Dr. Gao 1
Narrative Elements
Narrative Elements
I.
II.
III.
Narrative refers to the story (what happened and why it happened);
Narration means the telling of a story;
Narrator is someone who tells a story; it could be the author, a character, an
outsider, camera as in a film, or a cat as in a famous Japanese novel, I am a
Cat, a satirical novel written in 1905–1906 by Natsume Sōseki, about
Japanese society during the Meiji Period, from 1868 through July 1912, a
period representing the first half of the Empire of Japan; particularly, the
uneasy mix of Western culture and Japanese traditions, and the aping of
Western customs.
IV.
Point-of-View/Perspectives in narration
a. Omniscient, having complete or unlimited knowledge, awareness, or
understanding; perceiving all things.
b. Limited point of view: first-person/second-person/third-person point
of view/voice-over narration1 in movies or other media;
V.
Narrative Theory or Narratology (derived from narratologie in French)
refers to the study of narrative and narrative structure and the ways that these
affect our perception.
VI.
Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC)’s three sequential parts: a beginning, a middle
and an end;
1
Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production
technique where a voice which is not part of the narrative (non-diegetic) is used in a radio,
television, film, theatre, or other presentation. The voice-over may be spoken by someone who
appears elsewhere in the production or by a specialist voice actor. It can be used as a character
device, a creative device, an educational or descriptive device, a commercial device or a
translation device.
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Dr. Gao 2
Narrative Elements
VII.
French New Wave director2 Jean-Luc Godard who helped to revolutionize
cinematic style in the 1950s agrees that a story should have a beginning, a
middle, and an end, but, he added “not necessarily in that order.”
VIII.
Gustav Freytag’s Five-Part Dramatic Structure: (also known as “Freytag’s
Triangle”.
2
Although never a formally organized movement, the New Wave filmmakers were
linked by their self-conscious rejection of classical cinematic form and their spirit of youthful
iconoclasm and is an example of European art cinema. Many also engaged in their work with the
social and political upheavals of the era, making their radical experiments with editing, visual
style and narrative part of a general break with the conservative paradigm. The movies featured
unprecedented methods of expression, such as long tracking shots (like the famous traffic jam
sequence in Godard's 1967 film Week End). Also, these movies featured existential themes, such
as stressing the individual and the acceptance of the absurdity of human existence. The
cinematic styling of French New Wave brought a fresh look to cinema with improvised dialogue,
rapid changes of scene, and shots that go beyond the common 180º axis. The camera was used
not to mesmerize the audience with elaborate narrative and illusory images, but to play with the
expectations of cinema. The techniques used to shock the audience out of submission and awe
were so bold and direct that Jean-Luc Godard has been accused of having contempt for his
audience. His stylistic approach can be seen as a desperate struggle against the mainstream
cinema of the time, or a degrading attack on the viewer's naivety. Either way, the challenging
awareness represented by this movement remains in cinema today. Effects that now seem either
trite or commonplace, such as a character stepping out of their role in order to address the
audience directly, were radically innovative at the time.
2
Dr. Gao 3
Narrative Elements
i. Exposition: Everything preceding and including the inciting moment,
the event or situation that sets the rest of the narrative in motion;
ii. Rising action: The development of narrative action toward a climax;
iii. Climax: the narrative’s turning point;
iv. Falling action: the events that follow the climax and bring the
narrative from climax to conclusion;
v. Denouement: the resolution or conclusion of the narrative;
In his book Technique of the Drama (1863), the German critic Gustav
Freytag (1816–95) proposed a method of analyzing plots derived from
Aristotle's concept of unity of action that came to be known as Freytag's
Triangle or Freytag's Pyramid. In the illustration above, I have borrowed
from both critics to present a graphic that can be employed to analyze the
structure and unity of a narrative's plot.
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Dr. Gao 4
Narrative Elements
Two important elements: recognition (a moment of truth) and reversal
(dramatic turn).
i. Anagnorisis 3 recognition: point in the play during which the tragic hero
experiences a kind of self-understanding; the discovery or recognition,
especially preceding peripeteia.
ii. Peripeteia 4 a sudden turn of events or an unexpected reversal, especially
in a literary work;
3
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Anagnorisis (in ancient Greek tragedy)
the critical moment of recognition or discovery, especially preceding peripeteia. Etymologically,
the word incorporates the idea of a turning from ignorance to knowledge.
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Dr. Gao 5
Narrative Elements
IX.
Story vs. Plot: That “The king died and then the queen died” is a story (in
which events are chronologically organized) whereas that “The king died
and the queen died of grief” is a plot in which the events are linked by
causality. 5
X.
Flat Character vs. Round Character6 -- A round character is a major
character in a work of fiction that encounters conflict and is changed by it.
Round characters tend to be more fully developed and described than flat, or
static, characters.
XI.
Setting refers to the background against which action takes place. The
elements making up a setting are: 1. the geographical location, its
topography, scenery, and such physical arrangements as the location of the
windows and doors in a room; 2. the occupations and daily manner of living
of the characters; 3. the time or period in which the action takes place, for
example, epoch in history or season of the year; 4. the general environment
of the characters, for example, religious, mental, moral, social and emotional
conditions. 7 ing is the time and place in which a story takes place. Setting is
the time and place in which a story takes place.
4
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Peripeteia: a sudden turn of events or an
unexpected reversal, especially in a literary work.
5
E. M. Forster. Aspects of the Novel, 1927.
6
Ibid.
7
C. Hugh Holman & William Harmon. A handbook to Literature. New York: Macmillan
Publishing Compnay, 1992. 440.
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Dr. Gao 6
Narrative Elements
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