Existential Themes in Literature: a High School Curriculum
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Benefits of Nonlinear Storytelling in Film and Television
BENEFITS OF NONLINEAR STORYTELLING IN FILM AND TELEVISION A THESIS Presented to the University Honors Program California State University, Long Beach In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the University Honors Program Certificate Joshua Seemann Spring 2017 I, THE UNDERSIGNED MEMBER OF THE COMMITTEE, HAVE APPROVED THIS THESIS BENEFITS OF NONLINEAR STORYTELLING IN FILM AND TELEVISION BY Joshua Seemann ______________________________________________________________ Adam Moore, MFA Film and Electronic Arts California State University, Long Beach Spring 2017 Running Head: BENEFITS OF NONLINEAR STORYTELLING Abstract Screenwriters strive to create narratives that are emotionally compelling and engaging to audiences. This research explores the technique of nonlinear storytelling, focusing on what makes a film nonlinear, as well as discussing what benefits nonlinear storytelling provides to the screenwriting process. Through the analysis of three films and one television show that utilize aspects of nonlinear story structure, this study argues that linearity should be thought of as a spectrum rather than something that is categorical. In addition, this work argues that nonlinear story structure makes it easier for films to cover larger spans of time, allows screenwriters to achieve effects that would be impossible in fully linear stories, and helps writers enhance the audience’s emotional connection to scenes through implicit storytelling. This research suggests that by taking advantage of these benefits, screenwriters can create films that lend audiences an emotionally powerful viewing experience. 1 BENEFITS OF NONLINEAR STORYTELLING Benefits of Nonlinear Storytelling In Film and Television Nonlinear storytelling is a narrative technique in which the events of a story are told out of chronological order. Better understanding nonlinear story structure will help screenwriters create scripts that are more emotionally compelling than traditional linear films. -
THE ROLE of TIME in NON-LINEAR FICTION NARRATIVES by Tatevik Kyurkchyan Presented to the Department of English & Communicati
THE ROLE OF TIME IN NON-LINEAR FICTION NARRATIVES by Tatevik Kyurkchyan Presented to the Department of English & Communications in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts American University of Armenia Yerevan, Armenia 20/05/19 1 Table of Contents Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………3 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………….…….4 Literature Review……………………………………………………………...……….…… 5 Research Questions and Methodology ….………………………………………………….12 The Seed and the Soil linear version……..…………………………………………………13 The Seed and the Soil non-linear version…………………………………………………. 30 Research Findings and Analysis …………………………………..………………….…… 48 Limitations and Avenues for Future Research………………………….…………..…….. 56 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………..…… 58 2 Abstract This paper analyzes the structure of non-linear narratives in fiction literature in comparison with linear variants. It considers the concept of time and how it is represented and altered through writing in fiction literature. Additionally, the role of time and non-linearity is discussed from the perspective of the emotional effects it induces rather than linear, chronological narratives. With the use of qualitative research, international literature, and an original creative writing segment, this theory is analyzed. 3 Introduction Stories, in their most basic interpretation, are created by isolating a sequence of events and presenting them to an audience. How a story is written noticeably impacts the way it will be received by readers since it considers characters, setting, tone, time, and several other aspects to make it whole. While every detail allows a story to raise various interpretations or perceptions, the importance of time is often overlooked compared to other aforementioned qualities which are deemed more important. From this perspective, time is mostly considered a means through which the story is told, but rather, this paper will analyze how the disruption of time in a story is capable of altering how the story is perceived and emphasizing certain aspects. -
Women's Experimental Autobiography from Counterculture Comics to Transmedia Storytelling: Staging Encounters Across Time, Space, and Medium
Women's Experimental Autobiography from Counterculture Comics to Transmedia Storytelling: Staging Encounters Across Time, Space, and Medium Dissertation Presented in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Ohio State University Alexandra Mary Jenkins, M.A. Graduate Program in English The Ohio State University 2014 Dissertation Committee: Jared Gardner, Advisor Sean O’Sullivan Robyn Warhol Copyright by Alexandra Mary Jenkins 2014 Abstract Feminist activism in the United States and Europe during the 1960s and 1970s harnessed radical social thought and used innovative expressive forms in order to disrupt the “grand perspective” espoused by men in every field (Adorno 206). Feminist student activists often put their own female bodies on display to disrupt the disembodied “objective” thinking that still seemed to dominate the academy. The philosopher Theodor Adorno responded to one such action, the “bared breasts incident,” carried out by his radical students in Germany in 1969, in an essay, “Marginalia to Theory and Praxis.” In that essay, he defends himself against the students’ claim that he proved his lack of relevance to contemporary students when he failed to respond to the spectacle of their liberated bodies. He acknowledged that the protest movements seemed to offer thoughtful people a way “out of their self-isolation,” but ultimately, to replace philosophy with bodily spectacle would mean to miss the “infinitely progressive aspect of the separation of theory and praxis” (259, 266). Lisa Yun Lee argues that this separation continues to animate contemporary feminist debates, and that it is worth returning to Adorno’s reasoning, if we wish to understand women’s particular modes of theoretical ii insight in conversation with “grand perspectives” on cultural theory in the twenty-first century. -
