Node Status: COMPLETE
Conclusion
We now have a working model of narrative sufficient for my purposes here. A narrative is more than just a series of events. Instead, it involves action, characters, setting, manner, and medium.
The action should be both unified and complete. Character and setting are essential material for this action, because "one cannot account for events without recognizing the existence of things causing or being affected by those events" (Chatman 1978, p.34).
This story-world and its events are then presented or narrated from a certain point of view. And this presentation is encoded in some medium. Whether told live in spoken words or encoded in a static artifact to be viewed later, the medium affects and constrains the transmission of the story.
A narrative becomes interactive when it offers the audience some means of affecting one of these aspects. This interaction will offer the user a sense of agency when the formal and material causes involved are balanced.
Works Cited
- Chatman, Seymour. Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1978.
ToDo
- These rules may describe what narrative is, but there is likely more required to describe what makes a good narrative. Part of it must be the quality of each component--but what are the criteria for this?
- There are many other aspects of narrative not covered here. Where do these things fit into my poetics model: Implied author. Conflict. Mood. Symbols. Theme.
- I already discussed morphology (story-form), but there's more to this: meta-narrative/genre rules. Besides providing Propp-like narrative fnuctions, genre rules also constrain the story content (nature of the world objects, character, motivations, etc.) and even the manner. Modern audiences seem especially well-versed in these genre formulas (tropes?) of storytelling.
- Plot twists: denying a previous audience assumption that was a foundation of the narrative. Yet many (most?) modern "plot"-twists seem to be meta-narrative twists, breaking the usual rules of the narrative.
An example: The Village lacked appeal because at this point the audience was expecting a twist and was on the look-out for it. Twists are satisfying/enjoyable when they catch us off-guard but are still believable/acceptable in retrospect.
- The rules of narrative structure/formation provide a basis for critique and sets audience expectations. Example of judging based on a meta-narrative: stand-up vs. humorous dialog (originality of material, etc.); true improv vs. appearance of improv (such as Robin Williams' performances of many small pre-existing-yet-seemingly-spontaneous elements strung together in different orders.); wired acrobatic performance (as from Chinese film).
- Satisfaction, (suspense, catharsis). Satisfaction seems to come partly from meeting our expectations, but also partly from surpising us
- Social interactions between users (often as characters, but sometimes as out-of-character) impacts, and sometimes is even the source of, of collaborative interactive narrative experiences.
