Narration in the Screenplay Text

Narration in the Screenplay Text by Ann Igelström A Thesis Submitted to the College of Arts and Humanities In Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of English 2014 Abstract This thesis examines the narration in screenplay texts. The aim is to explore how the screenwriter, through the screenplay text, communicates the potential film to the reader. The thesis thus situates the screenplay in a communicational context, and argues that the screenplay text is a means of communication. In many cases, the screenplay text is the writer’s only means of communicating with a potential investor, thus determining whether the screenplay will fulfil its purpose of becoming a film. Using a communicational approach enables a close examination of the different extratextual and intratextual narrating voices that communicate the story and the look of the potential film. The thesis relates the screenplay text to narrational theories from literary and film theory, and proposes its own narrative communication model suited to the screenplay. The model places the various narrating voices on different narrative levels that show the voices’ relation to the text, the fiction, and the scene. The communication model also identifies the voices’ addressees. Through close readings of screenplay texts, the thesis examines how different narrating voices function and how they can be characterised. The discussions focus on how these voices use different techniques to narrate the story and indicate the look of the potential film. The discussions particularly highlight how the voices influence the readers’ visualisation of the potential film, since this is a distinguishing feature of the screenplay text-type. Narration in the Screenplay Text is an important contribution to text-based screenplay research. It offers a unique approach and a clear terminology that creates a platform for future screenplay research. Ann Igelström 1 Contents List of figures .................................................................................................................................... 4 Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ 5 Declaration and Consent ............................................................................................................... 6 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 8 i. Screenwriting research ..................................................................................................................... 10 i.i. Screenwriting manuals .................................................................................................................................. 10 i.ii. Academic screenwriting research ........................................................................................................... 17 ii. Screenplay text research ................................................................................................................. 20 iii. The thesis’s aim and approach .................................................................................................... 27 iv. Outline of chapters ........................................................................................................................... 28 v. Screenplay selection ......................................................................................................................... 33 Chapter 1: The screenplay and communication ................................................................ 35 1.1. The screenplay text as a means and an effect of communication .................................. 35 1.2. Identifying the screenplay as a text-type ............................................................................... 37 1.3. The communicational approach within literary theory ................................................... 39 1.3.1. Narrative levels .......................................................................................................................................... 45 1.3.1.1. Narrational levels in a communicative context ..................................................................................... 48 1.4. Film theory and communication ............................................................................................... 49 1.5. Communication model suited to the screenplay text ........................................................ 53 1.7. The narrating voices and the information they provide .................................................. 55 1.8. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................ 57 Chapter 2: The writer, the implied writer, and the extrafictional voice ................... 59 2.1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 59 2.2. The screenwriter ............................................................................................................................ 59 2.3. The implied author in literary theory: A search for a definition ................................... 61 2.3.1. The implied author and its communication ................................................................................... 62 2.3.1.1. The implied author’s direct communication .......................................................................................... 66 2.3.2. Concluding note on the implied author in literary theory ....................................................... 67 2.4. The implied author in film theory ............................................................................................ 68 2.4.1. The auteur theory and the implied author ..................................................................................... 69 2.5. The screenplay and the implied author ................................................................................. 72 2.5.1. Defining the implied author .................................................................................................................. 72 2.5.2. The viability of the implied writer ..................................................................................................... 74 Chapter 3: The implied writer’s communication .............................................................. 77 3.1. The communication of the implied writer ............................................................................. 77 3.1.1. The implied writer’s reporting function .......................................................................................... 80 3.1.2. The implied writer’s interpreting and evaluating function .................................................... 81 3.1.3. The implied writer’s alluding function ............................................................................................. 83 3.1.4. Conclusion on the implied writer’s communication .................................................................. 87 3.2. The screenwriter and the implied writer .............................................................................. 89 3.2.1. The effects of knowledge ........................................................................................................................ 90 3.2.2. Different readers’ engagement with the screenplay text ......................................................... 91 3.2.3. Differences between the real writer and the implied writer .................................................. 94 3.2.3.1. The implied writer in adaptations .............................................................................................................. 94 3.2.3.2. Concluding note on adaptations and the implied writer ................................................................... 99 Chapter 4: The fictional narrators ........................................................................................ 101 4.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 101 Ann Igelström 2 4.2. Screenplay research .................................................................................................................... 102 4.2.1. Concluding note on screenplay research ..................................................................................... 103 4.3. The fictional narrator in literary theory .............................................................................. 104 4.3.1. Arguments against the external narrator .................................................................................... 105 4.3.2. Concluding note ....................................................................................................................................... 107 4.4. The fictional narrator in film theory ..................................................................................... 108 4.4.1. Philosophy and the cinematic narrator ........................................................................................ 111 4.4.2. Concluding note on the cinematic narrator. ............................................................................... 113 4.5. Conclusion on the existence of the extradiegetic heterodiegetic narrator .............. 113 4.6. Defining the fictional narrator

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