Vehicle Strand
Narratives
Matrix (1999)
Why Narrative?
 way of creating meaning
(like semiotics and genre)
 concerned with sequence of events
 employed in many media
 fictional and factual
 part of media as vehicles
Narratives
 Branston and Stafford:
 Propp (roles and functions)
 Todorov (equilibrium)
 Barthes (codes)
 Lévi-Strauss (binary oppositions)
 plot and story
 narration and voice
 different media
 closed and open narratives
 commerce
 today: Joseph Campbell…
Joseph Campbell
 anthropologist
 influenced by Carl Jung
 The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949)
 universal human nature
 many myths = one narrative:
 key term: monomyth
The Monomyth
 the hero’s journey
 a universal blueprint for achieving
human potential and self-knowledge
 you are the hero
 journey is your path through life
 follow your bliss…
Follow Your Bliss
 what truly moves and touches you?
 key to potential and happiness
 society presents obstacles
 you must choose:
follow your bliss or capitulate
 own journey of self-discovery
Utility of Campbell
(1) use his theory for studying
our modern myths: media texts
(2) understand personal enlightenment
Any Questions?
Structure of the Monomyth
“A hero ventures forth from the world
of common day into a region of
supernatural wonder: fabulous forces
are there encountered and a decisive
victory is won: the hero comes back
from this mysterious adventure with
the power to bestow boons on his
fellow man.” (Campbell, 1993, p. 30)
Structure of the Monomyth
 departure > initiation > return
 seventeen key stages
 not always in exact order
 apply the monomyth to The Matrix
Departure
1. The call to adventure
A blunder or chance encounter
reveals an unsuspected world. The
hero is drawn into things s/he doesn’t
understand.
Meaning:
It isn’t really a chance encounter: it
represents the beginning of personal
transformation.
Departure
2. Refusal of the call
The hero initially refuses this call to
adventure.
Meaning:
A refusal to put aside the prior stage
of life, a childish stage, and to take up
a new beginning.
Departure
3. Supernatural aid
Having taken up the call the hero
meets a protective figure, who
provides him with an aid or talisman
which plays an important part later on.
Meaning:
The figure is a benign power of
destiny who symbolises the
importance of trust.
Departure
4. The crossing of the first threshold
The hero meets a guardian standing
at the entrance between his world and
a magical world beyond.
Meaning:
This symbolises the movement from
the conscious to the unconscious.
The threshold must be passed for the
hero to make progress.
Departure
5. The belly of the whale
Though the hero has conquered or
conciliated the guardian of the
threshold, he is then swallowed up by
the unknown and may seem to have
died, or be in mortal danger.
Meaning:
This represents a form of selfannihilation, the transition from one
world – or level of self – to another.
The Call to Adventure
Refusal of the Call
Supernatural Aid
The Crossing of the First Threshold
The Belly of the Whale
Initiation
6. The road of trials
Having crossed the threshold the hero
must pass through a series of tests,
trials or ordeals in the strange new
world.
Meaning:
This represents the hero putting their
ego to death in order that he may
move forward and survive in the new
world.
Initiation
7. The meeting with the goddess
Surviving the trials, the hero meets a
powerful woman. This meeting is
important but her full power is not yet
revealed.
Meaning:
This woman represents a goddess,
universal woman or queen figure.
She represents the hero’s progress
into the new world and appears to
help him.
Initiation
8. The temptation away from the true
path
The hero is tempted from the true
path.
Meaning:
This represents the hero having
doubts. He must resist this temptation
to make progress.
Initiation
9. Atonement with the father
In leaving the former world the hero
breaks with a father figure. During
this phase he sees the father figure in
a new light and is reconciled with him.
Meaning:
The hero begins to view the father,
and so the world, more realistically.
The father (world) is no longer all
powerful or evil. The goddess may
help here.
Initiation
10. Apotheosis
The hero has now achieved self
knowledge and may appear divine.
He is free of fear, and his potential is
released.
Meaning:
Apotheosis means an elevation of a
person to perfection or god-like. The
hero has broken free of old prejudices
and attained true knowledge.
Initiation
11. The ultimate boon
The hero is now in complete control
and can easily achieve the next step.
Meaning:
A supreme goal is achievable.
The Road of Trials
The Meeting with the Goddess
Temptation Away from the True Path
Atonement with the Father
Apotheosis
The Ultimate Boon
Return
12. Refusal of the return
Having completed the quest the hero
must return home, and travel back to
the normal world. At this stage, he
refuses to return.
Meaning:
The return means to put to use the
hero’s achievements for the benefit of
humankind. The hero finds it hard to
leave the magical realm.
Return
13. The magic flight
The hero begins his transition from
the magical to the normal world. He is
usually chased by the enemy.
Meaning:
This symbolises another set of
challenges for the hero, which he
must overcome to save humankind.
This is often represented by a big
chase scene.
Return
14. Rescue from without
The hero may need help from the
normal world in order to exit the
magical world.
