Structuralism has been very powerful in its influence on narrative theory. Its main virtue is that it is most interested in those things that narratives have in common, rather than in the distinctive characteristics of specific narratives.

When looking at moving image products, it is therefore possible to look for patterns, codes, conventions that share a common features. In other words, narrative theories look at recognisable and familiar structures, that help us to understand both how narratives are constructed and what they might mean.

Narratives are organised around a particular theme and space and are based in an idea of time

they start at ’00:00′ and run for a set length. This means that they normally have a beginning, middle and end. “A whole is what has a beginning and middle and end” Aristotle Poetics (c.335BC).

Vladimir Propp (character types and function)

suggests that stories use STOCK CHARACTERS to structure stories. That is not to say that all characters are the same, but rather to suggest that all stories draw on familiar characters performing similar functions to provide familiar narrative structures.

CHARACTERS FUNCTION TO PROVIDE NARRATIVE STRUCTURE:

1. Hero
2. Helper
3. Princess
4. Villain
5. Victim
6. Dispatcher
7. Father
8. False Hero

Definitions:

Elision – he omission of a sound or syllable when speaking (as in I’m, let’s ).

Elipsis – the omission from speech or writing of a word or words that are superfluous or able to be understood from contextual clues.

Simultaneous narrative – Narrative art is art that tells a story, either as a moment in an ongoing story or as a sequence of events unfolding over time. Some of the earliest evidence of human art suggests that people told stories with pictures.

Parallel narrative – denotes a story structure in which the writer includes two or more separate narratives linked by a common character, event, or theme. Parallel stories enrich a work and have been used by playwrights and novelists for centuries.

Dramatic Irony – the expression of one’s meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect.

Foreshadowing – be a warning or indication of (a future event)

Non-sequiturs – A non sequitur is a conclusion or reply that doesn’t follow logically from the previous statement. … Non sequiturs are often used for comedic effect in movies, novels, and TV shows. When someone says a non sequitur, it usually means the person was off in her own thoughts and not listening to the other person.

Light & shade – Light is the positive moments within the film such as humor which lighten the tone or mood of the movie. Shade is the darker moments within the film.

post-modernism is a philosophy which means it is a way of seeing the world.

Parody v Pastiche 

pastiche is a work of art, drama, literature, music, or architecture that imitates the work of a previous artist

parody is a work or performance that imitates another work or performance with ridicule or irony

Bricolage is a useful term to apply to postmodernist texts as it ‘involves the rearrangement and juxtaposition of previously unconnected signs to produce new codes of meaning’ (Barker & Jane, 2016:237).

Similarly, Inter-sexuality is another useful term to use, as it suggests signs only have meaning in reference to other signs and that meaning is therefore a complex process of decoding/encoding with individuals both taking and creating meaning in the process of reading texts. In other words . . .

There is an idea that we live in a fake-news society that

the focus on FRAGMENTATION OF IDENTITY is characterized and linked to an increase of consumption and the proliferation of new forms of digital technologies. In effect, another key characteristic of postmodernism is the development of fragmented, alienated individuals living (precariously) in fragmented societies.

The loss of Meta-narrative

claimed that Postmodernism is characterized by Pastiche rather than Parody which represents a crisis in historic. Jameson argued that parody implies a moral judgment or a comparison with previous societal norms. Whereas pastiche, such as collage and other forms of juxtaposition, occur without a normative grounding and as such, do not make comment on a specific historical moment. As such, Jameson argues that the postmodern era is characterized by pastiche (not parody) and as such, suffers from a crisis in historicity.

A way of understanding this comes from Baudrillard’s provocative 1991 book The Gulf War Did Not Take Place which suggests that not only was our experience and understanding of this war a ‘mediated reality’, but it was also constructed as a media experience to the extent that reality did not match mediation. Put another way, the media was used to construct and propagate a myth about this conflict. Similarly, we can look at the the Twin towers terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 which were organised as a media event, suggesting perhaps that reality only exists as a mediated experience?

ORIENTALISM: the power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming or emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism

the privileged role of culture in the modern imperial experience – Edward Said

Overall, POSTCOLONIALISM operates a series of signs maintaining the European-Atlantic power over the Orient by creating ‘an accepted grid for filtering through the Orient into Western consciousness‘. (Said, 1978:238)

Jacques Lacan – we cannot actually see ourselves as whole, we use a reflection to understand who we are / who we are not.

