matthew you need to post Prop, Todorov and Claude Levis Strauss' narrative theories onto your blog.

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