1. Lecture 4: From Dallas to Baghdad – Introducing Narrative Theory

2. Understand the importance of narrative in analysing different media forms. Practice applying various structural narrative theories to media forms. Begin to evaluate ways in which these structures can help but also limit our understanding.

3. Narrative Life does not present us with information in an organized way: it is up to us to impose order upon it. This is narrative. Narrative is the organization given to ANY information: whether you’re gossiping to a friend, or watching a film, or the news, that information is organized into a narrative. Narrative makes a random series of events comprehensable.

4. What is Difference Between Narrative and Story? Story: “the irreducible substance of a story” – I went to buy milk and a dog bit me. Narrative: “the way the story was related.” – Once upon a time I went to the store…etc.

5. Plot Plot is simply the order in which events occur. 1 I went to the store 2 I saw a dog 3 The dog bit me.

6. Genre Reality Television News Soap Opera SitCom

7. Genre Genre categorizes a “text” through style and form. Paradigms Costumes Music Fonts Iconography Signs and symbols Structure How a story is put together

8. We know these are the same genre Similar structures Lets try and map those structures. http://www.youtube.com/user/AlJazeeraEngli sh#p/u/4/5AwpPGIK7c4 (AL Jazeera on Lebanon) http://www.youtube.com/user/AlJazeeraEngli sh#p/u/4/5AwpPGIK7c4 http://www.youtube.com/user/cnninternatio nal#p/u/14/zZOXwIt7_7M (CNN on Columbia) http://www.youtube.com/user/cnninternatio nal#p/u/14/zZOXwIt7_7M

9. Street scenes/external shots with reporter talking over them. Talk to “regular person” Talk to “expert person” See the reporter on the street. Higher officials at the end. Totally different stories: same genre.

10. Narrative Conventions of News Narrative isn’t just applied to movies, or TV shows. News stories are also told through narrative: News is a “genre” just like Soap Opera or Reality TV. The Comedy programme “Newswipe” makes fun of the conventions of a News broadcast. This would not be funny if we didn’t implicitly understand the ‘genre’ of news: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtGSXMuWMR4

11. Time In a narrative there are two aspects of time: – 1. The “time of the telling” – 2. The “time of the story told.” “Time of the telling” = 34 seconds. “Time of the story told” = less than 2 seconds. – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BEeOaX7_bo (Zidane) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BEeOaX7_bo

12. Examples of Narrative in Different Media

13. Photographs

15. Comic Strip

16. Video Games Videogame designer Yoshinori Yamagichi in 2009: – “It is more of a challenge to produce a game in order to tell a story. In TV, film and theatre, the creator has control over how he gives the story to the viewer--it's easier to control the emotions and feelings expected from the viewer,” Yamagishi told CVG. – “In [a game developer's] case we always have to think about how players might react to each depiction of a character or storyline, and that's the part we can't predict. But if we manage to get over this hurdle, then I regard video games as a greater medium to provide people with deep emotional and exciting experiences.” Gamespot (http://uk.gamespot.com/features/6214951/index.html)

17. Dennis Dutton disagrees: thinks video games ““There’s a deep division between the concept of a story as it has come down through tradition and the concept of a story as it is in video games,” Dutton said. “Games do not have the story structure we see in Greek plays, Shakespearean tragedies, or even soap operas on afternoon TV. They are, at their very heart, games and not stories.” Gamespot (http://uk.gamespot.com/feature s/6214951/index.html)

18. Radio Radio – This American Life – http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio- archives/episode/175/babysitting [START 5:30 in]. http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio- archives/episode/175/babysitting – Sounds and silence: switching between NARRATOR and the different CHARACTERS – Listen to first 20 minutes and take notes: Count how many times the narrator changes. PLOT (What are the events.) STORY (One sentence!) CHARACTER LIST

20. Structural Theories of Narrative

24. Vladimir Propp In 1920s examined hundreds of Russian folktales Argued that they shared certain structures. Identified 31 functions which move the story along (for example, a man needs to be married; a man loses all his money) As well as….

25. Propp’s Eight Character Roles Hero (or Heroine) Villain (struggles against her) The Princess (also the prize in the narrative) The DISPATCHER sends the hero on his way The Princess’ Father (The King) Who rewards the hero. The HELPER helps the hero on his quest The Donor (prepares the hero for his mission) The False Hero – disrupts the hero’s success by making false claims

26. Barthes Also a structuralist theory, but his incorporates the reader/viewer’s reaction. To Barthes, a text (could be written, a photograph, a film) is not one thing but a “weaving together of different strands and processes.” Narrative works through 5 different codes which act as ‘alerts’ to the reader to make sense of what is going on. – TWO Codes are “inside the story” – THREE Codes are pointing outside of the story.

27. Barthes The Semic Code Hermeneutic/Enigma Code Proairitc/Action CodeThe Symbolic CodeThe Cultural Code

28. Inside the Story. Hermeneu tic/ Enigma Code Proairetic / Action Code

29. watch first part of ‘Cause and Effect’ Star Trek: The Next Generation. – What is wrong with this episode beginning? – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxxTUXVblA A http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxxTUXVblA A – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACf7_0rBjng& NR=1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACf7_0rBjng& NR=1

30. What is wrong? The ship blew up, and we don’t know why. Lady hears voices, we don’t know why. – HERMENEUTIC CODE: Setting up mysteries! – Do we think the main characters are really dead? No. PROAIRETIC CODE: Driving the action forward because we EXPECT that we will see the main characters again. Hermen eutic/ Enigma Code Proairetic / Action Code

31. The Semic Code The Symbolic Code The Cultural Code

32. A text is not one thing, but “a weaving together” of information inside and outside the story. The Semic Code Enigma Code The Action Code The Symbolic Code The Cultural Code

33. Tzetvan Todorov’s Theory of Narrative 1. EQUILIBRIUM “all stories begin with an equilibrium where all potentially opposing forces are ‘in balance’” - a once upon a time moment. 2. DESEQUILIBRIUM Disrupted by some event. 3. NEW EQUILIBRIUM closes with a new moment of equilibrum “status quo.”