The Power of Short Stories, Novellas and Novels in Today's World
International Journal of Language and Literature June 2016, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 21-35 ISSN: 2334-234X (Print), 2334-2358 (Online) Copyright © The Author(s). 2015. All Rights Reserved. Published by American Research Institute for Policy Development DOI: 10.15640/ijll.v4n1a3 URL: https://doi.org/10.15640/ijll.v4n1a3 The Power of Short Stories, Novellas and Novels in Today’s World Suhair Al Alami1 Abstract The current paper highlights the significant role literature can play within EFL contexts. Focusing mainly on short stories, novellas and novels, the paper seeks to discuss five points. These are: main elements of a short story/novella/novel, specifications of a short story/novella/novel-based course, points for instructors to consider whilst dealing with a short story/novella/novel within EFL contexts, recommended approaches which instructors may employ in the EFL classroom whilst discussing a short story/novella/novel, and language assessment of EFL learners using a short story/novella/novel-based course. Having discussed the aforementioned points, the current paper proceeds to present a number of recommendations for EFL teaching practitioners to consider. Keywords: Short Stories; Novellas; Novels Abbreviation: EFL (English as a Foreign Language) 1. Introduction In an increasingly demanding and competitive world, students need to embrace the four Cs: communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity. Best practices in the twenty-first century education, therefore, require practical tools that facilitate student engagement, develop life skills, and build upon a solid foundation of research whilst supporting higher-level thinking. With the four Cs in mind, the current paper highlights the significant role literature can play within EFL contexts. -
Philosophical Fiction? on J. M. Coetzee's Elizabeth Costello
Philosophical Fiction? On J. M. Coetzee’s Elizabeth Costello Robert Pippin University of Chicago i he modern fate of the ideal of the beautiful is deeply intertwined with the beginnings of European aesthetic modernism. More specifically, from the point of view of modernism, commitment to the ideal of the beautiful is often understood to be both Tirrelevant and regressive. This claim obviously requires a gloss on “modernity” and “modern- ism.” Here is a conventional view. European modernism in the arts can be considered a reaction to the form of life coming into view in the mid-nineteenth century as the realization of early Enlightenment ideals: that is, the supreme cognitive authority of modern natural science, a new market economy based on the accumulation of private capital, rapid urbanization and industri- alization, ostensibly democratic institutions still largely controlled by elites, the privatization of religion and so the secularization of the public sphere. The modernist moment arose from some sense that this form of life was so unprecedented in human history that art’s very purpose or rationale, its mode of address to an audience, had to be fundamentally rethought. Nothing about the purpose or value of art, as it had been understood, could be taken for granted any longer, and the issue was: what kind of art, committed to what ideal, could be credible in such a world (if any)? A response to such a development was taken by some to require a novelty, experimentation and formal radicality so extreme as to seem unintelligible to its “first responders.” Modernism was to be an anti-Romanticism, rejecting lyrical expression of the inner in favor of impersonal- ity, or of multiple, fractured authorial personae, attempting an ironic distancing, experimental 2 republics of letters innovation, and, in so-called high modernism, assuming an elite position, sometimes with mul- tiple, obscure allusions, defiantly resistant to commercialization or a public role. -
Glossary of Literary Terms
Glossary of Critical Terms for Prose Adapted from “LitWeb,” The Norton Introduction to Literature Study Space http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/litweb10/glossary/C.aspx Action Any event or series of events depicted in a literary work; an event may be verbal as well as physical, so that speaking or telling a story within the story may be an event. Allusion A brief, often implicit and indirect reference within a literary text to something outside the text, whether another text (e.g. the Bible, a myth, another literary work, a painting, or a piece of music) or any imaginary or historical person, place, or thing. Ambiguity When we are involved in interpretation—figuring out what different elements in a story “mean”—we are responding to a work’s ambiguity. This means that the work is open to several simultaneous interpretations. Language, especially when manipulated artistically, can communicate more than one meaning, encouraging our interpretations. Antagonist A character or a nonhuman force that opposes, or is in conflict with, the protagonist. Anticlimax An event or series of events usually at the end of a narrative that contrast with the tension building up before. Antihero A protagonist who is in one way or another the very opposite of a traditional hero. Instead of being courageous and determined, for instance, an antihero might be timid, hypersensitive, and indecisive to the point of paralysis. Antiheroes are especially common in modern literary works. Archetype A character, ritual, symbol, or plot pattern that recurs in the myth and literature of many cultures; examples include the scapegoat or trickster (character type), the rite of passage (ritual), and the quest or descent into the underworld (plot pattern). -
