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Yr 12 OCR Media Studies

Narrative Theories

Learning Objectives:1. To understand how to apply narrative

theories to media texts

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Narrative

A man pulls up outside a church in his car,a woman is waiting for him.

TASK: What happens next? In fivesentences, finish the story for a TV Drama(to last about one episode).

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Co nventi o ns

Which of the following narrative conventionshave you come up with? A beginning, middle, and end

Binary opposition in characters A happy ending

A narrative in its most basic sense is a series of

events. But, in order to construct meaning fromthe narrative those events must be linkedsomehow.

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Dang ling cause

Dangling causes are based on our understanding of cause/effectrelationships.We know that an event (a cause) willresult in some effect.

In television we often see a cause butthe effect is withheld and we will notknow the result until a future episode.

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Narrative in TV D rama

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The Story World of the Series (Plot A )

The individual episode Each episode has itsown storyline. Thisis often called Plot B.In some instances thereare multiple plots (B, C,D) in each episodeFriends, for example.

The Story World establishes a contextin which weekly or daily episodes unfold. Theoverall plot of the series moves slowly. This is

considered Plot A .

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The o ristsTodo r o v: Equilibrium, disequilibrium, restored equilibrium.

Levi-Strauss : Narrative is the resolution of two binary opposites by amediator.

Pr opp :L

inear progression (and character archetypes).Freytag : Narratives start with exposition, rise to a climax, anddecline to a den ou emen t .

Arist o tle: Narrative must have a beginning, middle, and end, and

have to come to a proper ending.

Barthes: Narratives are not constructed by the author, but by thepeople who read them.

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ER

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The en d of the beginning

Does this feel like the beginning of anarrative? Why?

What narrative theory could you apply tothe extract?

TASK: Write a PEE paragraph to answer the questions above and demonstrate your application of narrative theory.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v = Dal A qdhjKig&list = S L &playnext = 1