Studio Outline
This studio focuses on modes of story-telling and narrative conventions. It will be of relevance to students who anticipate discussing elements and forms of narrative in their dissertations and those interested in the creative practice of narrative and story-telling. Students will be producing storygraphs, storyboards, and various forms of narrative analysis. Under scrutiny will come issues around realism and classic Hollywood narrative; definitions and models of narrative; ways of researching narrative (semiotics, content analysis, focus groups, representation); the narrative theories of Todorov and Aristotle; alternative narratives; mythology and Campbell's hero’s quest; postmodern narrative; alternative narrative and the function of story-telling. We will investigate the gothic as a specific genre and narrative style and anticipate visiting the Terror and Wonder: The Gothic Imagination exhibition at the British Library. The content of the block will be flexible and attempt will be made to reflect the concerns and interests of the participating students.
First seven weeks of study
Week 1: The importance of narrative and story-telling
Week 2: Defining and modes of narrative
Week 3: Research narrative
Week 4: Terror and Wonder: The Gothic Imagination
Week 5: Realism and Mythology
Week 6: Postmodern, digital, interactive, and alternative narrative
Week 7: Conclusion: narrative, practice, dissertation
This list is indicative only and may change
Contact Tutor : Jon Baldwin
Reading List
Books
1. Campbell, Joseph The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Princeton University Press, 1968)
2. Herman, David, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Narrative (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007)
3. Kearney, Richard On Stories (London and New York: Routledge, 2002)
Films
1. Grizzly Man, dir. by Werner Herzog (Lions Gate Films, 2005)
2. Pulp Fiction, dir. by Quentin Tarantino (A Band Apart, 1994)
3. Stories We Tell, dir. by Sarah Polley (National Film Board of Canada, 2012)