A Thematic Approach to Emerging Narrative Structure Charlie Hargood David E
A Thematic Approach to Emerging Narrative Structure Charlie Hargood David E. Millard Mark J. Weal Learning Societies Lab Learning Societies Lab Learning Societies Lab School of Electronics and School of Electronics and School of Electronics and Computer Science Computer Science Computer Science University of Southampton University of Southampton University of Southampton +44 (0)23 8059 7208 +44 (0)23 8059 5567 +44 (0)23 8059 9400 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] ABSTRACT information representation that are well established as an In this paper we look at the possibility of using a thematic model engaging way of representing an experience. Narrative generation of narrative to find emergent structure in tagged collections. We is a field that seeks to explore alternative representations of propose that a thematic underpinning could provide the narrative narrative, and investigate the possibility of automatically direction which can often be a problem with stories from existing generating custom stories from information collections. There are narrative generation methods, and present a thematic model of a wide variety of different techniques for narrative generation narrative built of narrative atoms and their features, motifs and ranging from structured narrative grammars to emergent themes. We explore the feasibility of our approach by examining narratives. However the narratives generated can seem flat, how collaborative tags in online collections match these lacking engagement and direction. properties, and find that while tags match across the model the In our work we are exploring a thematic approach to solving some majority are higher level (matching broader themes and motifs of the problems with narrative generation. -
ELEMENTS of FICTION – NARRATOR / NARRATIVE VOICE Fundamental Literary Terms That Indentify Components of Narratives “Fiction
Dr. Hallett ELEMENTS OF FICTION – NARRATOR / NARRATIVE VOICE Fundamental Literary Terms that Indentify Components of Narratives “Fiction” is defined as any imaginative re-creation of life in prose narrative form. All fiction is a falsehood of sorts because it relates events that never actually happened to people (characters) who never existed, at least not in the manner portrayed in the stories. However, fiction writers aim at creating “legitimate untruths,” since they seek to demonstrate meaningful insights into the human condition. Therefore, fiction is “untrue” in the absolute sense, but true in the universal sense. Critical Thinking – analysis of any work of literature – requires a thorough investigation of the “who, where, when, what, why, etc.” of the work. Narrator / Narrative Voice Guiding Question: Who is telling the story? …What is the … Narrative Point of View is the perspective from which the events in the story are observed and recounted. To determine the point of view, identify who is telling the story, that is, the viewer through whose eyes the readers see the action (the narrator). Consider these aspects: A. Pronoun p-o-v: First (I, We)/Second (You)/Third Person narrator (He, She, It, They] B. Narrator’s degree of Omniscience [Full, Limited, Partial, None]* C. Narrator’s degree of Objectivity [Complete, None, Some (Editorial?), Ironic]* D. Narrator’s “Un/Reliability” * The Third Person (therefore, apparently Objective) Totally Omniscient (fly-on-the-wall) Narrator is the classic narrative point of view through which a disembodied narrative voice (not that of a participant in the events) knows everything (omniscient) recounts the events, introduces the characters, reports dialogue and thoughts, and all details. -
English 200, Microfiction: an Introduction to the Very Short Story
Dr William Nelles [email protected] English 200, Microfiction: An Introduction to the Very Short Story Description Narrative fiction is traditionally divided into two major categories, the novel and the short story, with the transitional category of the novella serving to cover very long short stories or very short novels. But over the last thirty years or so there has been a publishing boom in what some critics consider a new genre of the very short story, variously labeled as “microfiction,” “flash fiction,” or “sudden fiction.” This new form seems to be an indirect descendant of such ancient literary types as the parable, fable, fabliau, and myth, on the one hand, and a relative of such nonliterary modern forms as the pop song, music video, TV commercial, cartoon, and comic strip, on the other. We will read, discuss, and write about a series of critical essays on the topic and a large number of very short stories (most of them under one page in length) to analyze their characteristics and to consider their relationship to some of these other very short forms. Texts Steve Moss, ed. The World’s Shortest Stories (0762403004) Steve Moss and John M. Daniel, eds. World's Shortest Stories of Love and Death (0762406984) Jerome Stern, ed. Micro Fiction: An Anthology of Really Short Stories (0393314328) The texts are available from the UMD campus bookstore, but can usually be found even cheaper at online stores. Please use the ISBN numbers to be sure you’re getting the right books. We will also be reading a series of critical essays on microfiction: these will be made available online through the course site. -
