Narratology

from one of my Masters classes...

Narratology

Narrative structure is storytelling. We are used to a beginning, middle, and an end. We have learned to accept flashbacks and flashforwards as long as the basic narrative structure is intact. However, there are places where time seems to stretch and not remain constant. Descriptive passages in text seem to hang in mid-air, perceiving the events as a tableau vivant. This is the difference between story-time and discourse time.
Story-time is the “sequence of plot events” and discourse time is “the presentation of those events in the text.” For instance, a flashback would be listed early in the story-time even if it came late in the presentation of the actual story. It would be listed late in the discourse time due to its late presentation. This is effective for storytelling, especially when the author wants to keep secret some early events for a revelation later.
Text stories and film differ in this regard. Film is such that the audience takes in description in an instant. For example, describing Captain Ahab in text may take a full page in Melville’s colorful prose. In a film, this picture of the Captain is seen in an instant. Also, Melville possible could only focus on three or so specific images in his description, concentrating on those three images alone, letting the reader fill in some of the normal, inconsequential details. In a film, it must all be taken care of. For instance, the text of The Lord of the Rings does not go into the minute details of Orc armor and swords. The film production of The Lord of the Rings does, to the point of obsession, which is evident in watching the documentary material. Text then has to “assert” itself in the specific communication of these details. A hidden element has to be specifically mentioned in text where film has to simply show it. Films then are not for description. If time is spent in description, the audience tends to think of it as some kind of important story element. “It is reasonable to argue that films do not and cannot describe.”
This narrative does not work in painting because painting gives it all in one shot. Breaking up a painting to constituent elements could be wrong chronologically and forced. This is why I believe that comic strips and books started.
I believe the cinematic narrator to be important for focusing a film on certain themes and perspectives. For instance, camera angles can help us see how a male character is looking at a female character, giving the male perspective and all the innuendo, sexual or whatever, that it entails. It would be different from a female perspective. Sometimes, the narrator can be a voice, helping us read inner thoughts that could not otherwise be interpreted. I think here about the TV show The Wonder Years and the movie Stand By Me. The voiceover is necessary to help the audience in these films. I couldn’t think of them without it. If they ever make a movie of The Catcher in the Rye, I believe that will have to use voiceover.
Rear Window uses narrative structure to focus events to one overwhelming effect. As Stewart looks at the other apartments, they are framed as individual TV boxes or movie screens, showing and understanding only what Stewart sees. He has to fill in the gaps, and does so with what seems to be the insane notion of the man killing his wife. We see the distraught in Miss Lonelyhearts not by being told her predicament, but by seeing her lay her head down and cry, with some “narrator” effect used by Stewart. The maid, Stewart, and Grace Kelly act as an audience interpreting the different channels before them. We are looking at Stewart look at others. Is the real action what happens in the windows or what happens to Stewart? This is how it transcends the parts of narrative.