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Narrative for Business and Professional Use Dr. Stephen Ogden LIBS 7001 1 NARRATION • Presents a series of real or imagined events – Events = Action : Action = drama (Gr. Dram—’to do’) – Series of actions = (lit.) PLOT. • Narration: – – – – tell what happened explore motive give insights and lessons (= ‘the moral’) frame—highlight or diminish—events in accordance with ….. ….audience and purpose. 2 Narrative: Many Non-Literary Applications • Work, School, Personal: – Reports • lab repots • inspection reports • work trial reports • project reports • shift reports • research reports • work history problem reports • Phone calls & social media • minutes oif meetings • Politics: ‘narrative’ is now an essential tool – Create a partisan story about society, selves & opponents • Journalism: – news stories just are narrative • Reality TV, e.g. • Myths of the Tribe 3 Elements of Narration • Six elements together produce strong narration: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. purpose action conflict point of view key events dialogue 4 1. Purpose • = audience (obviously) • Stated or unstated, always shapes the writing • Examples: – – – – – – – tell what"plot happened is the origin and as it were the establish a useful fact soul of tragedy delve into motives condemn or exculpate create doubt and suspicion offer lessons or insights create memory (narrative is a fundamental mnemonic technology) 5 1. Purpose, con’t MYTHOPOEIA: the creation of myth • Myths are the underlying stories that define, unite, and direct civilistations • Western Civilisation myths 1. 2. Eden and the Fall of Man The Hero’s Journey: the Epic Quest • 3. humble origin > tasks & trials > conquest > return with boon Sin -> Redemption -> Salvation • (Condemnation then Evangelisation) • Frame narrative according to the master myths – POLITICS: environmentalism; multiculturalism; capitalism; etc. – PERSONAL-PROFESSIONAL: victim (incl, victim of circumstance); hero; ally; etc. 6 2. Action • Aristotle: “plot [= sequence of action=narrative] is the origin—as it were, the soul—of [drama].” • Sequence can be organised in a choice of ways: – – – – – – – – Chronological Emotional Nostalgical Memorable Moral (as they should have happened) Planned (as they would have happened) Lawyerly or Political (as they might have happened) Polemical (as the reader can be convinced they happened) 7 Action, cont. • Use Devices (Yorke “What Makes a Great Screenplay?”) – Foreshadow – Create Expectation and Hope – Create suspense • Fear + Delay – Create Excitement • Spectacle – Climax – Deliver Emotional Reward • connect the reader-listener to the action (allow him to identify) • Think visually (cinematically) when writing a narrative. • Many experiences are action: e.g. thinking, feeling, deciding, etc. – Pekar’s A Hypothetical Quandary. 8 3. Conflict • • Real, imagined, anticipated conflicts shape our lives; see Gk. agon - meaning “contest” Some varieties of conflict: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. between an individual and outside circumstances: between group members between__________________________ between__________________________ within____________________________ 9 4. Point of View - types 1. First person: one of the participants tells what happened. – uses I, me, mine, we, ours – limited to what that person knows; narrator can be unreliable because of incomplete knowledge 2. Second-person: less often used – you is used or understood – imperative & directive; or conversational 3. Third-person: distanced “narrator” recalls. – uses he, she, it, they – narrator can be omniscient, intrusive, or limited in knowledge, deliberately misleading 10 5. Key Events • Strong narratives are built around key events bearing directly on purpose. • Memorable: emotional, universal, spectacular • Be economical: “Less is More” • ‘Chekov’s Gun’: – never put a loaded gun on stage in Act One that you won’t fire during the drama 11 6. Dialogue • Conversation animates narrative: – Indirect: reported - narrator strongly controls presentation and mood; reader is distanced from the scene • “..called me up to tell me how busy she was.” – direct - generally more vivid; leaves scope for interpretation: • narrator in strong control: “… the days when ‘Let’s have lunch’ meant something other than ‘I’ve got more important things to do than to talk to you now’…” (E,9) • integrated into narrative: “and then she said, “It’s like…” and I said “I’m all…you know… like…” 12