Narrative for Business and Professional Use

1. Narrative for Business and Professional Use Dr. Stephen Ogden LIBS 7001

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 of 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. • Courts of Law

3. NARRATIVE: Overview • Presents a series of real or imagined events • Events = Action : Action = drama (Gr. Dram—’to do’) • Deliberate series of actions = (lit.) PLOT. • Aristotle: "plot is the origin and as it were the soul of tragedy • Narration: • a report—mere recitation of sequence of events—is bare-metal narrative. • Story: a sequence of events with an inner logic; with causality; with shape; with direction; with moral; with drama. • frame—highlight or diminish—events in accordance with ….. ….audience and purpose. • has types of agent, types of setting; types of event,

4. NARRATIVE: Types • Report: • “the Queen died and the King died” • Narrative: • “the Queen died and the King died of grief” • Story [mystery story and love story] • “the Queen died of old age, but when the King died no-one knew why; but it was suspected that he died of grief.”

5. NARRATIVE: PLOT Narrative proper has three natural components: • Beginning: in medias res, ab initio, or ab ovo • Middle: organised sequence of action • End: clear, final, suitable—not episodic: ‘closure’ • “the end of all human endeavor is to be happy at home” • Two Kinds: • Tragedy: of magnitude & complete in itself, effecting catharsis (‘right ordering of emotions’) • Comedy: begins in harshness ends in happiness, in negligent & humble form.

6. NARRATIVE: Elements • Hero; Epic Hero; Villain; Anti-Hero; • Sage, Squire, Minion, Fool, Seducer; Victim • Rising action; Falling Action • Deus ex machina: ‘God in a machine’—a device to solve story problems • ‘MacGuffin’: a device—usually an object--with no intrinsic purpose but which carries the plot along • Miseen abyme: ‘put into the abyss’—a framing device that allows an infinity of sub-stories.

7. Elements of Narration • Six elements together produce strong narration: • purpose • action • conflict • point of view • key events • dialogue

8. 1. Purpose • = audience (obviously) • Stated or unstated, always shapes the writing • Examples: • tell what happened • establish a useful fact • delve into motives • condemn or exculpate • create doubt and suspicion • offer lessons or insights • create memory (narrative is a fundamental mnemonic technology)

9. 1. Purpose, con’t MYTHOPOEIA: the creation of myth • Myths are the underlying stories that define, unite, and direct civilistations • Western Civilisation myths • Eden and the Fall of Man • The Hero’s Journey: the Epic Quest • humble origin>discovery of gifts>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.

10. 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)

11. 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.

12. 3. Conflict • Real, imagined, anticipated conflicts shape our lives; see Gk. agon - meaning “struggle, contest” • Protagonist: actor who plays the first part • Deuteragonist: The second actor or person in a drama • Tritagonist: the third actor • Antagonist: opponent, rival • Some varieties of conflict: • between an individual and outside circumstances: • between group members • between__________________________ • between__________________________ • within____________________________

13. 4. Point of View - types • 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 • Second-person:less often used • you is used or understood • imperative & directive; or conversational • Third-person: distanced “narrator” recalls. • uses he, she, it, they • narrator can be omniscient, intrusive, or limited in knowledge, deliberately misleading

14. 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

15. 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…”