Introduction to the theory of Narrative by Mieke Bal
Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema by Laura Mulvey
The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function of the I as Revealed in Psychoanalytic Experience by Jacques Lacan
Excerpt from Gender Trouble by Judith Butler
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Caitlyn Doolin
November 24, 2008
Introduction to the theory of Narrative
Mieke Bal
This is the introduction into his book. The entire chapter was a bout Narratology and breaking it down into its smaller parts. I understand that the theory of narratology is images, narratives, texts events, cultural articles and spectacles. A theory is to understand, analyze, and evaluate the narrative. As a theory is a set of general statements about segments of reality(1). But then this ‘reality’ is a “corpus”. I do not understand it. Then he goes on referencing segments of reality for the rest of the chapter. But I did understand the rest. He moves on talk about how a narrative text is a text which can relate to a narrative. A story is a fabula is shown in a certain manner. A fabula series of events that are experienced by the audience. Then he discusses the elements to produce a story. Then creates a list for the characteristics of a narrative text .
“The Mirror Stage as Formative of Function of the I as Revealed in Pychoanalytic Experience”
Jacques Lacan
I didn’t really understand much of this article. It was really confusing. But I did understand that the function of ”I” is the subject. A person understands they are an “I” or there is an “I”, when the mirror recognition happens. When a person realizes that the movements and the environment around them is recognized in the mirror. Then it goes on talking about the “I” and its maturity throughout a persons life.
Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema
Laura Mulvey
Mulvey begins talking about how film reflects the language of patriarchy by being prevented the same story of sexual difference that it was founded on. In film women were seen as Other, as an object of desire not a subject in a movie or a professional actor. Or women were shown as the unconscious of the male because they are always the object of desire, since men actors are looking at and the women are never is able to speak for herself. Hollywood film reflects the dominant beliefs of our culture or another cultures. Then Mulvey talks about how people get their excitement, entertainment, dreams, or fantasies from films from this presentation of the suggestive material. The active gaze by men looks and female which is looked upon. Women who are displayed on film, are seen as objects of sexual desire; this is transformed into exhibitionism. She moves onto how the gender split moves into a narrative of film, the men make the story, create things in the story to happen, while woman remains symbol of ‘the gaze.’ This creates problems. These problems with woman as symbol: voyeurism & scopaphilia.
Gender Trouble is coming later
Introduction to the theory of Narrative by Mieke Bal
“Narratology is the theory of narratives, narrative texts, images, spectacles, events: cultural artifacts that tell a story.” (pg. 3). But how one reads an image is extremely subjective. The “average reader” will not delve as deeply into the concept of a piece of work as someone who is familiar with the constructs of a narrative.
“An interpretation is never anything more than a proposal (‘I think the text means this.’).” ( pg. 11) I loved this comment, as it is something we as students are posed with every day. We often think we know what something means, but find that what each of us selects as something important in making the proposal well founded differs from person to person. Further solidifying that interpretation is subjective, and susceptible to constraints of different cultures. It is because of this fact that there is no reliable definition for what narrative is.
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. The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function of the I as Revealed in Psychoanalytic Experience by Jacques Lacan
This reading was a definition of what the mirror stage is. At around 6 to 18 months, children become capable of recognizing their mirror image and begin to see themselves as unified and separate individuals. Before this age, Lacan argues that a child is little more than a just a body with parts, unable to survive as a separate being. The Id and Ego within a child aren’t created until this realization. Once this realization occurs, then the process of which a person is to become is began.
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Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema by Laura Mulvey
Mulvey's article basically attacked classical Hollywood cinema. She argues that we the as the viewers are put into a masculine subject position, while the woman on screen are the objects of desire. She suggests that classic Hollywood female characters connote "to-be-looked-at-ness."
Mulvey basically then argues that we must change the patriarchal Hollywood system and challenge and re-shape the strategies of those films with alternative feminist methods.
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Excerpt from Gender Trouble by Judith Butler
Introduction to the theory of narrative
Mieke Bal
“In comic strips people can interpret the concept TEXT broadly. in their viewm a text does not have to be a language text. in comic strips, another non linguistic, sign system is employed, namely the visual image. other individuals, sharing a more restricted interpretation of what constiutes a text, reserve this term for language text only.”
just to make it more interesting you could argue having a visual aid to supplement a text gives the reader a better more defined idea of the idea being presented obviousy there's more to be taken into account but you get a clear image of what's going on which in turn demands less from language itself. People often debate whether this medium fits into the same corpus as textual narratives of that in novels, ones that don’t also provide you with a picture, as lacking the picture along can lead to an entirely different perspective of the story line. To me this seemed fairly obvious, yet at the same time took me a few times to read over before I understood exactly what they were saying. The way a premise is presented can always sway how the audience interprets it.
Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema
Laura Mulvey
The basis of this reading is to identify and understand common themes that run through film, as a mainstream business, then also as it evolved into a more aesthetic medium (as well as a capatalist business catering to the masses). This essay focuses mostly on sexual interest, and how we are more aroused to things we have been raised to believe are sexy, things, due to the culture we were brought up in, taught us to be aesthetically pleasing. We as people have been instructed that over time, man is dominant over woman, and seeing women being submissive, and more objectified, therefore it is implied that we find this sort of dynamic sexually appealing. As a society, film makers would constantly try to understand what the majority of people were turned on by, then regurgitates it into an alternative format. It can equal the same, just taken and filmed in a different perspective (more visually pleasing than to the point). It also speaks a lot voyeurism, and the act of watching something and how that can be sexy, but at the same time, humans are coupled with the desire to interact on a firsthand level, which stems from childlike curiosity (something that I read and strongly agreed with – seeing something unfold infront of you, something that seems appealing, especially that turns you on, you would want to participate yourself, as opposed to just watching. I mean, that’s what I read from it.)
The Mirror State as Formative of Function
Jacques Lacan
i found this reading very interesting, with the comparison of how chimpanzees and capable of developing their motor skills much faster than we are, yet we at SUCH a young age are able to process our own identity. humans can recognize themselves, and their placement in their environment, and how we interact with our surroundings all from a first person persepctive. even though we are incapable of functioning fully as people (again, lack of motor skills) infants understand who they are, and how we affect what surrounds us. i feel like this addresses the first person narrative, similar to how we discussed last week that any narrative at all, we cant help but assume their is a persona behind that, with views, and a bias of some sort. altho i'm not entirely sure, id be willing to discuss this reading when i get back into boston next week though!
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