Source: Latymer Media Blog
Associated Resources
- Narrative AS Terminology Revision Sheet.doc
Overview
- Narrative
- Narrative Enigmas
- Narrative Themes
- Narrative Structure
- Narrative Theory
Narrative
- The structure and organisation of media texts e.g. story
- Narrative chain of cause and effect – the plotlines in a story that are triggered by action and enigma codes (something happens that causes something else to happen)
- Narrative is correlated with genre – some genres have typical storylines
Narrative Enigmas
- Codes which limit audience information – a puzzle to be solved e.g. “who, what, why, when, where, how?”
- Purpose – engages audience attention, maintains curiosity and interest within the narrative chain of cause and effect
- Crime Drama – enigmatic, ‘investigative’ narrative
Narrative Themes
- Social issues which are explored within the media text e.g. family values, social class, sexuality
- Narrative themes tend to be explored by the Horror and Crime Drama on a more manifest level because the narrative tends to be more simplistic and encoded with entertainment values
Narrative Structure
- The structure and format of the storyline e.g. closed/open, three act structure, four act structure, linear/non linear, asynchronous, single stranded/multi-stranded
- Hollywood Film – typically, many texts have a single stranded, closed,...