Novel Novella: the Difference Between Novel and Novella
Novel A novel is a long narrative in prose that describes fictional characters and events. It is the longest genre of narrative prose fiction in modern literature. A novel generally contains more than 200 pages (above 40,000 words) The term novel is derived from the Italian word novella meaning ‘new’. Novel has a long history and examples for novels can be observed in many countries including Classical Greece and Rome, 10th– and 11th-century Japan, Elizabethan English etc. However. Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, is often referred to as the first significant novelist of the modern era. Novels can be categorized in to different genres such as supernatural, thriller, fantasy, romance, western, paranormal, adventure, etc. Novella: The novella is short and well-structured narrative, often realistic and satiric in tone, that influenced the development of the short story and the novel throughout Europe. Originating in Italy during the Middle Ages, the novella was based on local events that were humorous, political, or amorous in nature; the individual tales often were gathered into collections along with anecdotes, legends, and romantictales. Novellas contain fewer characters, themes and conflicts than a novel. It generally does not contain chapters and is meant to be read in one sitting. Some prominent examples of novellas in literature include Saint-Exupery’s “The Little Prince”, H. G. Wells’ “The Time Machine”, John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men”, Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” and Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea”. Geoffrey Chaucer introduced the novella to England with The Canterbury Tales. -
Control, Conflict, Surveillance: Similarities of Themes in Dystopian Fiction and Reality Television
Volume 9 Issue 1 (2020) AP Research Control, Conflict, Surveillance: Similarities of Themes in Dystopian Fiction and Reality Television Aidan Wylie1 1Trinity College School, Port Hope, ON L1A 4K7, Canada ABSTRACT Despite substantial research into reality television and dystopian fiction, there are no studies that combine an exami- nation of both, even though the two forms of media share a number of major themes. This research paper looks at the correlation between the shared themes of dystopian fiction and reality television. A quantitative selection process was used to determine the materials to be observed for this study, while a qualitative content analysis was used to gather data on both of the media that were being observed. The study found that each of the themes were used differently in the media, with dystopian fiction focusing on the use of control and surveillance while reality television mainly relied on conflict to entertain viewers. The data suggests that the producers of reality television play similar roles in shaping their dramas as the leaders of totalitarian governments do in the plots of dystopian fiction. Introduction Reality television is a genre of television that involves placing what the audience perceives to be everyday citizens in specific situations to see how they behave, normally with the incentive of winning a cash prize at the end. Over the years, such shows have ranged from cooking contests to see who is the best chef in a specific cuisine, to shows which drop seemingly ordinary people onto an island and have them participate in challenges in order to stay and potentially win a cash prize, to shows which involve a group of eligible mates trying to win the heart of a motivated suitor. -
11Th Grade ELA
11th Grade ELA Week of: APRIL 27TH WICHITA PUBLIC SCHOOLS 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th Grades Your child should spend up to 90 minutes over the course of each day on this packet. Consider other family-friendly activities during the day such as: Wash a car by hand with Make a dish using a Have a discussion Go on a photo scavenger someone in your family. recipe that has at least regarding social hunt. Try to find something four ingredients. distancing with your that goes with each letter family. What has been the of the alphabet. hardest part? What has been the easiest? Read a book from the free Explore the power Mindful Minute: Write a Play a board game section of iBooks Hubble at letter to your future self with you family. or gutenberg.org about what is going on hubblesite.org/resource-gallery right now. How are you feeling? *All activities are optional. Parents/Guardians please practice responsibility, safety, and supervision. For students with an Individualized Education Program (IEP) who need additional support, Parents/Guardians can refer to the Specialized Instruction and Supports webpage, contact their child’s IEP manager, and/or speak to the special education provider when you are contacted by them. Contact the IEP manager by emailing them directly or by contacting the school. The Specialized Instruction and Supports webpage can be accessed by clicking HERE or by navigating in a web browser to https://www.usd259.org/Page/17540 WICHITA PUBLIC SCHOOLS CONTINUOUS LEARNING HOTLINE AVAILABLE 316-973-4443 MARCH 30 – MAY 21, 2020 MONDAY – FRIDAY 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM ONLY For Multilingual Education Services (MES) support, please call (316) 866-8000 (Spanish and Proprio) or (316) 866-8003 (Vietnamese).