Mary Jackson Pitts, Ph.D.
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Mary Jackson Pitts, Ph.D.
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Down load in wordNarrative Theory Criticism• Study of stories and how they symbolize a view of the world that people ni the culture share.• Looks at structure and symbols• A story is “a series of events arranged in chronological order”( Kenan, 1983, p. 15).Narrative Theory Criticism•
Concentrates on text but not
content, ignores political and ideological judgements
•
Ask the questions
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What events are included in stories and whats not there?
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What events are pivotal in a story.
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How characters are arranged into the action of a story
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What sorts of lessons or morals of the stories were asked to take away
from an encounter with a story.
Narrative Theory Criticism• Four assumptions– Humans make sense of the world with the stories they tell.– Stories are pervasive– Stories create social reality– Stories are linked to values and value systems.Types of stories– Annals– Chronicle– Narrative.Characteristics of a narrative• Two parts– The story …what happens to whom– The discourse– how the story is told.Kenneth Burke• Pollution• Guilt• Purification• redemptionRoland Barthes• Not everything in a story is equal.• Often there is a hierarchy between the events that move the story along.• Myth is a story by which a culture explains or understands some aspect of reality or nature.– Myth is a chain of events.Gustav Freytag…• The story begins with an “expository sequence of settnig out the state of affairs• Moves with twists and turns to a climax• Then falls off to resolution of crisis and new state of affairs.”Characteristics of characters• Vladimar Propp---– Hero, villain, donor, dispatcher, false hero, helper and princess and father.– Suggested american TV is much like Russian Fairy tales.– Suggests that we have shared rules of story telling• Pop is more formulated• High art less formulated.Characters• Cheesbro…ironic• Mimetic• Leader centered• Romantic• mythicalCharacteristics of a narrative• Multiple story lines….ie romance inside a suspense thriller. Barthes.• For narrative to work you must have a tale, a storyteller and a listener.Typology of Narrators• Is the narrator a character in the story.– John Boy Walton• Does the narrator tell the whole story? Or is the story imbedded within a bigger story?• What is the time and space between when the events unfolded and when the story is actually told?Typology of Narrators• Does the narrator know what’s going to happen• What is the narrators point of view |