Louis Althusser: ISA’s & the notion of ‘Interpellation’ – all ideology hails or interpellates concrete individuals as concrete subjects, through the functioning of the category of the subject

Frantz Fanon mechanics of colonialism and its effects of those it ensnared

1. Assimilation of colonial culture corresponding to the ‘mother country’ Chinua Achebe talks of the colonial writer as a ‘somewhat unfinished European who with patience guidance will grow up one day and write like every other European.’ (1988:46)
2. Immersion into an ‘authentic’ culture ‘brought up out of the depths of his memory; old legends will be reinterpreted’
3. Fighting, revolutionary, national literature, ‘the mouthpiece of a new reality in action’.

Antonio Gramsci – Hegemony – However,  Gramsci suggests that power relations can be understood as a hegemonic struggle through culture. In other words, Gramsci raises the concept of Hegemony to illustrate how certain cultural forms predominate over others, which means that certain ideas are more influential than others

His theme of Double Consciousness, derived from W. E. B. Dubois, involves ‘Black Atlantic’ striving to be both European and Black through their relationship to the land of their birth and their ethnic political constituency

As Barry notes the stress on ‘cross-cultural’ interactions is indeed a characteristic of postcolonial criticism. Often found by foregrounding questions of cultural difference and diversity, as well as by celebrating ‘hybridity’, ‘ambiguity’ and ‘cultural poly-valency’. A unique position where ‘individuals may simultaneously belong to more than one culture – the colonizer and the colonized’. (2016:198) Even Fanon suggests an emphasis on identity as ‘doubled, or ‘hybrid’, or ‘unstable’.

Paul Gilroy:  ‘we must become interested in how the literary and cultural as well as governmental dynamics of the country have responded to that process of change and what it can tell us about the place of racism in contemporary political culture.’ (2004:13) His theme of Double Consciousness, derived from W. E. B. Dubois, involves ‘Black Atlantic’ striving to be both European and Black through their relationship to the land of their birth and their ethnic political constituency

Ghost Town by The Specials conveys a specific moment in British social and political history while retaining a contemporary relevance. The cultural critic Dorian Lynskey has described it as ‘’a remarkable pop cultural moment’’ one that “defined an era’’. The video and song are part of a tradition of protest in popular music, in this case reflecting concern about the increased social tensions in the UK at the beginning of the 1980s. The song was number 1 in the UK charts, post-Brixton and during the Handsworth and Toxteth riots.

Jaques Lacan – The Other

Suggests everyone goes through a mirror-phase when a person first sees their reflection, and tries to understand if the reflection is themselves. we cannot actually see ourselves as whole, we use a reflection to understand who we are / who we are not. Applying that theory to culture, communications and media studies, it is possible to see why we are so obsessed with reading magazines, listening to music, watching films, videos and television because, essentially, we are exploring ‘The Other’ as a way of exploring ourselves.

Louis Althusser

” all ideology hails or interpellates concrete individuals as concrete subjects, through the functioning of the category of the subject“

 is used to describe the way in which structures of civic society – education, culture, the arts, the family, religion, bureaucracy, administration etc serve to structure the ideological perspectives of society, which in turn form our individual subject identity.   we are socially constructed and what socially constructs us is ‘despite its diversity and contradictions . . . the ruling ideology, which is the ideology of ‘the ruling class’,’ 

Sayeed – “The Orient”

 it is possible to identify a process whereby REPRESENTATIONS of – the East /the Orient / the ‘Other’ – are CONSTRUCTED through the lens of WESTERN COLONIAL POWER. So as much as the concept and image of ‘the West’ itself, the Orient is an idea that has a history and a tradition of thought, imagery, and vocabulary that have given it reality and presence in and for the West. The two geographical entities thus support and to an extent reflect each other.

Narratives are about time and space and are usually linear and sequential, they run for a set length. Narratives are usually structured or organised around a particular theme.

Narrative is the overall structure involved in communication, within this are the story which includes whats in it, and the plot which is the way its structured and organised.

Tztevan Todorov (Tripartite narrative structure) Stories can be broken down into Beginning/Middle/End. Todorov presents this idea as: -Equilibrium -Disruption -New equilibrium

The climax is the highest point of drama within the piece of media, this point of drama begins with the inciting incident, after the highest point of drama there is a resolution.

Claude Levi-Srauss (Binary oppositions) By looking at different cultures and societies, he suggested that stories should include characters that are opposites

Vladimir Propp (Character types and functions) labels “Stock characters” as characters with specific functions, their actions help provide function for the narrative structure.