34. In this news item: (The Great Busterd) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science- environment-12232362 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science- environment-12232362 In The Busterd story – 1. What is the equilibrium? They were all healthy and thriving. – 2. What is the disequilibrium? They were in danger. – 3. What is the new equilibrium? Money from the EU, hooray, Busterds are safe.

35. Claude Levi-Strauss: “Theory of Binary Opposition.” Suggests all narrative have to be driven forward by conflict between two opposing forces. – For example “fight between good and evil” – Luke Skywalker versus Darth Vader. – or political issues boiled down to two sides. – American political ad uses narrative of binary opposition: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTSQozWP- rM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTSQozWP- rM

36. Levy-Strauss’ theory is best applied to a whole genre rather than an individual story. The text book attempts to look at Western news coverage of the War in Afghanistan. The language news shows use in the West set up oppositions between “east and west” “despotism and democracy”, “fundamentalism and freedom.” We will look more at this in a moment.

37. Case Study: Dallas Narrative as Pleasurable…

38. “A Symbol of a New Television Age”- Dallas In the late 1980s, the American Soap Opera “Dallas” became a global phenomenon. Ien Ang wrote a book about this called “Watching Dallas”. Intro to Dallas http://www.youtube.com /watch?v=TfNBCxnht- 4&feature=related http://www.youtube.com /watch?v=TfNBCxnht- 4&feature=related

39. Popular throughout Asia and Europe: “evidence of influence of American consumer capitalism on popular culture?” (Ang 2) French minister of culture called this the “symbol of American cultural imperialism” (Ang 2) Dallas was seen as potentially threatening to “local, authentic” cultures.

40. Ang argues that those may be the concerns of “elite” academics or government controllers. “In the millions of living rooms where the set is switched to Dallas, the issue is rather one of pleasure.” (Ang 5). Scene from Dallas: Katherine threatens Bobby http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwSO4JM mylg&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwSO4JM mylg&feature=related

41. Changing the focus to the audience, Ang asks how the viewer “gets pleasure” from Dallas, what makes it a favorite object of entertainment for people all over the world – in many cultural contexts? To find out, Ang placed an ad in a Dutch womens magazine saying “Would anyone like to write and tell me why you like watching Dallas, or dislike it?” She based her book on the responses. Scene from Dallas: Bobby dies http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vM3UT5hFMiA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vM3UT5hFMiA

42. People had many answers: “I find it bad but it offers a certain attraction.” (Ang 17) Ang concluded that people liked the show for many reasons, but their enjoyment “owed a good deal to the intrinsic pleasure to be derived from its melodramatic narrative structure.” (Tomlinson, Cultural Imperialism, p. 46).

43. Applying Todorov to the News: Firdos Square

44. April 9, 2003

45. Firdos as Reported in 2003 Remember Todorov’s – Equilibrium, Desequilibrium, New Equilibrium. By Fox News - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wss_urnu B7o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wss_urnu B7o By The Guardian online - http://www.guardian.co.uk/pictures/image/0, 8543,-10104645413,00.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/pictures/image/0, 8543,-10104645413,00.html

46. Equilibrium SIGNIFIER: The statue standing. SIGNIFIED: “oppressive regime” Disequilibrium SIGNIFIER: Iraqis and American troops tearing down the statue. SIGNIFIED: working together. All opposed Saddam Together? New Equilibrium SIGNIFIER: Fallen statue. People kicking and attacking it. SIGNIFIED: Closure, “the war has been a major success” (a news anchor on American TV actually said this.

47. What really happened on Firdos square? We are going to look more deeply at the gap between what happened at Firdos and how the media reported what happened at Firdos. The important thing to remember is that news “builds” a narrative in some way. But sometimes, too much information is cut out. ProPublica on “the toppling” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDu7bXqx8I g http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDu7bXqx8I g

48. Remembering Firdos in the News “Al Jazeera interview with Iraqi gentleman : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7g_lxhN UUM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7g_lxhN UUM

49. Activity Watch this news segment : http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7253008n&tag=contentMain;cbsCarousel TWICE. http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7253008n&tag=contentMain;cbsCarousel THREE DIFFERENT GROUPS – Plot (What order are the events presented to us : just a simple list) – Story (One sentence: what happened?) – GROUP 1: Make a list of every character in the story. Do any of them fit into Propp’s roles? Are there any BINARY OPPOSITIONS set up in the story? – GROUP 2: Try to apply Todorov’s narrative analysis: What is the equilibrium? Desequilibrium? New equilibrium? – GROUP 3: Try to identify the Hermeneutic/ Enigma Codes and the Proaitic/Action Codes in the Story… What MYSTERY does the story set up at the beginning? (ENIGMA CODE) What INFORMATION does the story give us to drive the story forward (ACTION CODE?) Is the story pointing to any outside information we might need to understand what is going on? – Any connotations around the characters or their actions? (SEMIC CODE) – Any SYMBOLIC CODES? – Any CULTURAL CODES – anchoring the text in a specific time or place? –