Meaning:
Those from within the normal world
come and get the hero so that he can
be born back into the world from
which he came. This is a re-birth into
the conscious state.
Return
15. The crossing of the return
threshold
The hero must pass another test
which enables the transferral of the
new self to the old world.
Meaning:
The magical realm represents a
dimension of the human world, but the
hero needs to learn how to
communicate his new transcendental
self in the normal world.
Return
16. Master of the two worlds
The hero is now able to pass between
both worlds with no effort. He has
mastered them both.
Meaning:
The hero’s personal ambitions have
been resolved and he becomes a
tranquil, powerful figure, a
mythological anonymous presence
able to save humanity.
Return
17. Freedom to live
The hero is at the end of his
adventures.
Meaning:
All humankind is saved, calm and
free. Salvation has been achieved
and everyone is free to live.
Refusal of the Return
The Magic Flight
Rescue from Without
The Crossing of the Return Threshold
Master of the Two Worlds
Freedom to Live
Environment Strand
The Laws of Media
Losing the Plot
 Branston & Stafford: “new narrative
possibilities” in contemporary films
 due to impact of digital technology…
Computers
 word-processors, browsing, games
 allow us to revisit and revise:
undo, redo, delete, cut & paste
navigate through sites and back
save, replay, modify
For example:
Audience construction of plot:
Snakes on a Plane.
 Wonderbook by JK Rowling
Printed Text
 print text is linear: word follows word,
line follows line, page follows page
 print is hot:
dictates & requires little participation
 print is visual:
linear, fragmented, self-contained
Hypertext
 ‘hyper’: above, beyond, outside
 hypertext is interlinked to other texts
 user decides what to read
and in what order
 hypertext is cool:
engaging and requires participation
 hypertext is acoustic: nonlinear,
interactive, connected
Afternoon, A Story
 Michael Joyce, 1990
 first hypertext novel
 narrative is not linear: different routes
through novel, following Peter
 available in library
253
 Geoff Ryman, 1996
 online hypertext fiction
 set on London Underground train
 253 passengers, 253 words
 http://www.ryman-novel.com/
New Narrative Possibilities
 new computer environment:
revisit and revise
 encourages new narrative possibilities
e.g. Groundhog Day, Sliding Doors,
Pulp Fiction, eXistenZ, Videodrome,
Memento, Run Lola Run, Being John
Malkovich, Sin City, Looper, The
Phantom Menace
 For example….
1. Inception
Narrative structure like a digital game:
e.g. episodic levels of consciousness are
tapped into during the process of
inception.
2. Star Wars
Revisit and revise: a prequel (replay)
changes understanding of Star Wars
e.g. Darth Vader’s story
Laws of the Media
 mid 1970s till his death in 1980
 draw together key McLuhan probes
 2 articles ‘Laws of the Media’
 book Laws of Media (1992)
 key term: tetrad
Laws of the Media?
 not a rigid scientific theory
 a systematic approach to media
 provide “an ordering of thought and
experience” (1975, p. 75)
 probes not theories
The Four Laws of Media
(a.k.a. The Tetrad)
 the four effects of a medium
on human faculties and society:
1. A medium will amplify something
e.g. radio amplifies the human voice
2. A medium will obsolesce something
e.g. radio reduces the importance of print
3. A medium will retrieve something
e.g. radio recaptures oral communication
4. A medium will flip into something
e.g. radio leads to pictorial television
E.g. Television
 amplifies sight
 obsolesces radio
 retrieves the (acoustic) visual
 flips into PC
E.g. Housing
 a medium (extension & environment)
 amplifies private, enclosed, visual space
 obsolesces caves, tents, wigwams
(temporary structures)
 retrieves wagon trains
(semi-permanent clusters)
 reverses (flips) into high-rise blocks
(lots of residents)
Spirals of Media
 that which is enhanced will later be
obsolesced and then retrieved, e.g.
 print enhances the visual
 is obsolesced by radio
 retrieved by television
 spirals change faculties or media
e.g. today’s electronic, acoustic space
is different
Many Endpoints
 a medium can enhance, obsolesce,
or flip into many things:
e.g. TV obsolesces radio and film
e.g. TV flips into PCs, video & DVD,
holography
Many Startpoints
 many media can flip into the same
thing (converge):
e.g. TV, radio, book, telephone
all flip into PC
Versatile or Vague?
 the tetrad needs fleshing out with
specific details
 a probe:
 useful so long as it provides insights
Summary
 laws of media (tetrad) are a probe
 explore a medium’s effects on
individuals and society
 four questions:
enhance, obsolesce, retrieve, reverse?
 good structure for a Case Study
Any Questions?
Module Forum
Remember:
 to post 10 or more comments in
sessions: Media, Matrix and McLuhan.
 comments in Miscellaneous will not be
counted in the assessment.
 comments must be written over
several weeks
Module Forum
Assessment:
 engage with theory
 apply theory and ideas to your own
media examples
 interact with others’ posts
Before Next Week
 read Branston & Stafford Ch. 4 on
‘Questions of Representation’
 post on Module Forum