-Hero -Helper -Princess -Villain -Victim -Dispatcher -Father -False Hero

Seymour Chatman (Satellites and Kernels) Kernels – key moments in the plot /narrative structure Satellites – embellishments, developments, aesthetics

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1. COLONIALISM – When a country takes control over another country.
2. POST COLONIALISM – Studying something in a colonized country.
3. DIASPORA – the dispersion or spread of people from their homeland.
4. BAME – UK slang that refers to minorities (asian, hispanic etc).
5. DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS (GILROY) – Internal conflict by subordinated groups in an oppressive society.
6. CULTURAL ABSOLUTISM / RACIAL ESSENTIALISM – a belief in a genetic essence that defines all members in racial categories.
7. CULTURAL SYNCRETISM – Different cultures merging together to make something new.
8. ORIENTALISM (SAID) – How we view Arab countries.
9. APPROPRIATION – When something sacred to someone is sexualised or made fun of (e.g. native indians of america and their culture appropriated for childrens costumes on halloween).
10. CULTURAL HEGEMONY – The domination of a culturally diverse society by the most popular class
11. THE PUBLIC SPHERE (HABERMAS) – An area in social life where individuals can come together to freely discuss and identify societal problems, and through that discussion influence political action.
12. THE ROLE OF PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING IN TERMS OF FAIR REPRESENTATION OF MINORITY GROUPS / INTERESTS – These public service broadcasting groups (PBS) are mostly biased when representing ethnic minority groups which can make society adopt stereotypes and misunderstandings of these ethnic minorities.

• Ghost Town was released in 1981
• It was produced by John Collins
• Won an NME award for best single
• Stayed at number 1 in the UK charts for 3 weeks

Cultural, Social and Historical Background

• In 1981 the industrial workplace had left cities in poverty and unemployment rates were at the highest level within the UK.
• In 2002 Dammers told The Guardian, “You travelled from town to town and what was happening was terrible. In Liverpool, all the shops were shuttered up, everything was closing down … We could actually see it by touring around. You could see that frustration and anger in the audience. In Glasgow, there were these little old ladies on the streets selling all their household goods, their cups and saucers. It was unbelievable. It was clear that something was very, very wrong.”
• As the band travelled throughout the UK they could evidently see the impact of recession on the country and how it had affected everyday life.
• The song rose significantly in popularity during the time of extreme riots in the country.
• The video’s locations include driving through the Rotherhithe Tunnel and around semi-derelict areas of the East End before ending up in the financial district of the City of London in the early hours of daylight on Sunday morning, where the streets were deserted as it was the weekend. The shots of the band in the car were achieved by attaching a camera to the bonnet using a rubber sucker: Panter recalled that at one point the camera fell off (briefly seen in the finished video at 1:18) and scratched the car’s paintwork, to the displeasure of the car’s owner. The original Ghost Town car can be seen (and sat in) at The Coventry Music Museum.

Communicating Meaning

• The song included a variety of unique and unusual sounds and instruments which was used to reflect the unusual and abnormal times people were living in.
• The clothing used in the video is black suits and brighter clothing, this could be to show the divide between rich and poor at the time in how the lower class workers lived in uncomfortable and worse areas whereas the rich continued their life as normal.

Section C (Teen Vogue, The I, War of the Worlds

2 Essays in sec C worth 20 marks each

language, representation, industries and audience

Andrew Crissel – distinctive characteristics of radio as media

Orson Welles delivered the radio broadcast

It was an adaptation of H.G Welles novel

The novel was published in 1898 but the radio broadcast was released in 1938.

Can be classed as “Fake News”

The first broadcast caused panic widely which led to the producer being forced to announce that it was fictional

Easily spread as there were double the amount of radios in homes than telephones

“Moral Panic” Stanley Cohen – “Folk devils and moral panics” (worries in the public that media causes)

Andrew Crissel – “Radio is a blind media”

CBS produced War of the Worlds

An explanation for the tenacious grip of the War of the Worlds “panic” myth is that the public then and now have a deep-rooted anxiety about the power of the media.

the Language of Radio is used creatively to structure a text that could be taken as fact, but is clearly fiction

Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin were both popular figures in the film industry and they both were actors, film makers and comedians. Both Keaton and Chaplin are still well known today for their ability to express emotion through movements and expressions. The Great Dictator was directed by Charlie Chaplin in 1940, The Blacksmith was directed by Buster Keaton in 1922.

Birth of a Nation which was originally called Clansmen was co-produced by DW Griffiths and released in February 1915. The movie was the first 12 reel film and longest movie ever made at the time. The movie was also the first to have a musical score for an orchestra. The film is also very controversial for a variety of reasons, firstly, the film portrayed black men as unintelligent and sexually aggressive towards white women, the Ku Klux Klan was also portrayed as a heroic force in the movie. After its release there was many protests against the film, most notably in Boston when thousands of people protested against the film.